Shellac Then BOSS for Some Prime Savings

For the past 3 years, I’ve been using white oil based primer on almost all of my furniture painting projects. (See Primer Comparison post). But I kept running into a design problem. White oil based primer prevents from doing any kind of finish distressing – except for white painted pieces. Distressing dark painted pieces is impossible with white primer underneath.
So I’ve started using one coat Clear Boss Primer for it’s terrific adhesion properties on dark paint color pieces like black. I am liking it a lot. Clear Boss goes on silky smooth, dries level without brush ridges plus a little goes a long way. But, TWO COATS of expen$ive BOSS are required to block tannin, a requirement for light and medium paint colors. For those projects, I revert back to the inexpensive one-coat white oil-based primer until now.
Wanting the flexibility to distress any color paint project AND spend less money than the required two coats of BOSS lead me to give this a try.
First Prime Coat Clear Based Shellac

This product cheaply takes care of the tannin problem. It’s an easy Ammonia water clean up, dries level without brush stroke ridges BUT as discussed in my earlier blog, it can produce an unwanted paint crackle or two.
Second Prime Coat Clear BOSS

1 single coat of CLEAR BOSS on top of Shellac takes care of it’s adhesion weakness.
It’s My New Standard Prime Method

I LOVE the results. I choose not to distress sand this piece but at least I had the option if I wanted. No tannin bleed through (and this is cherry wood), brush stroke ridges greatly reduced and it’s CLEAR enabling me to finish distress any time I want. Plus both products glide on quickly and easily. Plus Plus easy clean up with ordinary ammonia for the Shellac and soap/water for the BOSS. I’m kicking the can of oil-based primer to the curb!