Why Furniture Prep Matters
by
Jenni Ingram
3 Materials
$50
2 Hours
Easy
Prep is important! There are so many brands of paint out there that claim "NO PREP." It simply isn't a good idea to skip the prep step.
What prep should you do? On a normal piece, I recommend sanding lightly all over with 220 grit sandpaper to dull the shine, expose the varnish layer, and rough the surface for painting. A mixture of Denatured Alcohol and water ensures a clean painting surface. (More prep details are in my furniture painting tutorial.) While prep means extra steps, it usually doesn't take very long at all - and it's well worth it!
No Prep can result in chipping
How do you fix a piece with chipping? You start back at the beginning. I sanded the piece down to raw wood and got off as much of the existing paint as I could. Then, because this piece is mahogany I primed it with BIN primer. BIN is not only good to seal in the red tones of the wood, but also is a great "sticky" primer that will help the new coat of paint adhere (no more chipping!).
From chippy to crisp and clean
Painting. We created a gorgeous shade of aqua by combining General Finishes Blue, White, and Green.
My client has a lot of navy tones in her home too, so the inside of the cabinets were painted in Coastal Blue. It's a fun accent color when you open the door.
We kept the original hardware, just cleaned up by oiling it with Miss Mustard Seed's Hemp Oil. They had nice patina so no polishing, just a bit of cleaning.
I love this classic Federal style
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More details about this project and furniture prepping on my blog.
Learn how to refinish furniture like a pro - check out my online video tutorial.
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1 comment
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I agree with proper prep being the key. To many skip steps or cut corners and wonder why it didn't turn out right.
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