The Painted Lady

Whilst all the travels for work happen this week, I have the opportunity to lay down layers of primer, paint and clear coat without being tempted to rush.

Rushing painting is the reason I botch painting projects. I just want to be done, and paint must dry. I push it and end up with permanently gummy/sticky paint.

I also decided that I am going to do this project completely differently than I have done before. There are too many great paint options out there for the novice to experienced crafter to make a project easy and doable.

I am from the old school (think junior high woodshop class) where the thinking was to always take a used project down to the bare wood then stain it. If you have ever stripped wood of whatever is on it, you know why it has taken me until my 40's to do anything different. Between wood stripper, mineral spirits, and wood stain....yuck and yuckety yuck yuck yuck!

No more! I want to simply paint. But if you "simply paint" it peels off, because everything has a gloss on it.

First, always lightly sand down anything you want to paint. It gives whatever you put on it something to grab onto.

Second, on used furniture especially, prime it. And hey, in the last 30 years, primers are now no longer an environmental mess to use. Love technology. For furniture, I recommend a bonding primer. Primer by itself it meant to cover up and block the previous color from bleeding through. Using a bonding primer not only covers up the previous color but grabs onto your sand-roughened surface and provides a great surface for your paint to grab onto. For those of use who don't want to remove paint, but just want to put a nice coat on something...this is the way to go. The bonding primer I used cleans up easily with soap and water....no mineral spirits and a HAZMAT suit.

First coat. Light sand in between to smooth out drips and imperfections. Keeps the surface rough too.

You'll notice I purposely painted beyond the grooves where the "showing" part and "not showing" border is. I will do that with the paint as well. It prevents any chance of an unpainted part from peeking through.

Meanwhile, over at the cushion....I have been scheming. I saw a video online of a "welting foot". "Welting" being the piping that goes around the edges of cushions. "Foot" being an attachment on a sewing machine. For the non-sewers out there, there are scads of feet for machines out there to do all the various kinds of stitches we see in fabric daily that we don't even realize.

This is single welting, or piping. I managed to do this in the last project and hide my mistakes in the seams. This chair is my next project. There is always the option to not put in piping. It changes the look of a piece, and not necessarily for the worse...it's a design feature. 

After the last project, I just about overheated my machine making it take piping through it to stitch it. The piping turned out okay but it was not ideal. I found myself hoping a welting foot would be available out there in internet world for my 25+ year old sewing machine--for a few dollars. I think I have found it.

Especially on this project, where I will need a double welting, I have been a bit worried how to do this.

This is double welting that is glued over the seam and staples underneath.

Did I mention this project would teach me a few new techniques? Double welting is one of them. It's the primary way to make a transition between a raw fabric edge and wood that can't simply be tucked away. Usually the furniture manufacturer creates an edge in the wood to do this. It's actually quite spectacular if it's done well. However, if the welting was shoved through the sewing machine, that spectacular feature becomes an obvious DIY fail.

I found a foot that would fit my machine for less than $10 and it would also make single and double welting/piping. Score! The cushion remains on hold until my week of travels is over and the welting foot arrives. 

The manufacturer placed ridge for the double welting.

Ridge for welting.

So while that foot travels through the Amazon Dot Com universe, let's continue the painting...

First coat of latex.

On this hand rest, I'll make sure to put down two layers of clear coat, one everywhere else. The first coat leaves a streaked black/gray. Don't ever judge a paint by its first coat. If you're unsure, put two coats on a scrap piece of wood.

In case you didn't know, I'll tell you...latex cleans up with soap and water and so does clear coat. I cannot reiterate enough how cool that is. You're talking to a woman who has painted the exterior of her home with a primer that required mineral spirits to clean up. I will do that kind of clean up....grumbling....for acres of painting. I will not do it for a few square inches of a chair that came with razor blades installed (see previous post). Soap and water is five minutes of time. Mineral spirits is a half an hour of clean up and twenty four hours of smelling like an oil refinery. Your choice. 

Five days later.....

My crazy week of travel is over. As I came and went, I primed, painted and coated. Here are the results. I like the results.

Next post....

The welting foot has arrived and springs. How to fix springs!