We have had our table and chairs for 12 years. It has been through two babies/toddlers, many cookie baking sessions, thousands of hot meals, numerous parties and gatherings and two moves. The table was showing a lot of wear and heat marks. The stain on the chairs that the children sat at was wearing off. It needed to either be professionally refinished/painted or we would have to do it ourselves. Being a chronic DIYer, I decided to put our skills to the test and do it ourselves. We started the week of New Years (December 2020) and finished last weekend (January 30-31). What was suppose to take a week, actually took a month. We learned a lot through this process. Read on so you don’t make our mistakes…
Starting From The Top
We started with the project by sanding the top with our Festool 5 inch random orbit sander. The top took awhile to sand down to bare wood. We wouldn’t have done this if we were planning to just painting it. We planned to stain the top. With the table top sanded, I moved onto the base.
I chose to paint the base of the table with Rustoleum Chalk Paint in ‘Linen White’. This worked ok and I should have gotten a clue to what torture we would endure down the line with the chairs, but alas, I did not. It bled through a bit but I thought, ‘eh it gives it an antiqued, distressed look’. I should have took this warning sign but, I kept going. The base took about 3 or so coats of chalk paint.
I researched a lot (or at least, I thought I did). I decided to do chalk paint because that seemed to be what all the other bloggers and DIYers did before me. Well, I now hate chalk paint. Despite what the Rustoleum can says, you do (or should) prime the surface first. Chalk paints boast ‘one coat coverage’, no prep or priming. If you are a pro at using chalk paint- go for it. If you are a beginner- do as I say not as I do. The stain was still bleeding through.
CYA
Rustoleum covers their butts by stating, “Priming is not required for most surfaces. Priming will always help for adhesion and covering surface defects. We recommend priming for woods high in tannins(cedar, redwood, mahogany and fir) and knotty woods. Priming these surfaces will prevent tannin bleed and cover rough surface defects. Simply prime the entire surface with a shellac base primer such as Zinsser® Cover-Stain®, Zinsser® B-I-N® Primer or Clear B-I-N® sealer according to the directions, and proceed with your project.” We finished off the base with 1 coat of Miniwax Polyurethane. This is an oil based sealer and tends to turn your finish yellow. We should have used water based polycrylic. We went on to use the water based polycrylic on the table top.
Let’s Play Musical Chairs
As I moved onto the chairs, I became quickly aware how painful this process was going to be. I was painting the backs and bottoms with chalk paint (we were doing the classic grey on the seats). It would have been fine if our chairs were a simple style but ours had spindles for days and were intricate. I was going in with a small paint brush on the spindles and everything. This is when I wanted to cry and I called in my husband for reinforcements.
We decided to ‘break down’ and buy a Graco paint sprayer. I quickly calculated the return on investment that I always do with bigger purchases. We would be able to use it on the kitchen cabinet paint project, all our interior and exterior doors, the Martha Washington cabinet, etc. I am certainly glad he went and bought one because this would have taken forrrevvver.
Stain first then paint
Before painting the chairs, we realized it would be best to sand the seats first and prep to stain them. This was a time consuming task as most chairs do not have a flat bottom to them and had to be sanded around the 2 posts on 4 chairs and all the spindles on the 2 captains chairs. Starting out with 60 grit paper on the random orbital sander and sanding blocks, we moved onto 80, 120 and finally 150 grit paper to finish it off. Each chair was prepped with stain conditioner. The stain conditioner helps with streaks and blotches when working with oil-based stains. One thing to keep in mind with the conditioner, you need to wait a half an hour after applying but no more then 2 hours after to start applying your oil-base stain. This is one of the steps that delayed the project, finding time with our busy lives. You can chose to apply the stain with a good natural brush or a foam brush. We chose to go the with the foam brush just for the simple fact of being able to through it away after each use. Seeing as we chose classical gray color stain, it took 3 coats to get the desired color. Coat 1 and 2 we waited 20 mins before wiping it off with a rag. On the 3rd coat, we waited 30 mins to achieve the desired coloring. It’s recommended to wait a good 24 hours before attempting to place a clear coat over top of the stain.
Clear coat
The clear coat acts as a protective layer over the stain. We chose a water base polycrylic because we wanted the clearest finish possible. We applied the water base clear coat with a foam brush as well and just cleaned it out after each use. We waited 2 hours or more between each coat for a total of 3 coats. Between each coat, we lightly hand sanded with 220 grit and wiped off with a damp rag. Make sure to wait til the piece dries completely. After the final coat dried, we took 400 grit paper and gently went over it. This creates a smoother finish and you will thank me later. To protect our smooth, newly finish on the seat, we cut plastic to fit over the seat. Then taped it off tightly so when using the paint sprayer, no paint would find its way onto the seat.
After we bought the paint sprayer, we decided to buy the Zinsser BIN Primer. As stated by the Rustoleum chalk paint can, this prevented ‘stain bleed through’. We switched from chalk paint to Valspar Pristine matte interior and color matched to the chalk paint. After the chairs had 2 coats of paint (remember, we have 2 young boys) over the primer, our project was finally finished.
So in conclusion, I’d go with a paint sprayer if you have intricately designed chairs. I’d steer clear of chalk paint if you aren’t used to using it. Use primer, no matter what you choose.
I am soooo thankful that we are finished with this project. I’m glad to have my husband back in the evenings and weekends. We were planning to paint our kitchen cabinets next, but that will be postponed until the Spring. Then we can paint spray outside and it will most likely go faster with curing. We are ready for a break. So stay tuned!
Have a great weekend,
