Things to Know Before Painting or Staining !!

Lately I've been working on some renovation projects that were involving paint and stain and I thought I would give some tips for the people who want to get some professional results !!


I will give you guy's a concrete example of how you have to improvise when comes time to fix a little problem that comes along the way !!

I had to install some 2" thick corner shelves in my baby's room and they are almost identical to the ones you can buy at IKEA !! Here's the hitch !! They where to go into a 12" wall offset and I couldn't get them to sit square, so I decided to use painted tape to avoid the edges from chipping and cut them on my 12" sliding miter saw !! Everything went well until I hit a staple and a chip the size of my small nail flew off the to edge of the shelve !!

To fix the chip I had to first use Dex a pink type of filler that dries white when ready to sand the patch and also to put a small amount of primer on the repair to allow the new paint to bond properly to the surface !! One thing to remember, when you are painting or staining something, you should always prepare the surface by lightly sanding it with the proper grit and to get the best result possible I strongly advise to prime any surface before !! After that I just had to use a 400 grit sandpaper to scuff the surface a little bit and roll the top of the shelve with a 4" foam roller !! If you want to get the closest match possible and the right finish for your paint I suggest you go to the closest hardware or paint store where they can actually scan the shelve and get you the right finish for it !!

I also had to stain a maple crown molding to match the color of existing kitchen cabinets !! First, you should lightly sand the wood to make the staining process easier and to help the stain spread evenly across the wood surface !! After that it's a matter of preferences, but you can use a stain rag, a cheese cloth, a natural bristle or foam brush !! If, for any reason, you are experiencing difficulties spreading the stain evenly, the foam brush would probably be your best bet !! The only thing to remember with stain, is that this can't be applied thick like paint, otherwise the wood grain will disappear and it will look messy !! The other thing that you have to be careful with is to start from one end, following the grain and to use even strokes !! After theses few coats of stain are totally dry, the last thing to do is to seal the stain with a couple coats of Varathane and not to forget to sand between coats to remove the imperfections !!

I hope that theses little tips are gonna help and again if you have any questions let me know !!