Gloss paint drying time question? Boring. Sorry.

[Yeeted]

I’ve just painted the mantelpiece and hearth of the fireplace. The mantel is gloss and the hearth satin finish. Googling how long to wait before putting things on the surfaces I’m confused between drying and curing times. It took 4 coats of gloss to cover the mantelpiece. Do I really need to wait a few weeks before putting ornaments and pictures and baskets etc back in place? TIA

Even if your mantelpiece is touch dry, ornaments etc could still mark it, so it does need to cure. As you've gone to all the bother of applying four coats of gloss paint, I'd leave it 3 or 4 weeks before putting it all back.

Thanks. Oh wow as long as that. I don’t want to ruin it so it’ll be worth the wait. I absolutely had no idea about this curing thing.

I painted a windowsill last week and put everything back on it the next day. It's fine.

What type of paint did you use Tricky?

Depends if it's oil or waterbased.

What does the tin say? 4 coats is quite a lot, did you give it enough time between coats? I’d probably give it a week at least to be honest. Otherwise you will probably find your ornaments will leave marks

Thanks I’ll wait a week and see what it’s like then. It’s oil based (stinks). It was a tin that had been opened and had splashes down so I couldn’t read the info. It was covering medium wood and seemed to need a lot of covering. It was the waiting for it to ‘cure’ that I read on google that made me wonder just how long I ought to give it before plonking anything back on.