It may seem unnecessary to sand bare wood before painting, but stock lumber is often coated in a glaze to help protect it. Removing that coating will help the paint adhere. In addition, sanding opens the grain of the wood, which can also help with adhesion.
When preparing wood for stain, you'll need to sand its surface. Use a sanding sponge or orbital sander. Sandpaper with a lower grit number will make wood rougher, allowing more stain to absorb and creating a darker color. Start with 120-grit sandpaper for pieces that already have a finish.
While unfinished wood is cheaper than prefinished, you'll pay in time and money sourcing your stain and applying multiple layers. Does My Wood NEED to be Finished? The short answer is yes, absolutely. A proper finish helps seal the wood and protect it from elements like rain, sunlight, pest infestations, and dirt.
If your unfinished furniture does not come sanded, getting the surface to a smooth texture is best. It may be sufficient to sand with 150- to 220-grit sandpaper on an unfinished furniture piece, but consider using sanding sponges instead.
Shellac. In my opinion, shellac is the best natural wood finish for one main reason: it's the most protective natural finish on the market. Unlike other options, shellac forms a barrier on top of the wood, stopping water, dirt, and other things (*cough*crayon*cough) from reaching the pores of the wood.
And the answer is yes. Sometimes. Wood can be left unfinished if it won't encounter weather, water or significant handling. If your project is placed outside, will be somewhere wet, or will be used on a regular basis, then you should apply wood finish.
When learning how to paint unfinished furniture, it's important to acknowledge that preparation is the key to a good finish. As a result, you'll need to sand your piece in order to provide a smooth surface that will hold paint well.
Unfinished wood furniture means the piece of furniture has been put together by craftsman, but still needs a finish (such as stain or varnish) to be applied.
Since unfinished flooring is basically raw wood, it's like working with a clean slate. In contrast, prefinished flooring comes straight from the manufacturer with stain and several coats of finish already applied, so there's no changing it.
The Golden Rule of Sanding
The golden rule for choosing your sequence is to never skip more than 1 grit. For example, if you start with P80, and need to finish at P240, rather than using every grit from P80 – P220, you can do P80 – P120 – P180 – P240. This sequence cuts out P100, P150 and P220.
As a general rule, if you don't sand the wood before painting then the applied paint could peel off after a while. This will only happen, however, if the new paint was applied to an already painted or sealed surface. If the paint is applied directly to raw, untreated wood then sanding is not required.
Always sand down to clean wood (if you have enough meat left of the wood) before applying any stain. Look out for any swirl marks from orbital sanders which may be hard to see initially, but they will pop out like a sore thumb after you apply stain if you miss them.
If sanding is your least-favorite step, then it's certainly possible to paint furniture without sanding. But to do so with favorite results, you should clean the wood's surface AND use a high-quality primer and/or paint.
What happens if you don't prime bare wood is not pretty. Similar to new drywall, raw wood soaks up paint like a sponge. As a result, your surface will look blotchy since pores in the woodwork unevenly absorb the paint. More importantly, the painted wood will likely peel in two or three years without primer.
Unfinished wood should always be primed prior to painting. Primer, having high-solids content, helps fill in the wood grain and creates a smooth surface for the finish coat. Like the raw drywall, unfinished woods tend to really soak up paint, and primer helps seal the surface to prevent this from happening.
Seasoning or Air-Drying Wood: The One-Year Rule
In fact, expect most types of wood to take about one year per inch of thickness to dry out. If it's a two-inch log, that means you'll need to let it sit outdoors for two whole years before it's dry enough to efficiently burn.
Because stain seeps into the wood, it's more protective than a coat of paint which is a coating that simply sits on the top of the wood. Solid stains look almost identical to paint but are more protective to the wood because they seep into the porous wood fibers.
-If it is a piece that will get a fair amount of use – like a tabletop; apply a coat or two of soft beeswax based paste wax to protect it.
A staple in many bathroom cabinets, over the years Vaseline has been found to have many uses around the home. * Protect your wooden furniture with Vaseline, in the same way that you would use a wood polish. * Protect your leather couches by applying a small amount to a clean cloth and rubbing it on.
To seal wood properly first prepare the surface by sanding it smooth and, if you like, staining it a color. Then you can apply a sealant, but there are many to choose from. The three most common sealants are polyurethane, shellac, and lacquer, and each requires a different method of application.