Furniture, Wood and Cabinetry Finishing - Painting an old hardwood wardrobe

Hello,
Sorry, I am new - hopefully this is the right place to ask this question?..
I recently inherited two large harwood wardrobes when a relative died and although they are lovely and I love the size and shape, the colour is not really my taste and I would like to paint them. They are a solid dark hardwood, which is varnished and very shiny so I'm worried the paint will flake off. Do I really have to sand them down (please say no!) or is there another way to get a good finish?

Welcome to the forums

My first instinct is to say why paint them, you will loose any antique value and IMO it is a shame to paint beautiful hardwood, but that's me.......and the wardrobes are yours.

For paint to succesfully stick you will need to sand but it doesn't have to be sanded all the way down. These are the steps I would use
#1 sand
#2 wipe down with deglosser
#3 prime with a solvent based primer
#4 lightly sand and apply 2 coats of oil base or waterborne enamel [sand lightly between coats].

hope this helps

Thanks for that I'll give it a try.

I hear what you're saying about it being a shame to paint them but I don't think they have any antique value at all, and they wouldn't match the decor in my house if I left them how they are so they'd only go on the skip... which would be even more of a shame!

Thanks again
Jody :-)