Painting my daughters desk -- question

[Ray Schafer]

OK, I am ready to paint the desk that I have talked about so many times. I am using BIN primer and enamel paint. Here is my question: What parts should I paint? ... and if there are parts that I should not paint, what should I do on them -- shellac?

[Jeff Monson]

I finished a kitchen set for my daughter recently and I painted the majority of it with a latex paint from a local hardware store. There were a couple of areas I left bare wood, I sprayed the whole project with 3 coats of laquer and it came out really nice and should be very durable.

Some may argue that it wont work, the guy at the hardware store said the laquer would react with the paint, and would never work. I tried several sample boards and never had any bad reactions.

[Joe Chritz]

Paint anything that can be seen.

As long as the parts are contained movement because of finish shouldn't be a problem. Thousands of kitchens are made and only finished on the visible sides.

Joe