No Prep Furniture Painting…Fact or Fable?

No Prep Furniture Painting…

You’ve heard the claims that painting furniture with chalk paint means

“no prep” of your piece. But is that really true? Well sort of…

Painting with chalk paint requires “minimal prep”.

What you don’t need to do (usually) is strip the old finish.

What you do need to do (always) is repair damage and prepare the furniture’s surface for good paint adhesion.

Follow the steps in this checklist for just the right level of “minimal prep” to ensure success with chalk painting your furniture piece...

Assess Your Piece: The amount of prep depends on several factors: how old is the piece and how well was it taken care of? What is in a smoke filled house for 40 years? Did you find it on the side of the road? Is there damage, missing veneer, peeling paint? Is the old finish disintegrating or super glossy? Accurately assessing attributes that could prevent good paint adhesion will help determine the amount of surface prep needed.

Clean Your Piece: This is a universal requirement, since paint won’t adhere well to grease and grime. If your piece has been in a relatively clean environment, a quick scrubbing with a water and vinegar solution should do the trick. But, if there is lot of grime coming off onto your rag, a degreaser solution, Trisodium Phospate (TSP), or denatured alcohol is warranted. Autentico® Paints offers a great degreasing furniture cleaner called Omniclean.

Fix Your Piece: Scrape off any chipping paint and fix any obvious damage by filling cracks and holes with wood putty, water putty or a two-part epoxy like Bondo®. Solvent-based wood putties (like DAP’s Plastic Wood®) often work better than water based putties, which shrink and require multiple applications. However, despite its name, Durham Rock Hard Water Putty® is a cost effective alternative for larger repair areas that doesn’t shrink. Need to repair a small area of cracked or missing veneer? Try a hot iron first to reactivate the glue and then fill cracks, holes, or missing pieces with one of the aforementioned products.

“Lightly” Sand Your Piece: This step achieves two goals: smoothing out repair patches (requiring a coarser grit of sandpaper like 80-100 grit), and roughing up the surface of your furniture to give it a “key” for the paint to adhere (using 100-150 grit). This is especially important if the existing finish is disintegrating or super glossy. If your piece is large, consider using a orbital sander to quickly apply this “scuff coat” to your furniture piece.

Remove Excess Dust: Use a tack cloth to remove sawdust residue after you’ve repaired/sanded or scuffed your furniture piece. Take a small ½ inch brush to remove remaining dust from corners, nooks and crannies. Vacuum inside the piece if needed.

Treat for Bad Smells: If your furniture smells musty or moldy, wash it down again with vinegar and water or cheap vodka (yep!) inside and out to kill any mold spores. Let it air dry and then place bowls of charcoal or baking soda in drawers and closed cabinet areas. If the smell persists, spray with OdoBan® and seal with shellac.

Sealing in Wood Tannins: If you plan to use a light colored chalk paint on a furniture piece made of a wood species that bleeds tannins (redwoods, cedar, knotty wood), seal with clear shellac (if you plan to distress to the stained wood) or a shellac-based primer.

To Prime or Not to Prime? Chalk-based paints by their nature are self-priming, meaning 90% of the time you should not have to prime your old furniture piece before repainting. When should you? (1) When you have bare wood—which is thirsty and will waste your more expensive chalk paint; (2) when you are painting with very light colors, especially whites—again, to minimize the number of chalk paint coats required for good coverage; (3) when your piece is badly stained or could bleed wood tannins (as described above), in which case you should use a stain-blocking, shellac-based primer.

Check for More Damage: Often minor damage you missed the first time will appear after you’ve primed or after you’ve applied the first coat of chalk paint to your piece. Now is the time to fill in any remaining dings and deep scratches.

Sand Again? Only if your surface feels a little rough after the priming and further repairs. Usually primers are pretty thin and won’t leave a rough surface, especially if you apply it with a high density foam roller. If you are using a brush and you don’t apply the primer evenly, you might need another light pass with 220 grit sandpaper. In that case, don’t forget to remove any resulting dust with your tack cloth!!

What’s Next? START PAINTING!!

One Final Note: Don’t be daunted by a long page of instructions on how to prep

furniture for the application of chalk paint, that supposedly requires “minimal prep”.

Each furniture piece is unique and some really need no more than a good cleaning.

But, performing a solid assessment and following the necessary preparatory steps

dictated by the condition of your piece, will ensure your ultimate success!

Enjoy!