Old timer at the hardware store told me to sand between coats of paint

I was at Ace Hardware in Des Moines last Tuesday buying a quart of interior paint for my living room trim. The guy behind the counter, probably 70 years old with a nametag that said Bob, asked what I was working on. I told him I was just going to slap two coats on and be done. He shook his head and said "you'll regret skipping the sanding between coats every time the light hits it." I figured he was just trying to sell me sandpaper, but I grabbed a pack of 220-grit anyway. Got home, sanded lightly after the first coat dried, and the second coat laid down so smooth it looked like factory finish. The difference was night and day - no brush marks, no bumps, just a clean flat surface. Anyone else had an old hardware store guy save them from a mediocre paint job?

2 comments

2 Comments

caseyc3022d ago

Bob was right, I did the same thing on my kitchen cabinets and it made all the difference.

kevin_sullivan22d ago

Funny enough I had a buddy who tried the same thing on his cabinets last fall. He spent a whole weekend sanding and painting them white and then a week later his wife decided she wanted dark wood instead. He had to strip it all back down and start over, man was he pissed. But he did say the prep work made the final result look way better than if he had rushed it. So even with the extra headache he ended up agreeing it was worth doing right the first time.