How To Fix a Spray Paint Disaster

Today I'm telling the story of my first spray paint disaster.
It all started with an innocent little thrift store desk.

Although I'm pretty sure it had it out for me from the start, as there were several spiders in the drawer just waiting to trap me up in a web and drain my blood. 
That's how far it went in my head.

Luckily Jesse is always willing to de-spider things for me. And then he offered to help me drill the new holes for the handle.

After my new holes were drilled, I took the desk outside in the driveway and applied a bunch of wood filler to all of the scratches and dents. This desk was one big giant dent. 

Every white splotch on the above drawer was a dent or hole. 

That step alone took a good hour to complete.

Next, I used this gray primer (affiliate link) to prime the desk since I had decided to spray paint it black. 
I actually love the way the gray primer looks by itself. I should have waxed it and quit there. 
Seriously though, who knew gray primer turned out so pretty. It makes me want to use it on something else. It's just that perfect shade of gray-blue. 

But, of course I didn't stop there, because I was set on having a glossy black desk.
And that's when my project turned into a bit of a disaster.

I've spray painted so many things in the past couple of years and I've never had this happen before. 

I used plain old high gloss black spray paint and for some reason it looked amazing everywhere except the top of the desk. The top of the desk was super streaky.

So, I let it dry for a few hours and then took it inside and sanded down just the top of the desk.

I could have sanded it all the way down, but life is short, so I just sanded it smooth.

Then, I primed the top of the desk with brush on primer, primed it, then painted it with some flat black paint I had on hand. Then put a coat of Polycrylic on top.

It wasn't the ideal situation I had planned, as my plan was to take 10 minutes to spray paint it and be done. But, sometimes things get messed up and you just have to figure out a way around it.

I debated not sharing my spray paint disaster, but I figured that I'm not the only one who's had a streaky spray paint problem and that maybe this would help someone else figure out what to do. I've since figured out that it didn't work because I spray painted a large flat surface (the top of the desk) with a low quality black lacquer spray paint. I've since spray painted this with a high quality glossy black spray paint and it turned out perfectly.

So, I've lived and learned.

But, all is well in the end, as it still turned out pretty cool for a little thrift store desk!

That's all for today!
'Til next time!

Follow my blog with

Follow my blog on or
or

Subscribe to LiveLoveDIY with email!
Enter your email address:

-->