We've received so many questions about our Wagner Paint Sprayer that we decided we needed to dedicate a series of posts on how to use a paint sprayer to refinish furniture. I could never go back to brushing our paint on all of the pieces we refinish. Not only does it make painting easier and faster, it also creates that smooth even finish you see in stores.
Today we're giving you all the super secret details of how to protect all of your surfaces, both inside and outside as well as the area where you're spraying.
This is such an important step to making sure each piece looks clean and crisp, inside and out; as well as making sure your work area stays unpainted.
No matter what piece you're working on, it's always best to have some sort of barrier on the ground. Not only do we usually want to protect the ground from over spray, we really NEED to protect the finish from getting dirt and debris all over in it. This is especially important since the paint sprayer can easily blow up dirt that will stick to the fresh wet paint. We typically use shower curtains from the dollar tree for just this. You really can't beat that price especially when they need to be thrown away after a few uses. Then we place a few scrap pieces of wood around the border to keep the shower curtain from flying away in the wind. Super simple and easy! We've also used broken down large cardboard boxes as well.
After a bit of trial and error we found the best way to protect the inside from over spray. All it takes is a bit of painters tape and either pre-taped plastic (brown paper or newspaper works great too.) First, make sure all hardware is removed, including the door hinges.
Pre-taped plastic and painter's tape
1) When working with drawers we start by grabbing a piece of painters tape that is the same width of the drawer and stick it onto the backside of the drawer front. It needs to go from one side of the drawer to the other and stick up above the drawer at least a half inch. 2) Then using the pre-taped plastic, we wrap the sides and top of each drawer while bending that first piece of tape back so the sticky sides of both tapes come together. 3) This creates a seal so the paint can't over spray inside of the dresser. 4) We then unfold the plastic, and let it drape down each side and the backside. Completely covering the top and sides of the drawer.
Once each drawer is completely wrapped up, we push the drawers back into the furniture and get ready to paint. For us this is the best option because it leaves the inside of the dresser paint free (as it should be) and it saves on space. When we didn't put the drawers back into the furniture we would then have to use more shower curtains, more backyard space and it would kill my back to bend over to paint each and every drawer. We tried setting the drawers up on buckets or boxes, but then we had to drag out even more supplies each time we needed to paint, and it was just a huge pain.
When each drawer is taped like this we are able to open the drawers up just enough to reach the top and sides (or right around the drawer openings on the furniture body) while spraying. A lot of times we leave all the drawers closed until we have full coverage everywhere else, and then open up the drawers just enough to get the places that were missed. Depending on the style, the drawer fronts either slide in completely, blocking the top and sides of the drawer fronts from paint; or the drawer fronts hit the furniture, blocking the area right behind the drawer fronts from paint. We have to make sure those areas get full coverage.
If you haven't taped like the pictures above then the paint sprayer will over spray the paint into the drawer by slipping in between the tape and drawer front. That's why the first piece of tape is so important!
When working with cabinet spaces that we don't want to paint, we tape off all the edges with plastic or paper and make sure that there aren't any holes or cracks where the over spray can get through. Most of the time though, we end up painting the inside of the cabinets to match the outside finish.
You'll be so glad you took a little bit of extra time to make sure you protect your finish and furniture to make your sprayed finish look even more professional.
Next time we'll go over how to correctly use the spray gun to ensure an even finish. I know - FINALLY we get to start painting!!
And for your pinning pleasure we created this quick guide! Happy pinning!
If you wonder what paint sprayer we use and why we LOVE it visit Part One of the Paint Sprayer Series!We also cover what paint to use and how to thin it out!!
