painting

[blackpip]

What is the best way to paint my pinewood wardrobes?

[clever trev]

You will need to lightly sand down first. and then apply at least 2 coats of undercoat, and for a good job i would use satinwood for a top coat, gloss would be to harsh looking. And always use a good brush, and clean well with turps in between coats.

[GEEMAC]

After sanding, wipe down with a damp cloth (use white spirit to dampen cloth) and allow to dry.
If there are any knots in the wood (pine is usually very 'knotty'), you will need to treat these at this stage with knotting compound, to avoid brown stains appearing through the final finish. There are 2 types, try to get the clear type.
Personally, I would use a primer coat first then 1 or maybe 2 coats of undercoat before your top coat. To make life a little easier, I always use acrylic primer/undercoat. This is a water based all-in-one product and dries a lot quicker than oil based primer and undercoats, it also makes cleaning up a lot easier. 2 or 3 coats should provide a solid base for your top coat.
Ideally you should sand and wipe down the woodwork (as above) after each coat has dried. If you don't, at least make sure that you do it before your topcoat..
As far as your topcoat goes, I concur with clever trev that satinwood is a much 'classier' finish, (or eggshell as it is more traditionally known. Generally, eggshell is oil-based and satinwood is water based. I think a few years ago one of the big paint companies decided to rebrand the little used eggshell paint as satinwood...but I digress.)
I have found that the water based version may need 2 coats to provide the depth of finish that the oil-based variety offers...

[GEEMAC]

...As clever trev said, use a good quality brush. If however you are using a new brush you will need to 'flirt' it first so as to avoid loose bristles coming out while you paint (which will happen!) Sadly, 'flirting' your paint brush is not as much fun as it sounds. Basically you need to wash it with a bit of washing up liquid and rinse with warm water and tease out any loose bristles, then allow to dry.
White spirit is a turps (turpentine) substitute which is every bit as good as turps, more readily available and cheaper.

I know this sounds a lot of work compared to just painting a 'quick coat' but the more you put into the preparation, the better the results. If you haven't gathered, I'm a professional decorator with nearly 30 years experience.
Good luck : )

[wildwood]

Perfect advise above. I would just like to add that the finished product will only look as good as the initial preparation you put into the job, so don't be like me and skimp on the sanding and preparation.