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In our newest video, Chris Adams and Tom Monohan of General Finishes show you how to apply GF Waterbased Topcoat to a bench. 

It's a wrap! General Finishes next round of tutorial videos are on their way! We will be releasing one per week for the month of November so stay tuned.

Chris Adams and "celebrity guest" Nicole Genz of Rescued Furnishings show how to apply General Finishes

Vinyl or paper veneers can be often found on the end returns of lower price-point cabinets. We cannot guarantee that our paints will adhere well to a paper veneer - we have no idea what the actual material is or what adhesives were used to apply the veneer to the surface. The resins and additives in our paints may break down the adhesives used for the veneer.

And Milk Paint does NOT adhere to vinyl.

Our recommendation to fix white cabinets that have yellowed is to do a thorough sanding and precleaning and recoat with the following products:

In our newest video Chris Adams and Tom Monohan of General Finishes demonstrate how to update your existing cabinets with GF Water Based Wood Stain and Dye Stain with a technique called toning. Toning does not require any messy stripping or sanding.

Get the Look: Corinth Blue

A primer is your best defense under light-colored paint.

Another technique to avoid the slight color change that sometimes occurs when applying topcoat is to add 10-15% of the paint you are using to your topcoat. This technique layers additional coats of color over your piece as well as providing the protection of a topcoat. If you don't like measuring, just add enough paint until you can see a bit of the hue in the topcoat. This method works with a brush or a spray gun.

To maintain the full-strength protection of the topcoat, DO NOT TINT YOUR FINAL COAT of topcoat.

All bright white paint will yellow slightly with time, even without topcoat. You have probably tried to touch up white woodwork in your home after several years and noticed that the new paint is brighter.

But white and light paints can react if clear coated with a waterbased finish; water-based topcoats are reactive and may draw out substances in the wood such as tannins, dyes or unknown substances in existing finishes causing the topcoat to yellow. This is an industry-wide issue and can happen right away, years later or never.

Yes.

MDF

  1. Apply Kilz or Bin 123 Primer first. 
  2. MDF is not as absorbent as natural wood, so wait 2 days in between coats and before applying top coat.
  3. MDF also tends to cast a brown color. If you are using a white paint, apply a coat of SeaGull Grey first to counter the brown, and then apply a couple of coats of white over it, allowing all coats to dry 2 days.

Learn more about how to prep MDF before applying GF Milk Paint.

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