Primer: I use a primer coat as a good way to tell if there's areas of the wood that need sanding as they will look rough after painting but may look fine before painting.

The kind of paint I use is a good quality white latex paint. I use ceiling paint as a primer as it's relatively inexpensive. For colors for paints I buy the small craft paints and mix them with the latex paint. I use a foam brush. Although you need to put on about 10 coats as the foam makes a thin coat, I find that the end result is a nice smooth finish.

Carol

Primer -- My Humble Opinion about primer is that it's a good idea if you are going to paint or wallpaper. Wood is porous, so the first layer or two of stuff you apply soaks in and seals the grain. I don't personally see the point of wasting expensive paint on this step unless you are only putting on a small amount of paint to stain the wood and you want the grain to show. My paint mixer guy said you can't tint primer, because it has extra white in it which is intended to conceal color variations in the surface so that your colored paint or wallpaper will not have funky shadows in it. So that is another reason to use it. Also, I feel the color of the undercoat affects the color of the paint though I suppose it could be my imagination. A primer undercoat seems to me to make for a brighter overcoat. If I want light, bright, true colors, I use a white undercoat. If I want an older, dimmer, dirtier look, I use a darker undercoat.

Chrissy the Hyphenated

Primer: Just putting in my 2cents worth on priming a house before finishing. Exterior walls have to be primed if any water-based product will be used on them. That means Tacky, carpenters glue, wallpaper paste, acrylic paint, stucco, Magic Brik or similar product. You don't have to prime if using a solvent-based covering, like Quik Grab. Dollhouses with walls that are 1/4" ply should be primed on both sides to prevent warping. Everything sticks better and longer when primed.

All of my buildings are painted with regular dollhouse paint that I am able to get at a miniature store. The paints have a satin finish, and because I prime all my wood, usually only two coats are needed.

Roberta in Wisconsin

Finishing cherry wood. I ended up using a mix of linseed oil and white spirit. I used the mix on both a cherry wood floor and the cherry sleigh bed. I put on three thin layers, letting dry and sanding with a paper bag between layers. I am SO happy with the results....the wood glows without being glossy, and the color and grain of the wood is luminous....

Whui in Paris

Removing varnish & stain: I don't know a way other than using paint stripper to remove varnish, either water or alkyd based. Varnish cuts/clogs most sandpaper. To remove stain, you either have to sand down past where the stain penetrated or bleach the wood - or both because wood doesn't absorb stain evenly. You can use furniture bleach (sold where the paint stripper is) or straight laundry bleach. The bleach raises the grain on the wood, so you have to sand anyway. Flush the bleached wood well with water when you're finished as you don't want to breathe in chlorine soaked dust.

If you want to alter the colour, eg., make it redder or browner, you can stain over the stain once the varnish is removed. Or you can use a tinted varnish like Minwax. Neither of these will give you the nice oiled finish you got with the cherry. I think I'd just get more wood and put the old one in the recycle-to-something-else bin.

Heather in Toronto

Refinishing: I have refinished many pieces of 'big' furniture and I love to use Formby's Refinisher. The beauty of this product is that it will remove varnish and some of the stain color, but doesn't go into the grain of the wood the way many other strippers do. This means there is no sanding required before applying a new finish. I used to use tung oil after stripping. Have found on real furniture being used by a family of eight that tung oil was not a sturdy enough finish and had, over the years, to redo with polyurethane. This, of course, is not a problem in a dollhouse setting as dollhouse dwellers are MUCH more careful of their things.

Linda in Leroy, OH

Staining Furniture: I have a question regarding furniture finishing, and I hope some of you pros can help me. I have tried staining (basswood) furniture with Minwax stains, and while the results have been fair, they lacked the deep richness I wanted. I even used the Minwax wood conditioner, which is very helpful in reducing blotchiness. So, I started to experiment. To get a deeper color, I tried painting the stained piece with arist's oil paints, using burnt umber and Venetian red, thinned with turpentine. The results were excellent - the color was deep and rich, yet still allowed the grain of the wood to show. The only problem was that the paint would take several days to dry. I experimented again, and thinned the oil paints with mahogany stain. This created a better stain that was easier to work and created a better color. However, this method still takes days to dry. There has to be a better way...

Jonathan in Israel

Staining Furniture, making stain dry more quickly: There is, but you have to use this product with care. Just because a little works good, does not mean that more is better. It is called Japan Drier and can be added to any oil-based mixture including oil paint. But follow the directions when adding and you will be surprised how it helps to dry paints more quickly. When you mentioned a friend in North America perhaps sending linseed oil to you, I was not aware that these combustible products (including Japan Drier) could be mailed.

Gary in NH

Linseed oil: I'm pretty sure you can find linseed oil in your local store. I found it in the home improvement section of my local department store (La Samarataine in Paris). It is with the white spirits, turpentine, and acetone. I mixed it with 25% white spirit (was supposed to use turpentine but they were sold out and the guy said it would be OK). The finish took about 2 days to fully dry. I waited a few hours between coats and gave it 2 days to fully dry before using.

Not sure what happens chemically, but the linseed oil brings out the pretty wood grain and enriches the color, then over time, the finish becomes rather "hard" the way a finished piece of wood is supposed to look. I am quite pleased with the results, though it still seems rather like "magic" to me!!

Whui in Paris

Beacon Hill Exterior Colors: I looked through my dh's architecture books and it seems that in general, these houses use from 3 to 5 colors. For 3, there are two tones of one color and one very different accent color. Examples -- cream walls with white trim and brick red accents; tan walls with white trim and olive accents; light colonial blue walls with white trim and dark colonial blue accents. For 4, there are still just two basic colors, but either 2 and 2 or 3 and 1 shades. Examples -- light apricot walls with darker apricot and white trim, with light brown (essentially, a very, very dark apricot) accents; pale mauve walls with white and darker mauve trim and dark maroon (again, a very, very dark mauve) accents. For 5 colors, it's the same deal. Two basic colors, usually a 3 and 2 combo. My dh is very big on 5 color combos, so our house has spring green walls with white, cream and tan trims and dark green doors and roofing. If you stick to two basic colors and use a slightly grayed down tone on the biggest areas, you should be okay. Avoid bright tones. For example, if you want white trim, don't use a dead white (aka, winter white, primer white), but slide a few degrees toward your alternative color. Against the other tones, it will appear to be true white, but it won't jump out and smack you between the eyes.

Chrissy the Hyphenated