The Table That Refuses To Be Painted

It's inevitable that out of all of the pieces that I work on, there will be one every now and then that is a total rebel.

One that refuses to cooperate.

One that fights me, kicking and digging in its heels throughout every step of its transformation.

Folks, my cherry drop leaf table is totally whooping my furniture-painting patootie! Here's where it was the last time I posted about it.

Pea soup green and not quite what I had in mind. I had rushed through the process and regretted it at the end.

Here's where it stands now. It's been banished to our office/furniture storage room because I was too frustrated to keep working on it.

So how did it get to this point?

Well, it started by a layer of Miss Mustard Seed's Tough Coat to seal in all of the pea soup green. Once that was dry, I went over the piece with a 50/50 mix of Trophy and Schloss. Trophy is a handsome steel gray in the Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint line, and Schloss has warmer undertones, almost like French Linen in Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint® line. They look just lovely mixed together.

The paint brushed on like normal and it looked amazing! I thought I was out of the woods and on track to a fabulous makeover.

It was looking amazing!

My joy was short-lived. The table looked like this for about 2 hours until I started to get chipping in spots. I sanded them down and repainted. The chipping continued. I sealed them with Tough Coat. The chipping continued. I mixed a new batch of paint using Bonding Agent. The chipping continued. It got so bad that I could peel layers of paint off in sheets.

This is one of the smaller spots. There was a big 'ol bald patch on the other side of the table. All of the ugly green paint was showing and my vision was ruined. I even switched brands and put on a layer of Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint® in French Linen. That would have to work. After all, Chalk Paint® sticks to everything, right?

No dice.

To be honest, I'm kind of at a loss. I'm totally stumped as to why paint won't stick to this piece.

On a bright note, I'm in love with the refinished wood top. I sanded it down and got rid of all of the original orange-red stain. After a quick DIY Driftwood stain and some of Miss Mustard Seed's Beeswax, it's looking just divine. Check out the video on my Facebook page to see it in action!

The left is after, and the right is before.