sanding/staining or painting a piece of furniture

Has anyone done this? Is it easy? Any reccos on products to use? I have a cheapo console made out of "wood" from target. I'd like to sand and stain or paint it. It doesn't have to look perfect, I'm actually going for a 'rustic' look. Thanks !

Re: sanding/staining or painting a piece of furniture

We did this to three pieces of pottery barn furniture last year. Two night tables and an extra wide dresser.

It wasn't easy, but it was worth the effort since it was pretty good quality furniture.

We used minwax products. We had an electric hand sander that we got from home depot. We also used a chemical stripper ( i can't recall the name, but got it from home depot and it was orange.) This was the most annoying part of the entire process.

You must must condition the wood after you sand and clean it. We didn't know about this step and got so many bubbles in the stain that we had to do it over again. So frustrating!

I think if your furniture is not true wood you may not be able to stain it, but could paint it. If you painted it you wouldn't have to strip it just prime it with a latex based primer like KILZ and then paint.

Re: sanding/staining or painting a piece of furniture

Do you have any before/after pictures? Was the furniture already a painted color (like black or white)?