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Old Lake George is on Faire

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Mistakes Happen

by | Aug 31, 2016 | DIY, New Products | 3 comments

I made a little mistake yesterday, but before we get into that let me tell you the story of what I did right!

Wade and I ran to Menards for a few different sanding materials. We bought four different grades of 3M sandpaper, a 60, a 80, a 100 and a 220 grit. Most of the time, 60 or 80 is a good grade of sandpaper to start with.

Note to self: Always sand with the grain of the wood, otherwise you could create an unnatural pattern.

For this project I started with the 60 grit sandpaper because the table had pretty deep scratches that needed to come out.

This easily removed the scratches and all of the stain. When sanding, you always start with the lowest numbered grade and move higher and higher. Before moving onto the next highest grade make sure to wipe the table off with a slightly damp rag to remove all the sawdust.

After the table was a smooth as a baby’s bottom, I applied the pre-stain.

A pre-stain is a wood conditioner that prevents blotches while staining.  After it had dried, I started staining.

Instead of your usual liquid stain I chose a gel stain for this table.

Why you may ask? Because I like to try new things. Simple as that.

I can’t really say that I loved one type of stain better than the other, but it was fun to try something new.

While the stain dried, I decided to freshen up the paint on the legs. Not because it was in terrible condition, but because it had yellowed a bit over time. Like all the other pieces I paint, I once again used Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint this time in the color Linen. Unlike my other pieces, I could tell this table had a thick layer of polyurethane on it.

Here’s where the big mistake comes in. I didn’t add a bonding agent to my paint before using it. This basically makes it a primer and a paint all in one. I have never used a bonding agent before merely because I haven’t needed a primer.

I should have known better this time.

Without the bonding agent, the new coat of paint bubbled, dried and flaked off.

Boo.

So now you can guess what my project for tomorrow will be! I am going to have to sand the bubbled paint off, and repaint it using the bonding agent this time.

Saturday’s blog will show you how I (hopefully) learned from my mistake. I also have an exciting event coming up! I can’t wait to tell you about it!

~Wendy