how best to paint a bunk bed

Question

I have a wooden bunk frame I want to sand down and paint a semi gloss blue. I'd like to make the finish as durable as possible still being budget conscious. What grit should I finish off with before painting and how to begin painting? The stair rungs will get a lot of wear. Will I need a primer or are there paints with incorporated primers? TIA!

Tara86 · Answer

@Sandah Welcome!! When I built my daughters loft beds I used spray paint. Gloss black for one and the other rose gold. For both I used a white primer. The cans say they are primers but I found that the end results were a lot better when primed first. I built the beds 18mths ago and no signs of wear or colour fading, chipped etc. 
Regards to sanding it really depends on the timber your using. If using dressed timber you’ll probably only need to sand using a fine grit. I use an orbital sander for large jobs ending it with a 240 grit for a nice smooth finish. If it’s rough or painted you’ll need to use a more course grit. Really rough timber you’d start at 40 grit, moderate you can try 80 grit. 
hopefully this might help, but if you have any more questions please let us know!

Jason · Answer

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @Sandah. We're really pleased to have you join in the discussion and I trust you'll get loads of helpful information, advice and inspiration from our wonderful members.

Let me tag some clever and creative members in @prettyliving, @Tara86, @lcooksey88 and @Nikkaz to see if they might like to share their thoughts on how they would go about painting a wooden bunk bed.

Please let me know if you ever need a hand getting the most from the site.

Jason