A Quick Guide To Priming/Painting

Every now and again  I will make an item for a customer who wants to paint/oil the said item themselves, so I find myself giving advice for doing so. Which made me think, what a good blog topic.
​So here it is.................

1. The key to priming and painting in general is a clean dust free work area and and the same goes for the item you are painting, always use a vacuum where practical (preferably a vacuum that has a decent filtration system which will not blow all the really fine dust particles back out of the vent of the vacuum making the vacuum a fine dust pump, not good) as opposed to a broom or dust pan and brush, because brooms and brushes will flick the finer dust particles into the air and sooner or later they seem to jump onto what you’ve spent an hour painting or are about to paint.
2. If you need to use masking tape, always spend a little more on a decent roll, at least 38mm wide or wider if practical. Never leave masking tape on the job for any longer than necessary, this is the main reason I advise to buy a quality roll. The better quality masking tapes will usually have a ‘release’ window of about 2 weeks (cheaper tapes much less) and if you do leave the tape on for too long, it can be a pain to scrape off.  
3. Always use a good quality primer, I generally use Zinsser Bulls Eye 123
   (http://www.decoratingdirect.co.uk/viewprod/z/ZINBE/)
   which I have found to be excellent for priming just about anything.
4. A decent brush is absolute must.
5. I would usually decant some paint out of the tin (especially if there is a lot of painting to do) into a suitable (preferably sealable) container. This ensures your new paint stays fresh and uncontaminated, also if you were to drop/spill your paint, you can feel slightly better in the knowledge that you didn't waste all of it.
6. Keeping all of the above in mind, you are now ready to…..yep...paint.
7. Another important point, when priming/painting/varnishing/oiling you want to aim for a consistent, even coat of whatever you’re applying, so no thin areas and no overly thick areas of paint.
8. When applying your paint you want to run your brush up and down in line with the grain of the timber, or if you painting mdf or something similar your brush strokes should follow the longest edge. So if you were painting a simple cupboard door, you would use horizontal brush strokes on the top and bottom rails and on the left and right stiles you would paint vertically, also vertically on the central panel.
9. If you're painting a larger area, start by brushing the paint 90° to the direction that you want the brush strokes to finish, but make sure you do finish the whole area in the same direction. This will help you to get an even, consistent layer of paint.
10. When priming mdf, you will find the edges require a fair bit of primer and some elbow grease to ‘work’ the primer into the mdf nice and even.
11. Once the primer has cured, you will find that the surface of the material has lifted a little and so feels quite rough. This will need a light sand with 240 grit sandpaper, you will need to sand a prime coat a little more than a top coat to remove this roughness. But be careful not to sand down to the bare material, especially on the corners.
12. After vacuuming all surfaces, preferably with a brush attachment, you're ready to apply a top coat.
13. Apply the top coat, 2 coats should be enough but you may need 3. An 38mm wide brush will be ideal for most situations but a 50mm brush is better for larger areas.
14. After the first coat (paint must be thoroughly dry, usually about 24 hours, but check the tin for this information) lightly sand the painted surface with some 240 grit sand paper. Nothing more than a light sand though, just 2 or 3 strokes of the sandpaper over all surfaces.
15. VERY important, make sure after lightly sanding, you use a vacuum to remove any dust from all surfaces, I usually use a brush attachment to do this. Also vacuum the work area you are going use for painting.
16. Apply the second top coat. If you need a third coat, repeat steps 14 & 15 first.

Hope this helps.

http://www.zinsseruk.com/how-to-guide/   A useful resource.
http://www.zinsseruk.com/product/perma-white-interior/   The paint I use for top coating.

Thats about it.