You ask, paint answers

You guys ask some great questions! I hope I give some good answers! ;) I did get a few questions about staining, which I have done, but don't do  a lot of; so I have tried to answer those as best as I can.

The Procrastinator Crafter  asked "How do you prime your furniture?

 I have an old piece of furniture- like lots of coats of paint. Should I strip everything then get started or should I just sand, prime and jump right in?"

Well. It depends. First, because as my husband will atest; I am a paranoid chemical/health freak. If a piece is painted and I am unsure about the age or the paint, I will do  a Lead test kit on them. I pick them up at Home Depot and it's normally under $6 for 2 tests. Why check for lead paint? Sanding lead paint for 30 seconds will contaminate an entire household and I have little kids. If it has lead paint,I would have it professionally stripped.

If it checks okay,then it depends on the finish I am going for. If I want  a really clean fresh look, I'll sand it to a really flat finish and prime/paint over it. Generally though, unless the paint is in bad shape, just jump in! The piece can be given a light scratch coat (sanding) on top to give it a little tooth just so the primer will stick, and then go right over the top. Some times if you are doing a distressed look, it's nice to have those under layers show through.

If you strip it, I do recommend using a really less toxic,green one, outside in a well ventilated area. Those chemicals can be nasty. And I am a paranoid sander too.. my neighbors get the full view of me in goggles, gloves and a mask. Pretty sexy.

Karyn asked  "I'm redoing my kitchen table and chairs. It's white and pine currently. I want to stain the top and chair seats a darker stain. And then do a cream color with brown glaze on the legs and backs. Any suggestions? Mostly I need to know about the finish. Varnish, wax, polyurethane? Gloss, satin? I have no idea. I want it to last with all the beating up it's going to get in the kitchen."

An oil base stain/finish is going to last longer, but takes longer to dry and STINKS. This is an outside perfect day, no wind project. Then do a few coats of non-yellowing polyurethane over the top. Oil base is the way to go for real durability in a satin or semigloss finish (I'm not  a high gloss kind of  a  girl). I would do the legs first , tape them off, the do the top. It'll be easier to touch up the legs than fix accidental paint on a newly stained top. Make sure when you do the top if there is a leaf that you have that in when you do the staining so it all matches.  

For the legs, I would use a satin cream color in latex or oil base, and top it with either General Finishes poly acrylic, or Minwax poly acrylic Satin finish for the appropriate finish. I have to admit though, I do some staining, but not a ton, so I wouldn't be an expert in that field.

Mrs. Tee asked (Gasp!... just kidding)  "...would you ever paint over an oak bed? It's not a pretty color of oak at all. I was thinking of painting it darker, but wondered if it would work or not."

My answer is.. I SO WOOD!  My mom and I have this discussion all of the time. Her view is it's a sin to paint over good wood. My argument is if you hate the color, it's not good wood. Would you wear a dress if the cut was great but the color made you look 20 years older? Believe me, this is an on going  "At home discussion". Yes Mother, again,it is time to paint that dark paneling.

Di asked " I have a coffee table I "rescued" and would love to refinish it. I believe the top is veneer, however. What I would like to do is stain it darker but still have the wood pattern show through. How do I do that?"

 I've never stained veneer so I am not sure. Have any of the other reader's out there ever stained veneer? I guess it would it depends on if it's real veneer or fake (plastic) veneer.  This might be a good question for  a local wood worker. Let me chat with my dudes' at my local Woodcraft and I'll get back to you. 

Southern Inspiration asked  "... I have a question about Etsy......is it just for handmade products and about how much time do you spend on it?"

I've seen hand-made products, vintage products, home decor and crafting supplies. I know a lot of the home decor is home made. The best thing to do is to look up what you are interested in selling and surf around Etsy a bit, see if there is anything like that there, otherwise look  at Ebay.   I find I spend about 20 minutes taking and editing photos, 15 minutes loading up 5 -8 items and about 10 minutes in the post office per sale. The real time for me comes with making things. For my art time, I try to do a mix of things that are quick and I charge less and things that take me longer, so there's a nice price range in the shop.Not including art time I spend about 2 hours a week. Not bad for  a part-time gig. If you are thinking about doing it I say why not? it's  20 cents and 3% to sell an item from your living room. If you are interested in sellingotehr stuff  not through Etsy; Paypal has an option on their upgraded account where you can embed  a Paypal button anywhere, so you could pretty much sell off of your blog if you wanted to.

Sun-kissed savages asked  "How long does each piece take you??" 

 It depends on the piece. 

The small blue table took me about 45 minutes start to finish, but I paint pretty fast (and really sloppy).. 

I have larger pieces like this armoire that have taken almost 13 hours.

Thank you guys for your fabulous questions! I hope I've helped you! I also have to give  a shout out to one of my favorite commenters, Teresa. Teresa, I have no way of responding back to you when you leave a comment, but I wanted to tell you you always leave the nicest ones and they are so appreciated!

Jen