I have never finished a piece of furniture. This piece is made of
poplar, and my wife wants it painted black. I have a couple of questions.
1. Do I prime it first as I would painting a wall?
2. Do I paint the inside of the carcass. I see a lot of furniture left unfinished inside.
3. Do I finish the bottom of the table top
4. What is the best product to use. She asked for a shiny finish.

Anything you can advise will be better than what I have to go on now. . .Thanks

ive used milk paint from general finishes over poplar with no priming it took 2 coats.

If you go the milk paint route, I would suggest a clear top coat of some sort.

or you could go with spray cans of your final color

FYI, the General Finishes "Milk Paint" isn't milk paint. It is a water based acrylic.
MSDS sheet: http://www.generalfinishes.com/msds-dat ... 282%29.pdf (hint, contains no casein). The powdered stuff from other sources is the real deal. Or you can make it yourself from scratch.

However it is correct that a milk paint needs a protective top-coat. The real stuff, while pretty tough, is not waterproof and will be quite flat. Oil, wax, poly all work as top coats and work to deepen the color and create various levels of sheen and gloss.

I painted my Shaker cupboard with milk paint and the darker color (brick) had better coverage than the lighter color (mustard). But because it is water based it raised the grain so consider pre-raising the grain and sanding back and sanding lightly between coats. Also, because of the water content, it swelled the wood and what was a well fit door suddenly wouldn't close. It has since relaxed and closes properly but it took a couple weeks.

It could be she is thinking of ebonized (or at least furniture that looks like it has been ebonized) for the black color. I think you can do that with poplar but I doubt poplar has enough tannic acid for the simple vinegar+steel wool trick to work. The commercial stuff is probably a recipe of glazes and stains.

1. No...it's not needed as popular has little to no open grain to begin with. If for some reason you do decide to prime then use the dark grey spray primer.
2. That's up to you but it's fine either way. Perhaps just stain it as dark as you can get it and clear coat it for protection but do not paint???? It's really up to your personal preference but I don't like painted interiors due to the wear over time.
3. At least a clear coat is good. The less moisture that can get to only one side of any board the better in the long run. Plus a coat of any finish will help protect the piece from bugs as well.
4. I'd go the route already mentioned of staining to an ebony color and topcoating from there. That way at least the wood is mostly black to start with and if and when it gets scratched it's black underneath the finish as well. You can always mix in more black dye in any clear finish. If you don't have the materials available like tinted lacquers then you can take the short cut of simply using a black spray paint and topcoating with any film finish.

Thank you all for your help....

and Merry Christmas.

thanks I just assumed it was milk paint. I did find my self wondering why the stuff went down so nice. milk paint or not I think its a very good product.

Yes, it is a nice product. FYI, acrylic and casein based paints are compatible with each other, at least on a small scale. There are lots of articles about using the two mediums together in painting (as in art).

And somewhere I have notes on how to use casein as the base for a photographic emulsion for making prints. Works similar to gum bichromate printing.

I like the analine dye and clear coat idea the best. Gives the black you are looking for with a little grain. If you really want to paint, you lucked out because Poplar would be the wood of choice if I was doing a painted finish. It shows little or no grain pattern when painted. The gloss level your wife wants is critical here. If it is semi or matte finished then it is not too bad but a high gloss black is probably one of the most challenging finish you can try. Every single flaw will show up in high gloss black. You need to be prepared for a finish that you can and will have to sand and buff to get perfect.

Steven Naslund
Chicago IL