6 tips for buying furniture for upcycling

There is so much second hand furniture around for upcycling, but not all pieces are created equal! Here are tips for buying furniture specifically for painting. 

1. If you are buying furniture for your own use, start by looking for styles you like, and pieces which will fit into your home (dimensionally, functionally and decoratively). Every piece needs to fit your lifestyle and intended use, otherwise it won't take long for you to fall out of love with it. Take note of the approx measurements for each piece when you go shopping. 
2. If you are buying furniture to sell, look for timeless pieces of furniture which will appeal to the masses. It would be best to avoid overlarge items as these will take longer to sell. Once you have established a following, you can start to add more unique and unusal pieces to the mix. 
3. Ensure each piece is structurally sound, or at least needs minimum damage that you can confidently repair. 
4. Find out if the furniture has borer and/or borer holes. Borer is an insect infestation that will eat through wood causing it to become weak. 
5. Look for furniture made of sold wood. If it is made from composit wood (like chipboard, mdf or plywood), try to avoid laminated stykles -- look for composit wood that has veneer instead. Veneer is thin sheets of "real" wood which is glued on. So long as you don't sand down too much, you can paint veneer just like solid wood. Laminate wood however has a plastic type finish that is hard to paint unless a Boncoat Primer is used. 
6. Unpainted redwood furniture, such as mahogany, may bleed tannin stains onto your paint. If you don't want the added effort and cost of sealing with Stainblock Primer, avoid unpainted redwoods or buy pre-painted furniture.