Saturday, July 25, 2015

A Solution to Bleed Through on Your Furniture

I've posted several times on what I call "bleed" through on furniture. What is it? Why does it happen? What can you do to correct it when it happens? What does it look like?  I'm always looking for easier and better solutions to a problem when it comes to my projects. I tried a new product called Mylands Sealer recently that is the best product that I have found to stop the "bleeding". I must say it's the easiest, too. 



 What is "bleed" through? Bleed through occurs when you are painting a piece of furniture and you see spots start popping up and bleeding through the paint. Why does it occur?
There are two reasons this happens:
 1. The wood tannin's in certain woods will have stronger tannin's and they tend to bleed when you apply paint to them. Which woods? Mahogany, Cedar, and Cherry are the most famous for this problem.
2. The lacquer that was used on the furniture can also cause this problem. Most of the time if it's old lacquer or shellac on the furniture it will be more of a yellow brown bleed. I had not encountered this problem until this chest of drawers.

When I examined my chest of drawers I thought there would not be any bleeding because it was a light wood and light color. But I was wrong! This chest was a good example of "old" lacquer gone bad and when I started painting the drawers the bleeding started almost immediately.
What did I do? I took the Mylands and stirred it well and then applied one coat. I let it dry for four hours and then started painting my chest again and it looked great!
Below are pictures of the bleed through and how it looked prior to the Mylands Sealer and then after I applied the sealer. It was really easy to use and dried quickly and solved the problem.



 I used Angelic with a Weathered Wood Glaze and a Lacquer finish all by Paint Couture. The hardware was painted with Zinc Metallic Paint also by Paint Couture. You can find our products on our website www.freshjaspertexas.com and you can also email us if you want something shipped that is not currently listed.




Stop by Fresh from 9-5 every Friday, Saturday, and Monday for our help with your next DIY project. Don't forget we offer classes each month where we teach you how to use the paints and products. If you have questions about this post I welcome them! Have a wonderful week - Nancy