Are You Thinking of Spray Painting a Table?

Are You Thinking of Spray Painting a Table?

Did you see a side table someone was throwing out, but it didn’t quite match your style? Go grab it anyways and just paint it! Well not so fast, it’s not always as easy as it seems. There are a few things that go into painting furniture that most people don’t think of. Like where you’re painting, when you’re painting and how much time you’re taking. Are you using spray paint or bucket paint?

Here’s a project someone did where they used spray paint and had some…sticky…results.

The project came out great, and really adds that pop of color the DIY’er was looking for. The only problem is the top of the table is a little sticky and doesn’t seem to dry out no matter how long he waits. Days, weeks it could take forever! And the reason is pretty straight forward, essentially if you paint a piece of furniture (spray or bucket) you have to make sure it completely dries before painting a second coat and third coat. If you don’t let the undercoat dry all the way it will essentially try and push the moisture up through the top coat which causes that sticky or tacky feeling. The best time to do a project like this is on a warm dry day or inside if you have that option. This person painted this table when it was a little chilly out and some moisture in the air and so now the tacky top has messed things up.

One solution I’ve come across was to sprinkle the top of the table or the tacky surface with baby powder, spreading evenly across the surface. Let that sit for about an hour if possible. Once the powder has set, vacuum it all up! This, done a few times will pull all the moisture from the surface. I haven’t tried it yet, but have come across the answer a number of times.

One blog had a nice step by step for painting which you can check out right here.