Furniture, Wood and Cabinetry Finishing - painting manufactured furnture?

I have a Sauder coffee table. Iwas wondering if you can paint manufactured wood or should I just quit being so cheap? If so, how do you prepare for painting?

I have painted that sort of furniture several times with great success. The key is to prime the peice properly. I think the best for this is BIN, although I have used spray on Auto primer in the past. The BIN primer would be best for a table. After you prime the piece then you paint as usual, preferably with oil based paint for greater durability. You do have be lighthanded with any sanding as the paper "veneer" is easily damaged. I have done decorative painting on a peice and I did a cheapo entertainment center with the fleckstone paint with several coats of varnish on top for durability. I got a lot of compliments and it was fairly durable. I mostly wanted a finish that would look better until I could afford a nicer piece of furniture. Now I usually skip the manufactured stuff and go look for real wood at thrift stores and garage sales to redo. Either way I figure its worth the small amount of money it takes and if you don't like it you haven't ruined anything of value.