Being a bit of a klutz as well as absentminded, I’ve always dreaded painting. Still, I managed to paint the walls and ceilings of our last house. That, it turns out, was a piece of cake compared to painting an Adirondack chair. While I may get a stiff neck and sore muscles from painting a ceiling, it’s still just a big, flat expanse. Tedious but simple to paint.
But a chair adds a third dimension–and what a pain in the neck *that* was! I kept the brush on the dry side but still had problems with the paint pooling and leaving thick areas around edges and in crevices.
What is the trick to applying an even layer of paint to a chair? I’m wondering if I should have used some kind of sprayer instead of a brush.
Janet
Replies
Instruction in proper technique. Practice, practice, practice.
The first you can get from "Understanding Wood Finishing" by Flexner or "Great Wood Finishes" by Jewitt. The practice you have to do yourself.
In a summer job years ago in a boatyard, I had probably 10-12 hours of instruction over a weeks period interspersed with practise and then critique. It was two weeks or so before I was let onto a customer's boat and not until the end of the summer was I able to do a decent job varnishing a transom.Howie.........
Edited 5/26/2004 8:28 pm ET by Howie
You're not cheaping out on the brush, are you? To do a good job you must have a fairly good quality brush, better than middle quality.
Are you trying to cover in too few coats? Paint has to be applied not too thickly. When properly applied it won't cover in one coat.
Or another possible problem is using a natural bristle brush with a water based paint. It won't work.
Not as much as I do... Painting is an exercise in castrophe..
Says the Blue Saphire Massacare...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming....
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Edited 5/26/2004 8:29 pm ET by IMERC
ROTFLMHO (AKTC)!!! Great story!!
Janet, I'm lucky, having many of my Great Uncle's brushes. They are so experieced and well trained that I merely whisper the magic incantation and they get right to work. ;-)
Good brushes are important to achieving good results. If you want superior results, well superior brushes will help, LOL. This is true in spades for varnish, tho there are those who swear by foamy brushes, I dislike them intensely for such work. The right size bruhes are equally important. Paint edges first, then paint the flat (wider portion). Paint to corners, not away from them. If one paints away from outside corners, that sharp 90-degree edge will tend to strip the paint from the brush, causing runs and drips, etc.
If I were making a chair like that I'd consider painting the bits before assembly, finishing all the surfaces but for the ones the fastners were being driven through. Those surfaces I'd probably just prime and maybe one coat of color. Do the final coat(s) on those surfaces after the chair is assembled.
Nice project. Adirondack chairs on a porch, overlooking a lake - it doesn't get much better than that!
Imerc,
Priceless story, that can't be topped, Thanks!
DWREAD,
I have to agree with the other posters. Expensive brushes and paint. Huge difference compaired to the cheap stuff. Sanding early coats makes a smoother final coat. And a final question, Do you drink? :o)
Enjoy, Roy
I thought I had some painting stories but that is number 1 of all time! Unbelievable if it were not true.
The first paying paint job I took on when I was 19 went like this; I was painting a staircase wall and needed a support on the stairs. Naturally I used the extra five-gallon bucket to hold up the 8' ladder leg with the other leg on the tread. Low and behold as I was on it it all gave way and I watched with horror as the 5 gallon bucket full of paint went tumbling down the stairs. By some miracle, the bucket did not explode, and the day was saved. But that was the last time I rigged up a ladder like that.
That system seems to work for everybody but us...
ROAR!!!
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming.... WOW!!! What a Ride!
Loved the story, took me an hour to get my laughter under control enough to read any more of the replys.
Scott T.
Great story. I busted a gut reading it.
Frank
Janet,
a sprayer is your answer. the better the sprayer the better your results but when working with something like a slatted chair you'd be amazed at how much easier it is..
practice a bit to get the hang of it and borrow somebodies sprayer and compressor if you only rarely do pieces..
If you are here In the twin cities I'll show you the techniques if you'd like..(wear grubby clothes)
Ditto the comments on good brushes. How do you tell the good from the mediocre? Price = quality. It really is that simple.
I prefer a 2" sash brush (bristles cut an an angle), which will help you navigate the crevices.
For this type of project, I would also call on my supply of cheap, flat artist's brushes -- 1/2" or 3/4" wide. Great for pulling pooled up paint from corners.
Find somebody (or a book) that can teach you the concept of "tipping off." This is just a light quick pass over a just painted surface to spread the paint evenly and remove any excess (that might later run or sag).
As many others have written, good brushes and good paint. $ = quality, if you're lucky. I'd like to give one more tip, one that Norm coaxed from an italian painter of few words on This Old House a number of years ago.
Before you put the brush into the paint, soak it in the solvent for the paint (water, paint thinner, alcohol, whatever) and shake it free of excess liquid. Then paint.
If you don't do this, the dry bristles at the top of the brush absorb solvent when the paint first hits and brushes develop a dry stiff band at the top that consists of hardened paint. If you wet with solvent first and clean immediately when done, your good brush should live to be a prized old friend.
Good point. Standard practice, at least once upon a time. As for old friend, many of my brushes are between 50 and 100 years old...
They're old brushes and I don't recall the brand--Corona or Purdy--but since we were preparing the house for sale, I went for the high-end.
I used Kilz primer. The paint is a house brand from Ace Hardware. Hm....
Also added some Floetrol. Was that a mistake?
"Also added some Floetrol. Was that a mistake?"
Not, IMHO, if you were using a water-base paint. I'd use an oil-base for that application, and I'm a big fan of Penetrol, Flood's additive for oil-base paints. Are these chairs going with the house? I can't imagine too many (with maybe two exceptions, and the other is related to me, LOL) even noticing the paint job on those chairs, if that is the case.
It has been about six weeks since I painted the chair with "Kilz 2" primer and Ace Hardware's paint. Now brownish stains are bleeding through the paint! Should I have used a different primer?
Janet
After the Kilz, I would have used whatever primer is recommended for the Ace paint you chose.
What kind of wood is the chair made from?
My guess is pine--but I don't know woods that well.
Janet
If it is pine, the Kilz would have blocked off any oozing sap streaks, etc. , and itself functioned as an adequate primer.
What kind of shape was the chair in when you applied the Kilz? Was the chair newly made? Any dirt on it? Did you do any kind of sanding before painting?
Is the Ace paint oil or latex? How many coats did you put on?
Are the brown spots in just one or two places, or all over the piece? Were the brown spots apparent right away (within a day), or did it take longer for them to develop? Did they come after the piece was rained on?
Do they seem to be coming through the Ace paint (i.e. another coat of paint might cover them up)?
I'm pretty much stumped here; what you did should have worked fine (on pine). Maybe we can puzzle it out with answers to the above questions.
Nikki,
This chair came from a chain store and was listed in their sale flyer. They still sell the chair so it wasn't a closeout. I'm guess that my chair was part of a large shipment ordered for the sale, and was fairly new.
It was clean but cheaply made, so I sanded it before applying the Kilz. The paint was Ace's "Royal" line: Satin Porch & Floor 100% acrylic latex enamel. Light sanding between the first two coats. Because of the puddling, some faces required resanding and a third, very thin coat. But I can't remember which parts got the third coat.
It was over a month before I saw stains, and there was no rain (southern California). There are just a few stains, and another thin layer of paint took care of them, but I expect they'll just resurface.
It was manufactured in China, if that tells you anything. I can't swear it's pine, much less identify the species. The only woods I know at sight are oak (because I don't like its patterning) and maple (love it).
Janet
Any chance the brown stains are from nails used to hold the bits together? If they only appear where two pieces of wood overlap, that would seem to indicate that "bleeding" from nails is the cause.
Using non-galvinized nails would promote rust, that could, in turn, work up through the paint.
Well, I hate to admit it, but I am completely stumped.
If the chair was made in China, it is doubtful the wood was pine -- more likely a speciies from the luan/meranti family.
By all rights, no matter what the wood, the Kilz should have sealed it off and completely eliminated any bleed-through stains.
I am not familiar with the Ace line of paints, and the only thing I could suggest is that you examine the can to see if they insist on a particular kind of primer. If they do, you could sand the chair once again, apply the primer, and another top coat.
You could/should also talk to somebody at Ace. I think you have done all the right things, and they owe you an explanation of why their paint is failing.
Sorry for all the hassle............
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