Painting Tips & Tricks
7 Materials
A blogger friend of ours recently published an eBook, Inside the Paint Can. She sent us an advance copy to preview. We decided to try out one of the tips she writes about in the section about Oil vs. Latex Paint.
I (Vicki) have a vintage wrought iron patio set of two chairs and a coffee table that needed to be repainted. The chairs had previously been painted but were chipping badly, which, after reading the ebook, made me think that maybe the original finish of the metal was oil based paint and that was why the paint was not sticking.
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Watch the video!
To test for oil paint, use a small amount of a latex paint remover and wipe it on the paint. We used it to test something we knew was latex. Yep, the paint came right off.
Then we tested the patio table. Same thing, the paint came right off--latex paint. Evidently the type of paint on the original piece was not the problem which caused the newer paint to flake. We surmised that the slick surface was probably not prepped properly so we decided to treat it like oil based paint and prepped accordingly.
To start, we cleaned and dried the table and top.
Then we sanded flaking paint and rust.
We applied a rust reformer spray paint next to convert the rust to a paintable, protected surface.
We used an oil based primer next. Oil based primers are universal, meaning your final coat can be oil or latex based. If using a latex primer you can only cover that with a latex paint. Oil based primers are great for slicker surfaces like this table.
We finished with an oil rubbed bronze spray paint.
We are really happy with how this table turned out and are ready to tackle the chairs next.
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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