Anyone know if it's OK to use acrylic paint to paint a dresser?

[kristine_elen]

You know those little 2 oz. bottles of paint you can get at craft stores? Can I use those to paint an unfinished wood dresser? (We want to paint it a bunch of different colors but that's too expensive if you go to Home Depot and buy a half gallon of paint of each color.) The bottle says it can be used on wood, but I don't know if that would include painting an entire dresser.
Any crafty people out there who might know?
Thanks!

[miki]

You can do it but I would prime the surface if you're doing the whole dresser with a thin layer of gesso, either clear or white, since unfinished wood is porous. White would give you a surface that would make your colors more true to what they look like in the bottle. And if the dresser is going to have lots of little fingers touching it, you would probably want to seal it with a varnish compatible with acrylic. If you go to www.liquitex.com , there's a description of the different products and their uses. Also, don't mix brands--sometimes that results in paint that remains tacky. HTH.

Edited to add -- I have no connection with Liquitex, it's just the brand I like to use since they have a huge range of products.

[Marisa6826]

I've done it in the past, but you need to seal it, otherwise the paint peels right off (kind of like that fake nailpolish you can use on little girls).

I also agree to use a good primer first.

Have fun!

-m

[pixelprincess]

hi kristine,

yep. I agree that priming is a good idea. We painted an old, ratty dresser and used flat latex house paint to do a distressed finish. There was a thread I had posted on the Crafts forum with pictures that I can't find now. I can try to dig em up again if you are interested in checking 'em out.

As Wen suggested the Liquitex paints work really well. I used a medium viscosity paints and bought them from D I C K (bleeped me the the last time) blick. You'd be better off covering large surface areas with flat paint and stencilling/doing art with the acrylic paint.

Our dresser has been able to withstand moderate using without a varnish, though it s a good idea to do so. I still feel that the art is unfinished...a year later.

good luck!