More (Paint) Saga

One can never know the effects of humidity until painting, especially with semi-gloss paint. It was a terrible disaster. 

I had bought and found some furniture to go in my new room. The newer pieces were brown, stained wood which I did not want color wise. So, I planned to paint the pieces. I started the by sanding and priming the finish. After 24 hours, the primer scratched off very easily with my fingernail. 

Horrors. Now I would have to scrap off the paint and strip the finish off. The only problem was, it had been raining for two or three days straight, and was raining when I scratched the paint off. Well, maybe it was the humidity. 

I waited until after the weekend, and the paint didn’t scratch off so easily. It should be fine, so I painted on the primer without any horrible scraping to do. I painted the first coat. It was a fine, cool day but damp. The temperature was great for drying paint. 

I painted the first coat on my dresser, bookshelf, and bed frame. I thought the paint would dry on the bed frame within a few hours, but after five hours, the paint was still dripping and decidedly wet. Like, not dry at all. It was finally dry in the morning. 

But, my smooth paint job had dripped—horribly. All over the place. Any area with a little more paint had dripped. Even on flat surfaces. The paint was dry, so I sanded and put on the second coat. (I needed at least three, if not four, coats of paint.) Then I prayed for a hot, dry day. 

The humidity really was to blame. My blankets in my single-wide were damp when I crawled under them at night. If I got damp during the day through physical exertion in the hot humidity, I did fully dry again. Most of April’s and all of May’s rain waited until June and July to dump. Paint didn’t have a chance. 

Finally, it was hot again. The air was a bit drier, so I put the third coat on. The paint dried within an hour. I waited until the next hot day to finish painting and was satisfied with my results.

My furniture looks nice. The white goes nicely with my blue. I am settled into my room, and it is nice. Pretty. Cool. And mine. That’s the best part. (Along with a door and air conditioner, thanks to my dad.)