Bl Working: PAINT BLEEDING midcentury table

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Does everyone remember the little mid century side table I picked up thrifting?

The plan was to spray it with a can of high gloss oil base white paint, however this was

also the perfect opportunity to show you ASCP can create a perfect white finish and teach

you a little trick of mine to deal with paint bleed.

I am referring to the strange browny red marks
that you might encounter while painting vintage furniture.

***

Your best defence to any problem is to understand what and why it happens.

What it is are OILS (tannins) leaching into your water based product and changing the color.

Why is because in these areas the wood is exposed and raw letting the oils come out.

Solution is simple ... you need to block/seal these areas locking in the tannin oils.

What I do is wax and repaint.

Wax is a good barrier against the oils and Annie Sloan Chalk Paint adheres to wax!

Alternatives are oil based paints, primers, and shellacs.

I know many ppl use Zinsser spray shellac, which I have used in the past to seal knots.

Not all woods bleed equally, pine for example generally doesnt give you too much issue

except for the knots. I find oak pretty easy going but mahogany can be just as bad as a red

shirt being thrown into a wash load of white underwear. Everything turns pink!

On this side table the original finish had been scratched and was starting to lift and flake off.

Consequently once my first coat of AS Pure White started to dry there were bleed spots all over.

*** OH THE HORROR!!! ***

If you look closely on the above photo you can see the entire face of the

drawers had a streaky bleed. In the upper right hand corner you

can also see a heavier line of bleed where it had been scratched.

Here is another area with heavy bleed, the bottom of a leg had

been banged around and the original finish was compromised

exposing the raw wood in tiny spots.

The same thing will happen if you sand an old finish and expose the raw wood. When I am dealing

with heavy bleed it sometimes takes 2 or 3 applications of wax and paint before it completely

diminishes, but in the case of the drawer faces it was one coat of wax and a second coat of paint.

NOTE:

TREAT THE PROBLEM AREAS ONLY!

and

LET YOUR WAX DRY (60 mins) BEFORE REPAINTING!

no buffing

You only have to treat the bleed you do not have to redo, repaint, re wax every inch of your project.

For example I had bleed coming through at the 3 seams where the angled trim attached

to the top but the rest of the surface was fine. I only waxed and repainted the seams.

*****

I hope this information helps you understand the problem so you can also solve it.

Good Luck with your projects and your bleed!