Furniture and Furnishings - paining wood

I am trying to paint a head board and base board to a bed.
The finish is presently wood that is stained and varnished.

What is the recommende cource of action if I want to paint it white. My wife already started by putting a Kiltz primer with a paint brush but I stopped the project because it does not look right. Help:confused:

After just refinishing a couch and chair last week here is what I would recommend. I used a chemical stain/varnish stripper..which you let sit 20 min and then scrape with a PLASTIC scraper. This removes the bulk of the stain. I then would sand it with a fine-grit sand paper which allows better adherance of the primer/paint. Use a tack cloth to remove all sawdust, etc. and PRIME. I ended up with two coats of primer and three of white paint...end result looks great! Well worth the labor involved..and saved a lot of money. Good luck!

My suggestion would be to not paint the wood. The natural beauty of wood is of a much higher quality than that of painted wood.