10 Biggest Furniture Painting Mistakes (and How to Avoid and Fix Them!) - Thrift Diving

hey what's up Serena here from thrift diving calm so let me tell you the most frustrating thing when you're doing DIY and furniture painting getting drips chipped paint choosing the wrong paint having your white paint turn yellow believe me all of these things have happened to me so in today's video we are gonna talk about how to actually prevent a lot of these mistakes but if you can't prevent it how do you even correct it so we're going to talk about all of those things in today's video so grab your paintbrushes grab your furniture paint and let's talk about how to have successful furniture painting projects let's jump into this video right now mistake number one paint drips and runs this is probably the most common furniture painting mistake you run into most times when your paint is brand new this is what it's like you remove the cap you're stirring it up you see that it's dripping off of the stirrer here but it's actually a pretty good consistency well if your pain is old and it's a little thicker or you've been letting that paint sit out sometimes people add water to their paint and when you do that sometimes you add a little bit too much water and it gets kind of drippy like this and when you're working on that project and you've got that watery paint trust me you're gonna see those runs on your project now here's an example that I did showing you what it's like having thicker paint this is paint that came right out of the container and you notice that it's pretty much in position it's not running that much but I added some water to it and now it's starting to run so if you notice that your paint is too runny or you've added too much water you can actually leave the top off of the paint for a little while and let it thicken up or you can also turn it upside down and let some of those solids mix in with the paint and then you'll be able to use it another cause of runs on your project is by dipping your paintbrush in the paint too much you really should only have probably about maybe an inch inch and a half of paint on that paintbrush don't dip the whole thing inside of the paint because I guarantee all that paint that's on the brush is gonna get all over your project now how you hold your brush makes a huge difference to now this is not the correct way to do it especially along edges where drips tend to happen you'll see here that I'm kind of offloading that paint right onto the edge of that board so imagine that being your project you've got that excess paint building up it's dripping down setting on the corners it's not really gonna look good right so another thing is keep in mind this happens to all along the edges so if you're offloading that paint just like this you're gonna get that build-up so try to smooth over that if you notice you made this mistake but you see how I'm Fanning the brush over the edge this creates a nice smooth surface along the edge and you're less likely to get those spills and those drips and when I'm doing skinny edges like this I try to put my bristles right there in the middle of that edge and just fan it off the edge and that will help to prevent some of the spills another thing is to make sure that you're rotating your work often when you're painting furniture or spray painting and you can make something like this it's a lazy susan take a turntable like this it's literally five dollars from the home-improvement store sandwich that between two pieces of wood and now you've got this little movable thing that allows you to rotate your work often because the more you rotate your work the more likely you are to see that you've got some spills and runs that you need to clean up real quick before they dry so $5.00 turntable get it and make one of your own and another reason you might be having runs is because you might not even realize that you have them because you can't see them if you're like me you're probably operating out of dark spaces garages this is a light that's in my collection I love it because it's got three different heights it's got a battery so when I'm doing projects and I've got enough light I can actually correct those runs when I can still see them so you can find a link down below for that one where to buy that and also you might just be having runs because you're using spray paint this can be very difficult to use if you're not using it properly so keep it about eight to twelve inches away keep it moving and overlap it don't let it sit in one area because that's when you will get spills and runs now with spray paint if I get runs I take a cloth and I just sort of dab it and then go over it again with spray paint so let's say you are painting and you do have some runs that you didn't catch beforehand you didn't prevent them you didn't catch it when it was wet and now what do you do well you can sand those out so you see here that I've got 150 grit sandpaper and I'm trying to smooth this out so that we'll be able to paint over it and have it look as if it never was even there didn't even happen you want to be a little careful here because if you are aggressively sanding you can sand down to your project and it can create a big problem and it may not cover and you have spots showing through so just be very careful how you're sanding I'm being a little aggressive because I'm just doing a sample board to show you but as I'm sanding smooth you'll notice that it's starting to smooth out and once it gets to the point where you don't feel those ridges you can take your paint brush and go right over it again and it should blend right on in so let's talk about mistake number two brush strokes now brush strokes isn't necessarily a bad thing you might want to see the look of the brush strokes in your paint and it really depends on a couple of things one being the type of paint brush that you're using they're synthetic brushes and then on the right you see that there are natural brushes which are called china brushes or chip brushes now I'm sure you've heard of a style of furniture painting called shabby chic right it's like that chipped aged vintage look well they actually like brush strokes because you can take some dark wax and it will settle into those grooves and really give it an aged look so if that's the look you're going for you probably are going to want brush strokes me personally I love modern looking furniture something that has a smooth finish so how do you get rid of these brush strokes well remember I say that you can add water to paint if it's a little thick well if you have thick paint you're gonna get more brush strokes and so when you're going for a modern look a lot of times what you'll see people do is add water to make it watered-down and now we do run the risk of having more drips which we already covered in the previous problem but here we're gonna add some water and we're gonna make it watery but not too watery and instead of just doing one or two coats of thick paint which is gonna produce those brushstrokes we're gonna do multiple layers of thin coats and so that's what you see me doing here where I'm just adding some layers you don't want to put too much on because it will get real watery looking and you want it to be smooth but here I'm adding the second coat now once it dries I'm going to show you if you can see in this light how you can tell the difference between what's on the right so you see it has a little bit more texture now keep in mind I didn't sand this board or anything before I started using this as a sample but you see more brushstrokes on the right and then as you get to the left it's starting to smooth out that was with three coats of watered-down paint again no sanding or anything like that so if you want something with less brushstrokes add more water and more coats and you'll want to use a synthetic brush do not use the chip brush because the chip brush the China brush will give you more brushstrokes now you can also say in your final coat of paint this is what a lot of people do when they're trying to get that smooth finish and they'll use 220 grit sandpaper and you see here it's nice and smooth right well some brands of paint they actually sand better than others so if you're using a chalk base furniture paint it smooths wonderfully with 220 grit sandpaper if you're using a wall latex paint that doesn't work too well and some paints actually have top coats built in and it can get kind of gummy so make sure you're using the right brand of paint you also might want to consider using a paint sprayer this is like spray paint but kind of works a little bit better because you're using your own paint but again make sure you're keeping it moving and you're also not too close because you will get those drips alright so let's talk about the next problem which is bleeding paint and actually a mistake three is more like old staying bleeding through the paint because it doesn't matter how many how many layers of paint and primer that you use it just keeps bleeding through all those old tannins from the wood and the stain and even if you stand it down it's still coming through so here are the two products that I've had a lot of success with it's either using the kills original this is the oil-based spray primer or using the seal coat this is a D waxed shellac you basically have to create a barrier between that old wood and the new paint and you'll see here on the left a china cabinet that I did it didn't matter how many coats of paint I did on the inside it just kept turning orange orange orange finally after adding a coat of shellac I was able to apply the paint and it was fine also this mid-century modern dresser that I did just kept bleeding pink and so I said well I'm just gonna paint it pink so you know think about the color you're using whites will show more of that bleeding through but if you go with a darker color then you can help to minimize it now what I like to do when I'm painting furniture pieces is I like to find a spot maybe on the side or the back and do a little test to see if this is one of the pieces that's going to bleed that way I know exactly how much preparation this is going to take so definitely do your testing before you jump into a project and mistake number four is chipped paint now I know this seems like common sense but you got to clean your furniture before you paint it and this is something that I made the mistake of when I used to get furniture and years ago I would bring it home and just start painting it know that stuff is dirty so use some simple green and clean it down thoroughly so that you're not painting over dirt which could chip off another thing too is a lot of chips happen when you're applying painters tape now this is a very porous board that I'm doing a sample on and so it's not necessarily going to chip but if you're putting on painters tape and then lifting that up you're gonna get some chips so make sure that you're using the right tape there is a delicate surface tape that frog tape makes and this is actually good for walls too but if you have paint that's not quite dry but you need to put some tape on it use the sensitive tape and then also just make sure that you're using a top coat because chips happen if you don't properly protect the paint now you can use like a multi-purpose sealer we're gonna talk about top coats but another reason why you may be getting chips is because you didn't properly sand or Prime before using your paint now most furniture paints will tell you oh you don't have to sand or prime just add two coats and you're good and while that's true and I've painted furniture like that myself if you're using regular wall latex paint you got a sand or Prime and this is an example to show you why that's important so you'll see here that I'm sanding on this sample board I did do a little coat of primer there and off to the left I'm using regular wall latex paint so once that dries and once the primer dries I'm gonna go over it with the regular wall latex paint and I didn't let this sit for you know 24 hours or anything like that too or this is maybe a couple hours maybe even less but watch what happens with my fingernail scratch test that paint that had no sanding or priming it comes right off the wood but over on the other side where I had the sanding and priming it took a lot to kind of dig down in there now if you're doing tabletops dresser tops places where you're gonna get a lot of traffic definitely sander prime if you're using regular latex mistake number five peeling paint in my experience I've learned if you're using spray paint and things like semi-gloss paint you know the regular wall paint it tends to peel off if you let it dry before removing painters tape so definitely remove that tape before the paint dries to reduce the chances of appealing now here's a beautiful project that I painted for my husband back in 2012 I sanded I primed but I used semi-gloss paint and over the years it started to peel so if you're doing desk tables things that are gonna get a lot of traffic I highly recommend you definitely do a furniture paint not a latex semi-gloss paint because it will peel it's still peeling he still uses this desk and it looks horrendous in this case the only thing we can do is strip it and start over but let's say you've got some chips or maybe some minor peels you can go for it with a dab of paint but keep in mind that you might see that indentation in your surface a better option would be to use some wood filler and dab it into that crack or that scratch or that chip and that way once it dries you can use some sandpaper sand it smooth you want it to be even with the surface of the table or the piece of furniture that you're refinishing and then you can cover it with a smooth very thin layer of paint here's the thing if you're using a semi-gloss paint which again I don't recommend but you might be having a paint that has some satin in it or just a little bit of Sheen it may not blend in very well so you may have to do a coat over the entire surface just to get it to blend in but remember what filler is your friend when you're trying to fix any cracks or crevices otherwise you will see that indentation and it will not look good mistake number six is your white paint Turney yellow if you are a new painter this will happen to you or it may have already happened to you you decide I'm gonna just put on this topcoat over my white paint and just protect it well let me tell you it's going to turn it yellow so I did a little experiment here for you drew a line down this board and put some of this poly acrylic on just one side so you can see what happens and look in that crevice there it's starting to turn yellow immediately and it's amazing that the reaction happened so quickly but it actually continues to turn yellow over time and so what starts as this fresh piece of furniture you painted could be your grandmother's hutch is now ruined and you've got to go over it again and if you look closely on the left-hand side where I added the polycrylic within 30 minutes it started to turn yellow now Katie a woman from Bower power blog this happened to her her husband built this amazing bed they painted it white and she used this top coat and guess what it turned yellow but it didn't stop there it actually continued to turn yellow and you see on the left hand side she ended up having to repaint it but that yellow it just continued to yellow so keep that in mind the options that you have are to use a top coat that is specifically for the brand of paint that you're using typically they test this and make sure that it's not going to yellow and also I did a sample here on the board with the sealer from beyond paint it's a multi-purpose sealer and it didn't turn yellow so keep that in mind you can also do furniture wax this isn't going to turn your white paint yellow but you will have to reapply it every six months so keep that in mind mistake number seven missing spots nothing is more frustrating than missing spots in your project when you think you're done so what I tell people is start with your project upside down so that you can see every part and then also make sure again you're rotating it lamps are infamous for missing spots so rotate that make sure you get all the spots and then have a system if you're working on a chair make sure that you're starting from just the back maybe you do all the legs and then you start on a different section but if you have a system you're less likely to miss spots mistake number eight is that your paint is looking kind of spotty on there and it's not covering the wood very well you may think what did I do wrong it's not really your fault most brands of paint are going to require two or three coats some have better coverage than others so find the brand of paint that you like some paints aren't thin we talked about how to thicken up a paint by leaving the top off and let it thicken up and if you're having some of the bleed through it could be because your wood is just simply dark and you need more coats or maybe you need to go back and add a primer which we talked about in an earlier step but definitely understand that it could just be the brand of paint that you have but definitely plan on two or three coats just to get an even coverage on your wood mistake number nine your wet paint is getting dirty now if you're like me you spend a lot of time painting outside which means debris bugs can get into your wet paint this is a spray shelter I like to use you can paint inside it actually has a mesh screen that comes down mine's a little smaller but it does keep things from falling onto the pink if you do have something fall on your paint try to get it off when it's wet and then sand if you need to and do a little spot treatment but definitely invest in one of these and you can also use an old blow dryer on a cool setting just to get your paint to dry faster or a fan so that there's less opportunity for things to land on your wet paint mistake number 10 the final mistake choosing the wrong color for your project like what I did here was I going to choose gray or white well I ended up gone with white because sometimes what happens you get started on a color and you're like this does not vibe with this piece that's what happened with this old desk that I got from the thrift store you see that I started with white but I just decided to go in a whole different direction with red so don't be afraid to change colors in the middle and also find sites like this one color lovers calm at Co L o urs to find combinations and go to your paint department look at those color cards those chip cards because they have designers that put all that stuff together so they know what colors look good together don't feel that you've got to be a designer and come up with things on your own I also like to do a sample on the side just to see if this is the color that's speaking to me but sometimes before I even do that I will do the color samples on a board and see okay does this look good together and am I feeling this or am I not feeling this and if I'm not feeling it I go in a different direction so remember it's just paint you can change it up but it's best to do it on a sample board or on the side before you do the entire project so there you have it the 10 biggest furniture painting mistakes that probably is a newbie and even as an experienced painter you are gonna run into and hopefully that you can prevent these and also know how to correct them so that your next project is a success so here's a bonus for you if you go down below and click the link it into your email you will get a free painting guide it's about 20 pages full of tips things included in this video as well as things that are not and if you want to get it for free into your email down below and you can get it in your inbox be sure to like this video subscribe and let me know down in the comments do you have a particular problem that you're always having with your furniture painting projects let me know and I'll see if I can help you alright I'm Serena piya from thrift diving and I'll see you next project

Channel: Thrift Diving

Views: 559,804

Rating: 4.9339776 out of 5

Keywords: DIY, Thrift Diving, thrift stores, home improvement, crafting, thriftdiving

Id: R18adUXfgtA

Length: 18min 54sec (1134 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 09 2020