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Tag: painting tips

Why + How to Prime Wood Furniture

It’s been a busy few days around my neck of the woods.  With revamping the china cabinet + another BIG project coming down the pipeline (which I can’t wait to share details about), I haven’t had 5 minutes to sit.  No worries though, I’ll sit when I’m old, ha.

So my last post was all about the beginning steps of prepping & sanding a piece of wood furniture.  The next step, which is what this post is dedicated to, is priming.  Primer is SO important!  I can not stress enough that primer is a must when painting something. anything.  YOU NEED PRIMER.

China Cabinet Makeover: PRIMING! An entire post on Why & How-To Prime a Wood Surface. Priming any surface before painting is so important & it can save you money. Come see the result of how what prime can do & follow along on this furniture makeover

Why Prime.

Whether a room or a piece of furniture, paint is truly one of the easiest & most affordable ways to update and/or change the look of something.   It’s amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do to a wall or a surface.  I read once, “Don’t expect paint to do a primer’s job”.   The purpose of paint is to provide color, but the purpose of primer is to provide the ideal base for the paint to be applied.  Without, the result can fall short.

What does Primer Do?

> Blocks Stain  Primers are made to block the natural pigments (tannin) of the wood and/or original stain from bleeding through the new paint.

> Hides Color  Priming the surface before painting hides / blocks the previous color from showing through.  Using a primer will also sometimes eliminate the need for multiple coats (cost savings!)

> Seals the surface  Priming before painting seals the surface so the paint doesn’t get soaked in.  The prime provides the perfect base for the paint to be applied.  Primer also provides the ideal surface for paint to adhere to.  Typically with a stained piece of furniture, like my china cabinet, the original surface is glossy which paint wouldn’t adhere to.  Adding a primer to a glossy surface will give the provide the ideal underlayment for a beautiful new color.  This same technique can be used for tile, glass, vinyl siding, and aluminum – all slick surfaces that wouldn’t be paintable without primer!

Do you recall when I was painting my laminate bookcase?  I failed to prime a spot and the paint just bubbled and didn’t stick to the surface.  Here’s a picture…

Priming is a must before applying paint!

> Lasting Result  Without primer, paint could easily chip or scrape off very easily + quickly.  Using one (thin) coat of primer + two (typically, maybe more) coats of paint you should have a long lasting, durable result!

The Right Primer.

There are many primers on the market and the decision on the right one for the job can be tricky.  When painting over furniture, you want to choose a primer that indicates on the can that it will block the stain and seal the surface.  The primer that I chose for this china cabinet makeover was Glidden Gripper because it truly grips to the surface and seals the stain from coming through.  It also created the perfect base for the new WILD color I chose.

Glidden Gripper

Applying Primer.

a how-to tutorial on applying primer.  Its so easy…

Note: This is the most important tip I can share about priming (told to me by someone – a pro – in the painting world), primer does not need to be applied like paint. A thin coat of primer is fine and actually better than “globbing” it on.  Primer does not need to fully cover the surface underneath, meaning you can still have wood showing through.  As long as the surface area has a thin coat (one coat), you are set to paint!

When painting a piece of furniture, I always start at one end and make my way across. Why?  Paint dries fairly fast and to avoid drips + brush strokes, it’s important to work in small sections and apply thin coats.
China Cabinet Makeover: PRIMING! An entire post on Why & How-To Prime a Wood Surface. Priming any surface before painting is so important & it can save you money. Come see the result of how what prime can do & follow along on this furniture makeover

Typically I apply the paint to the surface.  Then spread it out.  Then go back over it with my brush, using light stokes and following the wood grain.

China Cabinet Makeover: PRIMING! An entire post on Why & How-To Prime a Wood Surface. Priming any surface before painting is so important & it can save you money. Come see the result of how what prime can do & follow along on this furniture makeover

When painting furniture, the piece is typically vertical, so paint could drip.   Around the detailed edges and ornate areas, the less paint the better to avoid paint from dripping.  And once an area is done, always continue to look back to make sure paint isn’t seeping down.

China Cabinet Makeover: PRIMING! An entire post on Why & How-To Prime a Wood Surface. Priming any surface before painting is so important & it can save you money. Come see the result of how what prime can do & follow along on this furniture makeover

For this china cabinet, there were 3 doors, which I removed and are painting laying down.  It’s much easier to paint + drips don’t occur as much.

China Cabinet Makeover: PRIMING! An entire post on Why & How-To Prime a Wood Surface. Priming any surface before painting is so important & it can save you money. Come see the result of how what prime can do & follow along on this furniture makeover

For this piece, it took me about 40 minutes to prime.  To me, it’s very relaxing. This is the result…

China Cabinet Makeover: PRIMING! An entire post on Why & How-To Prime a Wood Surface. Priming any surface before painting is so important & it can save you money. Come see the result of how what prime can do & follow along on this furniture makeover

That’s a wrap… for now.

She’s ready for paint!

Want a peak?  Here you go…

Sneak Peak at the new color for the China Cabinet

I’m off to paint some more…

Follow along on this makeover with these other posts
Backstory + Choosing a Color
Prepping & Sanding Wood Furniture
Why & How to Prime Wood Furniture
Tips + Tricks to Painting Wood Furniture
Accessories, Details, & Styling {China Cabinet Makeover}

Coming up (still to do)
China Cabinet Makeover {Reveal}

China Cabinet Makeover: Prepping + Sanding Wood Furniture {Step 1}

#chinacabinetmakeover

Last week I shared the latest + greatest project that I’m throwing myself into.  Since the baby arrived, I kind of lost my DIY mojo, but this project has me back!  I can not express how excited I am about this project because I’ve been thinking about it for so long.  Have you ever had a moment like that when you are thinking about something so much, but are unsure of how all the details could possibly come together?  Well that was me with this project…  I knew exactly the cabinet I wanted, I knew the color I wanted it to be, but no cabinet.  UNTIL, I found her.

Somehow, someway the stars were aligned and last week she came home!  To be specific, my husband and I went to the seller’s home (it’s a must to always go with someone on a Craigslist excursion!) and thankfully he had a pickup, so for $20 extra he delivered it to our house.  Lesson learned?  It never hurts to ask.  We don’t have a pickup and would have had to rent one.  This was much easier!

Thinking back, I haven’t tackled a large-scale furniture makeover project like this since the painting of the laminate bookcases and that was a LONG time ago.  Whether large or small though, the steps for painting a piece of furniture are typically the same and that’s what I am dedicating my next few posts to… rehabbing a piece of furniture to achieve a dynamic result.

First up, details on how to begin the process of paint a piece of furniture including how-to prep + how-to sand.

China Cabinet Makeover: How-To Prep and Sand Wood Furniture {easy to follow tutorial - multiple blog posts to explain how easy it is}

The china cabinet was in a pretty sad place before landing in my garage.  It was dusty and had lots of grime in the corners, so a good ole’ cleaning was a must!

1. First up… the hardware.  I removed all the hardware using a screwdriver and am still on the fence about reusing or replacing the existing pieces.  Some of the hardware (knobs) were missing, so I’m not sure what I will do.  – TBD –

China Cabinet Makeover: How-To Prep and Sand Wood Furniture {easy to follow tutorial - multiple blog posts to explain how easy it is}

2. Once the hardware was removed, I used a vacuum to clean all the nooks + crannies of the cabinet.  Not only was it dusty, but it was dirty.

China Cabinet Makeover: How-To Prep and Sand Wood Furniture {easy to follow tutorial - multiple blog posts to explain how easy it is}

Then following that, I used a dampened rag and went over all the surfaces.  It was amazing the grime that came off this piece!

China Cabinet Makeover: How-To Prep and Sand Wood Furniture {easy to follow tutorial - multiple blog posts to explain how easy it is}

3. After taking a few minutes to clean the surface, it was time for sanding.

Using my orbital sander (it really is the best tool for sanding large areas – I use it SO MUCH) I went over the areas that I could.  The orbital sander is somewhat large so it worked great for the larger flat surfaces like the top, sides, and doors.  For the more detailed, intricate areas, I used a piece of sandpaper (by hand).  The very detailed areas I just left (without sanding) and will be using a primer that ‘grips’ to the surface so the paint will adhere.  The gripper paint I will be using (more on that in an upcoming post) actually says no sanding is needed, but I like to give a quick sanding for better adhesion.  If I were staining this piece, I would have needed to go down to the original surface.  Since I am painting it though, a quick sanding (+ a good primer) is all that is needed.

China Cabinet Makeover: How-To Prep and Sand Wood Furniture {easy to follow tutorial - multiple blog posts to explain how easy it is}

sanding, sanding, sanding…

China Cabinet Makeover: How-To Prep and Sand Wood Furniture {easy to follow tutorial - multiple blog posts to explain how easy it is}

When sanding wood, it’s important that you do not put too much pressure on the wood surface.  I started with a 120 grit paper and then used a 220 grit paper for a smoother finish.  A light sanding is just enough and always continue to rotate and move the sander so you are not concentrating on one section for a long time.

Sections of the china cabinet where I could not use the orbital sander, I sanded by hand.  Areas like the buffet top and the legs were very worn (natural wear + tear) and needed to be smoothed out.

China Cabinet Makeover: How-To Prep and Sand Wood Furniture {easy to follow tutorial - multiple blog posts to explain how easy it is}

China Cabinet Makeover: How-To Prep and Sand Wood Furniture {easy to follow tutorial - multiple blog posts to explain how easy it is}

4. Sanding took about 10-15 minutes and then I cleaned all the surfaces again.  Lastly before painting this girl of mine, I taped off the glass.  Using painters tape, I taped off the edge where the wood meets the glass.  This will make painting much easier!

China Cabinet Makeover: How-To Prep and Sand Wood Furniture {easy to follow tutorial - multiple blog posts to explain how easy it is}

And that’s it.  For now!

This china cabinet is still in transition mode from blah to pretty.  Next up?  Primer, which is the key to a good paint job.  Stay tuned for my next post on Why & How to Prime Wood Furniture.

Follow along on this makeover with these other posts
Backstory + Choosing a Color
Prepping & Sanding Wood Furniture
Why & How to Prime Wood Furniture
Tips + Tricks to Painting Wood Furniture
Accessories, Details, & Styling {China Cabinet Makeover}

Coming up (still to do)
China Cabinet Makeover {Reveal}

 

From Wood to White: How-To Paint Mouldings

If I could sum up my Summer in DIY terms, it was all about painting. From the staircase to my office chair, from the white shelves to the new blue room, I think there was 2 (or maybe even 3) weeks straight that I had a paintbrush in-hand everyday!  Honestly, I’m kind of sick done with painting for awhile. Anyway, alot of projects got accomplished and one in particular were the oak stained wood mouldings that I painted white.  All I can say is…  WHAT A DIFFERENCE!

The staircase project was what did it and started the process of updating the mouldings.  It’s something that I wanted to undertake for a long time, but just didn’t know where to begin.  Once I started painting the stair risers and balusters, I realized that painting the trimwork wasn’t too difficult, so I just continued around the room. Even though the staircase was time consuming, the result was completely worth the effort and I knew I would feel the same way once the mouldings were finished.

To start off, I applied painters tape to the wall so only the mouldings (the areas that I wanted to paint) were exposed.

Here’s a snapshot when I painted the area around the window in the living room.

* Sidenote: My walls were already painted, but if you’re undertaking this project and your walls are NOT painted or you plan on changing the wall color, then paint the mouldings first.  Believe Me, It’s much easier!  So you would reverse the step I just mentioned.  Paint your mouldings first and once they are dry, tape the moulding edge (or buy a moulding paint gadget), THEN paint the wall color.

okay, moving on…

Once the tape was up, I was ready to paint.  Using my favorite Purdy brush, I applied one coat of Kilz Primer (I’ve heard good things about gripper primer too, but haven’t tried it yet).  I didn’t bother with sanding because even though the mouldings were stained, there was no gloss or sheen to them.  They were at the point of needing to be restained (to protect them) or painted (as I did).  IF you’re undertaking this project and your mouldings have a gloss finish, giving them a light sand is probably a good idea.

Primer for the mouldings is really important.  At one window I didn’t use it (by accident – it was late at night – you know the rest…) and you could see the orange color of the stain coming through the paint.  No matter how many coats of paint I applied, the orange tint always showed.  Now with primer, you may still get the orangey color, BUT when you go to apply the paint color, the orange color won’t come through because the primer will block it.  Primer truly is amazing stuff!

After the one coat of primer, then it was time to paint.   I continued with the paint I used for the staircase which was, Snowfall White by Benjamin Moore (thanks BM for providing the paint!).

Here’s a snapshot of the first coat of paint.

In most areas, I applied 1 coat of primer + 2 coats of paint, but in some areas I did use 3 coats.  It really depended on the finish look after 2 coats.

Once the painting was complete, it was time to remove the tape.  I’ll forewarn you – Don’t quickly pull off the tape because you’re freshly painted mouldings might get ruined.  When the paint was dry (to the touch it takes about 20-30 days to fully cure), I pulled off the tape and some of the paint came to.  To avoid that from happening, I used an X-acto blade to score the corner of where the moulding and wall meet…

…then removed the tape.

At this point, I noticed that some of the paint bled under the painters tape – so annoying, right?  I’ll tell ya, I tried lots of different ways to avoid this, but nothing worked.  I even googled it, and I found nada.  If you know a secret way, will you share?  Until then, this is what I did that worked best.

After removing the tape, I took the wall paint color and my Purdy angled brush, and slowly dragged it down the wall where the wall and moulding meet.  It worked perfectly!

And that’s about it…  Not too difficult, just alittle time consuming.  But believe me, the result is SO worth it.  Take it room by room – that’s what I’ve done.  Honestly, not all my rooms are completely finished, but most are and the result is so satisfying!

Here is the before and after of the living room…

Want to see some more?

Do you remember when I updated the door hardware? Check out how fresh it looks with the newly painted white mouldings…

And here’s one more.  Do you remember the DIY built-in coat rack behind my front door?  Well here it is now surrounded by freshly painted mouldings…

What a refreshing update!  Well I have a few more painting projects that I worked on over the Summer that still need to be shared, so check back soon!

What painting projects did you work on this past Summer?

I link my projects to some of these parties: Skip to My Lou, Dittle Dattle, Between Naps on the Porch, Today’s Creative Blog, Stories of A to Z, All Things Heart & Home, Savvy Southern Style, House of Hepworths, Finding Fabulous, Creation Corner, The Shabby Nest, Serenity Now, Tatertots and Jello, Thrifty Decor Chick, Tip Junkie