Help! Shit furniture paint has ruined my chest of drawers! (Pics)

[StripytopandJordans]

We have had this chest of drawers in the family for decades. It was looking a bit tired so I got some wood furniture paint, did two coats and it’s total shit- lumpy, with brush strokes. Shit finish. I’ve painted wood furniture before and its always looked lovely.

how do I sort it out? Sand it a bit for a shabby chic look? Paint over the top with a better quality paint?!

How long did you leave it to dry before the second coat?! That does look crap.

yea sand it as flat as you can, but you may need to sand it all off tbh as otherwise you’ll just get lumps where the edges of sanded and not sanded join.

@RoyKentsChestHair about four hours. It was completely dry.

I think you’ll have to sand most of it off to get a flat surface. I always use woodwork paint not furniture paint as I had a furniture paint disaster once

Don’t paint over it again without properly sanding it back it will look even worse. I don’t think you can pull off shabby chic by sanding it either. If you want to keep the furniture it’s going to need, sanding, prepping and doing again. How did you prep it to start?

If you could sand it so it is back to smooth - I've used this Frenchic furniture paint - it is chalk paint so no undercoat and you just need a top coat. Dead easy!

On you tube there are loads of videos how to use it - quite often where possible with a roller so no brush strokes.
Frenchic and if you look at This page you can see loads of ideas etc of turning it into a WOW piece of furniture quite easily

Technically Chalk paint can be put on any surface without prep, but obviously in your case you need to try to smooth the area abit first

Was it Rustoleum? I had exactly the same problem; ended up sanding back and using a non-chalk furniture paint.

Is the paint off?? It looks kind of congealed.

I would sand it all off, apply a coat of zinsser BIN primer, leave to cure then retry with a new paint.

Did you sand it first ? Don't think it's the paint , it's the prep!

What paint did you use @StripytopandJordans ? I have two chests of drawers I want to paint white and have bought Annie Sloan chalk paint but have never painted furniture before and bit scared in case it ends up like this (sorry!). Did you sand before at all as the Annie Sloan instructions say no need to?
I would suggest that you sand this all back down and if you look at the Annie Sloan website, she gives video tips for how to get shabby chic look and other finishes.

I use Rust-Oleum chalky furniture paint with consistently good results, however the key to this seems to be adding a splash of water and stirring thoroughly if applying in warm/hot conditions.
I really enjoy the lack of preparation required (although there are still some surfaces that seem to need a land sanding to provide a key for adhesion).

*light sanding!

I always sand first, even when the paint/primer claims you don't need to.

You needed a small smooth roller.

... just to add (and sorry to criticise, OP, but I hope it'll be constructive!), half of the problem is that you've loaded the brush with too much paint and you've applied the paint against the grain of the wood.

You'll achieve much better paint finish results, whatever paint you use, by brushing with the grain of the wood and by putting less paint on your brush. Harris paint brushes are nice as they have fine bristles which enable a nice light and even application. Aim for two coats (perhaps with a light sand in between), rather than one thick one.

Did you sand it down before you started?

If you're doing it again, take the knobs off first, use a roller on the drawer fronts. Paint knobs separately ☺️

Very good advice re removing the knobs if possible! It makes such a difference, better finish and a much less fiddly job.

@Phyllis321 yes it was bloody Rustoleum! I painted it straight on. I used Crown Eggshell before straight away and that was a lovely finish.

Thirding the advice to take the knobs off. I’d replace them completely with some different ones honestly. Painted knobs never look that great.

Did you use chalk paint? It can go like this if it’s been stored somewhere hot or with fluctuating temperature, or it can be old paint. I’ve had the same result and I think the Annie Sloan paint I bought was old stock that hadn’t been stored correctly. I dug some old stuff out of the shed that I should have thrown away and it came out the same.

@Maytodecember yep I did. You could well be right. Now got hours of miserable sanding and repainting to do 😡

I really dislike chalk paint, I've had it look like this even proper Annie Sloan stuff. I find it hard work with and very unforgiving. Wilko furniture paint is good!

I should also add the good news is it normally sands off very easily as its powdery. So I would sand it smooth and start again with something else. A small foam roller is better than a brush for flat surfaces I find.

That's going to need quite a bit of sanding back!

I've tried both Annie sloan chalk paint and vintro. Wasn't kean on Annie sloan as the finish was quite brush stokey and it needed the faff of wax to finish.

Vintro is FANTASTIC. Its expensive, but I bit the bullet and bought it as I wanted a particular colour. It's very self levelling, dries lovely and flat, goes a long way, doesn't need waxing and seems to be hard wearing.