paint to use inside the cabin

hello,
i have a wooden boat, but inside is quite dark. i want to apply white paint over varnished wood at some parts. i dont want to use toxic paint, less odor because i live in the boat as well. and i dont want bright, gloss paint.
what kind of paint do you recommend?

Regards
Ulas

 

It is difficult to paint a latex paint directly over varnish

I would use a 3m scotch brite pad for sanding, 7447 or 7448 as they seem to cut better longer than sand paper. After the shine is gone, I would go with an oil base primer/sealer to provide for a latex finish coat. Of course the oil base primer might carry some odor until it is painted over

I believe that there are some marine water base paints that will work for the over coat

Alternatively, though I have not used it, there is a product that you can paint on that removes the gloss but I do not think that a latex will adhere as much as an oil primer.

Try your paint store for info.

If it were my own boat, I would scotchbrite the surface, wipe it with a cleaner then finish it with an oil paint, semi gloss and live with the odor for a few weeks

 

i saw a water based paint in a normal hardware store. it says that, it can be painted over varnished wood. i dont know if it will stay or go off very easily.

 

and do you think semingloss is good or flat better?

 

Flat will certainly hide any irregularities better than a semi but flat is usually is a softer paint that is hard to clean.

 

It depends what the "varnish" is. Shellac is a devil to paint over, it usually ends with severe 'alligatoring" before too long. You can buy proprietary products to treat the shellac surface before painting, I think the people that make Penetrol have one. It is easy to identify shellac, a rag wet with methylated spirits (denatured alcohol ) will soften it. If it is just a clear polyurethane finish, do not apply alkyd (enamel) type paint systems over it, adhesion is poor. Acrylics stick well, however, and a washable low sheen is a good compromise between hiding surface unevenness, and cleaning. It could be you presently have a water or oil stain finished timber, in which case surface gloss will be uneven. You may need to test a small area with your paint to see if any stain bleeds through. If it does, after a day or two, talk to the paint supplier about a suitable sealer. Paint odour is a factor to consider in confined spaces, it will take about a month to dissipate for most anything, however if you want to use the boat immediately, you can get special low VOC (volatile organic compound) formulations used for interior painting.

 

I used Rustoleum Topsides gloss white to paint my interior cabinets. It comes with a flat finish. Some light sanding is called for. Shellac I would try to remove completely before repainting.

It definitely has an odor that is pretty tough when new but it fades, slowly.

 

One of the ships I work on they were using Resene low odor coatings, I'm sure there is equivelent paints in other countries. You couldn't notice this paint but the ship smells like a ship with stockholm tar/riggers black & gum turps etc with the background of galley/diesel & just a waft of sullage...

Some of our small boats have the varnish painted over deliberatly for less maintenance/longevity, even if taken back to bare timber two or three coats of varnish go on before the solid primers so the painted finish is reversable so as not to get into the grain, pretty sure International/akzo reps made the recomendation.

Jeff

 

Some of the low-odor coatings seem to fall down in other attributes (durability, flow, coverage etc) but a boat interior seems the type of application they would really be suited to. Sickly paint odour combined with a rolling boat...whoa !

 

I remember an an old girl telling me that chopped-up onions placed on plates in a painted room will dispense with the paint smell. Might be more a case of masking than absorbing, though.

 

That always seems to be the way.. what ever is good for the vessel is bad for the humans...
Jeff.

 

I used system three two part with good results. no smell. gloss finish. Good prep is key. water base. no hassle.

 

I've heard good things about using Kilz primer as a tie coat. They make an oil based version.

For my interior, I'm testing using an epoxy primer, Silver Tip Yacht Primer. It is light grey in color, but has very little order and none after it's cured. Seems good on my test part, which is over an unknown paint. I doubt this would work over your shellac paint though.