# Painting Pine - Hide Grain?



## Noggin (Oct 3, 2010)

My wife and I are getting ready to remodel our bathrooms and the vanities we wanted are about twice what we're willing to pay. So, in order to save some money I'm going to try to simply make some new doors and drawer faces for my current vanity.

Last night, I bought a 16" x 24" x 3/4" pine panel (solid pine made of glued together planks). I just wanted to make a single door to start with to see what I'm up against. Anyway, this morning I cut it to size, routed the edges, rabbited the backside etc. I then sanded with 220 grit paper and used Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 primer, as suggested by the Lowe's employee.

My final goal for this door is that I want a gloss white finish with no brush strokes and no grain showing. I want it to look like a piece of white glass essentially. However, two problems exist so far:

1. The grain is showing after two coats of this primer. I sanded between the first and second coat, I haven't sanded after the second coat yet. Should I continue sanding and priming or will it not get better? Should I have used a different primer? I remember watching Holmes on Homes a few months ago where Holmes said that there is a special primer you have to use for pine if you don't want to see the grain but I couldn't remember what it was.

2. The door was perfectly flat before priming, but now the side I primed first has expanded and the door is warped now. I primed the front twice and now I just finished priming the back side. Will the back side expand the same as the front and straighten the door back out?


----------



## Noggin (Oct 3, 2010)

It looks like the wood flattened back out after I primed the back side, but how canI hide the wood grain when I paint? If it shows through the primer then it'll show through the paint, right?


----------



## Noggin (Oct 3, 2010)

Well according to this, I need an oil based high solids primer. The Zinsser I was told to buy is a water based primer and probably the worst thing I could have used. However, it does seem to contain a lot of solids as it looks as good as a flat paint. I was suspicious when he gave me a water based primer, but he was very clear and seemed very confidant that it would hide the grain. I still have some wood left over, I can play with it. I can also finish my door and hang it, maybe I'll actually _like_ the grain on just the doors but not the rest of the cabinet.


----------



## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

If you want a glass smooth finish then use MDF for the door. It has no grain to begin with, will be stable with no warping or twisting, it is designed to be painted. Use a good grade sandable alkyd oil primer and put two coats on. Sand the first coat back hard, pretty much so it is see through, them prime again. The scuff sand not so hard this time. If you can and have the time, use a good oil based enamel paint. Then brush strokes will disappear. But it does take 6 hours to dry to the touch and at least 24 hours to recoat. After the first coat, sand it back hard and put on a second coat. If you are not getting a nice dry powder when you sand, let it sit another 12-24 hours. You should be able to get a nice smooth coat.


----------



## Noggin (Oct 3, 2010)

Thanks, but I decided against going this route. I made a door today and I didn't like the direction the final look was going. I've decided I actually like the doors that are on it, so I think I'm going to repaint the whole thing. The entire vanity looks as if it is solid wood, so I'm kind of aggravated that it is painted, but I'm _really_ aggravated that when he painted the vanity, he also painted the hinges. So those look like pure _crap_ where the paint rubbed off due to movement. Also, the kitchen cabinets are the same style as the vanity, and he painted those too. We're redoing the kitchen in about a year, I might try to strip the paint off of the kitchen cabinets... but there are a lot of them.


----------



## burkhome (Sep 5, 2010)

Noggin said:


> Thanks, but I decided against going this route. I made a door today and I didn't like the direction the final look was going. I've decided I actually like the doors that are on it, so I think I'm going to repaint the whole thing. The entire vanity looks as if it is solid wood, so I'm kind of aggravated that it is painted, but I'm _really_ aggravated that when he painted the vanity, he also painted the hinges. So those look like pure _crap_ where the paint rubbed off due to movement. Also, the kitchen cabinets are the same style as the vanity, and he painted those too. We're redoing the kitchen in about a year, I might try to strip the paint off of the kitchen cabinets... but there are a lot of them.


 Easy way to strip cabinet hardware is drop them overnight in a bucket of ammonia.


----------



## ~WoodChuck~ (Jan 17, 2009)

for pine you must use a oil based primer. Pine is a very porous wood and the water based primer raises the grain. The zinsser oil based will work fine. Even better is the BIN primer by zinnser which is a shellac base and tough to work with but it cover very well.


----------

