Primer: What's the deal?
It’s a big deal!
Priming is a great step to take virtually any time you are painting a piece of furniture. You gotta do the steps to get the results!
Priming is important because:
it helps to level out the surface in case of imperfections (i.e. sand your piece, prime your piece, sand again with 220 grit, prime again for a flawlessly smooth and primed surface)
it provides a rougher texture for the paint adhere to the surface better
it is essential when going from dark to light in color
it blocks stains, knots in the wood, AND odors!
While you might be painting with a chalk or milk paint and think "I don't need to prime!" all I can say is, priming will almost never hurt. While chalk paint is notoriously sticky and able to adhere to lots of surfaces, primers have been around much, much longer than chalk paint and were literally designed for the purpose of sticking to a surface so that a top layer of paint will adhere and cover better.
Here are some situations when you should definitely use primer:
if you are going from a dark to a light color
if you’re working with a reddish or mahogany tone piece, which tends to bleed through white or light paints
when you have large knots in the wood that you want to hide
when there are musty smells
if you’re painting over old, lead-based paints
A gallon of good primer will only set you back about $25-30, and will last quite a while, so it’s definitely worth the investment. The absolute BEST primer you can buy (in my opinion) is Zissner BIN primer, a shellac-based primer (also available in spray cans here) Since it is shellac-based, it covers extremely, EXTREMELY well. Knots in wood? Gone! Going from black to white? Easy! This product is seriously amazing. However, just be warned that it’s slightly more expensive (around $50/gal), has a strong odor, and is slightly more tricky to cleanup. Always read the labels before you begin; this primer requires ammonia to clean up, so I’d recommend either using cheap foam brushes for application that you can throw away afterward, or grabbing some ammonia for $1 at the dollar store before you begin. If that all sounds like a bit too much for you, I recommend either Zissner 123 Water Based Primer (cheapest option across the board, also available in spray cans) or Zissner BIN Zero Primer, which is slightly more expensive than the 123 primer but has no VOC's and is better for the environment; it’s just harder to find (ACE Hardware usually has it). These two products are both water based, so they clean up very easily. They have both worked very well for me in the past, too.
And with that, go forth and create! Hopefully now you have a bit more of a grasp on what primer to use, when to use it, and how best to use it. If you have any questions, be sure to let me know!
As always, thanks for reading! Be sure to check back here for a new blog post each and every Friday! Stay tuned into fun updates, resource guides, the blog, and more by subscribing to my email list! Also, make sure you’ve joined the REAL party on Instagram, because I post even more beautiful transformations, tips, behind the scenes, and fun vintage finds almost every day! I’d love to see you over there ❤️
-Austin
