August 2 2019

God Winks While Painting a Cherry Side Board

Cherry can be a tough mutha to paint because of the rich tannin and stain that lay in and on the wood. Painting it Lamp Black would save a lot of time (and GF Stain Blocker Primer) however . . . the top is not in bad shape. This means there is a chance for a natural top and a painted body. That goal is worth the extra effort I think.

The Plan

This piece is going to take a lot of paint! This inside of the storage space is butt ugly! A previous owner slopped some nasty dark and runny stain/urethane in there. It’s simple but awkward to paint them nice and clean for the next owner. And, I happened to have some paint that almost perfectly matches the color I’m using for the outside body. ‘God winks’ like to affirm my plan is on the right track so far.

The top is sanded down to take off the top layer but not into the base wood. Just enough is sanded off to remove watermarks and other wear defects. It’s now a beautiful piece of wood. Due to the large amount of natural red color, she’s going to be hard to stain Java/Expresso that I’m going for. I learned in GF Training to approach staining by color building. So, I grabbed two colors I had on-hand: Chestnut brown and Ebony. Starting with brown and ending with two coats of black, making sure each coat dried over night first. Results: it worked and another “God wink”!

For the body, I went for a light neutral color. Again, the stars and moon lined up when I spotted GF Chapin Gray Chalk Paint on-hand already. Perfect for going with a dark top. I am nervous about tannin bleed through but I use two coats of GF Stain Blocker, just like I know I should. Two coats of the Chapin Gray, two coats HP Flat Top Coat and guess what?! No bleed through and the third ‘God wink’ of this project!!! I should have never doubted.