Can you paint without sanding and if so, which type of paint will work on which
surfaces? Hi guys my name is Belle and welcome back to Hampton Your House. I
know times are super rough all over the world right now and most people, like us,
are staying at home and doing their social distancing. I just wanted to say I
hope you and your family are well and I hope that my channel can bring some joy
and help keep your mind off things for a while. Now I get lots of questions about
painting and which type of paints you can use for which surfaces and can you
paint furniture without sanding? So I thought I would test out a few options
so we can all see what works and what doesn't.
I'm actually going to do a second test at the end too, to try and make this as
comprehensive as possible, so make sure you watch all the way to the end for
that one. But first, my channel is all about bringing the Coastal Hamptons vibe
to your house one DIY project at a time, so if that sounds like fun to you, I
would love to have you subscribe to my channel by clicking the red button and
the notification bell below. Here's the plan: no sanding, test with primer and
without, test normal Dulux paint and chalk paint, test laminate, Ikea furniture,
fresh wood and previously-painted wood. Here are the four surfaces I'm going to
test today - a laminate chest of drawers; an IKEA Lack side table, which sadly lost
one leg when my boys were playing one day; a piece of fresh, unpainted wood and
a small footstool that has been previously painted with a glossy dark
stain.
First, I need to wipe all the surfaces clean with a damp cloth and let them dry.
So here goes! For the sake of this test I'm not sending anything, but I'm
applying a plastic spray primer to two sections of the laminate and the IKEA
table and a white water-based primer-sealer-undercoat to two sections of the
wood surfaces.
I left those to dry as per instructions, and now I'm going to start with the
chalk paint, both on a section with primer and a section without. As you can
see the consistency of the chalk paint is very thick. Right now I'm painting the
side with the plastic spray primer. And this is the side with no prep at all. So
far this paint seems to give very good coverage. Here goes chalk paint on the IKEA
Lack table, first on the side with primer, then on the side without. Here's the
plain wood. On this, the chalk paint went on so much more smoothly with the primer
and didn't seem to soak in as much, so it seems if you're trying to conserve your
chalk paint, I think I'd be a good idea to use primer or undercoat with fresh,
unpainted wood. And I'm just putting the chalk paint on
the footstool - on the primer side, and then straight on to the previous glossy
paint with no prep work. Now I'm going to do the normal white Dulux Aquanamel. With
this normal paint I'm getting a slightly streakier finish than I was expecting,
but I'm pretty sure it's because this paint brush isn't quite as good as my
other one, so it's a good lesson to make sure you get a really high quality paint
brush - you'll definitely see the difference if you do.
Now it's back to the beginning again for a second coat of paint on everything.
I've decided to put this light satin varnish on half of each chalk paint test
area, because another question I often see is, do you need a topcoat for chalk
paint? The Dulux paint doesn't require a topcoat, but you could always put one on
if you wanted to. So now that we've finished all the coats and they're dry, it's time to
test each surface with some everyday items to see how well they hold up.
Starting with the laminate chest of drawers, chalk paint with primer and
gloss topcoat passed the fingernail scratch test, but without the topcoat, I
scratched some paint off. Both sides did okay with the lego man test, keys made a
few light surface marks, but when I dropped a metal milk jug on it, both
sides got chipped. On the chalk paint with no prep side, my fingernail
instantly scratched the chalk paint with no topcoat, but on the section with the
gloss topcoat, it survived fingernails and Lego man, but chipped when I dropped
the keys onto it.
So the side with primer and topcoat is the winner! Both sides of the normal
Dulux paint survived the fingernail test, and the lego man didn't chip any paint
but he did leave a few blue marks on the surface.
The keys didn't chip the paint on either side, they just left surface marks but
the metal jug drop made a big chip in the side without primer, and a small chip
on the side with primer.
Now moving on to the IKEA Lack side table. The first thing to strike out here
was the chalk paint with no prep and no topcoat to the fingernail test, followed
shortly by the chalk paint with primer and no topcoat to the lego man test, as
to the sample without prep and with topcoat.
Surprisingly the chalk paint with primer and topcoat did very well, with both the
key test and the jug test - only some slight surface scuffs, but no chips. With
the normal white paint, the side without primer fell to the lego man, and the side
with primer got a few surface scuffs from the keys, and the paint chipped
with the metal jug.
The fresh, unpainted wood did very well with all test areas - just a few surface
scuffs and the paint didn't chip at all, but the lego man, the keys and the jug
all dented the wood quite a lot, so that's something to watch out for.
And the previously painted wooden footstool survived the fingernails and
the Lego man, but the paint chipped in all test areas when I threw my keys at
it. I think from these tests we can safely say that most surfaces, especially
laminates or IKEA furniture, will hold paint better if you use a primer first
and a top coat to finish it off. And then of course just don't throw a metal jug
at it! But how these surfaces would stand up over a long period of time, I'm not
sure, so my advice would be, the more prep steps you can do, the better. So I really
wanted to do one more quick test on the laminate and the IKEA Lack table, and
that was to see if sanding first, then primer, then paint, then topcoat would
make a difference. And here's how that little test went. I did about five
minutes of sanding with my orbital sander. You could easily do this by hand
instead.
I wiped it clean, then went over the surface with white vinegar, to help
eliminate any oils that could be on the surface. You could also use rubbing
alcohol, or something similar. Once that was all dry, I added my primer, two coats
of paint and then the top coat, which I also added on top of the normal white
paint this time, just to try it out. Now
for the testing. I have to say these surfaces definitely feel the most solid
and durable. They hold up to the fingernail test and the Lego man test
really well, and even with the key test, there were only some very tiny marks on
both surfaces.
So I'd say these definitely hold up to normal everyday wear and tear the best
out of all the tests I've done, but of course as always, the metal jug took some
chunks out, so guys, I'm afraid with any painted surface, just handle with care.
Overall, I think it's possible to paint these surfaces without sanding and they
will hold up better if you use a topcoat, but if you want the paint to have the
very best chance of sticking to your surface, I would definitely recommend
that you sand it first, then use a primer, then two coats of paint, then a topcoat. I
don't think anyone wants to go to all the effort of painting something, only to
discover that the paint chips off really easily, so preparation really is key, and
it really doesn't take too long. Now of course there are quite a lot of
variables when it comes to an experiment like this, for example different brands
of paints or primers might work better or worse than others, so when in doubt,
definitely get the advice of someone from your local hardware store, because
they can help you with specific advice about specific products, or the type of
surface that you're planning on working with. If you've found a great product or
method that you would like to share, I would love for you to leave it in the
comments below, and let me know your experience with painting different
surfaces. I hope this video has been helpful and inspiring, and if nothing
else, I hope it's been a distraction from all the bad news in the world right now.
If you enjoyed this video, I would love for you to give it a thumbs up,
don't forget to subscribe to Hampton Your House and check out my other videos
for more fun DIYs, stay safe and healthy, and I'll see you again in my next video.
Bye guys.