5 products to ALWAYS have on hand for refinishing furniture

There's your obvious products like paint, top coats, sand paper, and cleaner that anybody about to pick up a paint brush can figure out. After 4 years+ of refinishing furniture full time, here are five main products that we make sure we NEVER run out of and highly recommend to always keep stocked for your projects.

KwikWood:

We use quick wood on any dresser we are filling hardware holes on. We've tried different products, but KwikWood is by far our favorite. We buy it in bulk so we ALWAYS have it on hand. It is also nifty for fixing/filling in deep gauges and broken off edges or pieces.

General Finishes Stain Blocker:

If we painted a piece of furniture a light color (white, light grey, blush, lavender, mint, light blue) you can bet money we used General Finishes stain blocker on it first.

Those of you who have painted a piece a furniture white, applied a top coat, and came back after it dried to find weird yellow/orange stains have appeared on your beautiful piece know the pain of wood tannin bleed through. This product is GUARANTEED to prevent bleed through with two coats. Bonus it's white. SO two coats of Stain Blocker and not only have you prevented bleed through, you are also done priming. We won't lie, it is expensive but IT IS WORTH EVERY PENNY!

Shellac:

This life saver of a product comes in a gallon and has more than one use! It works great to keep wood tannins from staining through into your paint colors (we use this when the finish is going to be a darker color).

Also as a helpful deodorizer/sealer for lingering smells (side note: make sure to clean your pieces well and get any odors out as best you can before shellac.) It is great to keep the "old wood" smell at bay, but will not work to keep smoke and other misc smells completely out of the dresser.

Wiping Rags:

Get yourself a big ole box or bag of rags. Use them to wash your furniture pieces, stain wood, wipe up messes, apply poly, apply shellac.....really the list goes on and on. Old Socks and t-shirts also work great, but the convenience of the bag or box already done and ready for you really can't be beat.

Nitrile Gloves:

We learned pretty quick that if you work with paint, sealers, top coats, stain, and cleaners all day you are going to want to protect your hands. Make sure you get a single use powder free version!