apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Fiona,
It is on my very long to-do list, so it might be a while before I actually get around to it. Will post back with pics - As I mentioned I did paint my front door with that paint. The oil based paint is so much easier to work with. Clean up is a pain, but it goes on so smooth and does not dry as fast as water based so you don't have to be so careful when you overlap your brush strokes.

Try an auto paint shop. Auto paint should give you the glossy look you're after and it would probably be cheaper than going to a cabinet maker.

Unfortunately I dont know of anyone on the eastcoast.
But I can suggest if you look under the phone book for wood finishers or furniture manufactures- they will be able to "lacquer" your piece or ask them if they know of anyone who lacquers.

Too bad your not on the westcoast, I could certainly help you.

I am sure AT-NY community will have suggestions of places.

Good luck!

Li's suggestion is excellent. Auto body paint. Thin coats and many. Also, for anyone with interest, you can put a very glossy finish on painted surfaces (although not as glossy as what is wanted here) by sanding inbetween coats, using Rottenstone (a powder pumice at hardward stores) on last coat and one highly buffed coat of regular car wax). Sounds complicated. Isn't.

But the auto body paint is excellent.

i have had good luck with sand paper, primer and rutoleum....... not EXACTLY like J adler, but pretty good.

if you want a super-slick, thick look, you can use clear resin's as well.

this is trickier to work with but it's much faster then the multiple coats of lacquer

I am so excited that my question was posted. Thank you for all your wonderful suggestions!

Minh, clear resin like the stuff that can coat diplomas and be put on top of wood tables?

Auto paint would do it, I agree. It might need a clear coat on top of the color coats.

You can also accomplish the same thing if you use enamel and follow that with clear lacquer, preferably sprayed on. Lacquer dries extremely fast and is very tough and scratch-resistant.

People who work with metal have a different mindset about finishing than do people who work with wood. So you can get very different advice and different techniques, with similar results.

there is an asian furniture shop right off the east side of 6th avenue on the north side of the street where the old flea market used to be - in the 20's - that does this sort of business. i was there when they were drying a chest that they had lacquered for a decorator. it was grass green and simply perfect. all silky and shinny. i'm sorry i don't know the name of the store but it looks like a warehouse and the folks there are very nice.

I love auto body paint, and I actually had it applied to my old built-in laundry hamper. I just unscrewed it to un-install it and I brought it to the MAACO in Long Island City.

BUT... that was metal, which was fine, because I THINK those auto-body folks actually BAKE that finish after spraying it. I don't know if they'd want to bake a wooden desk, because it might just go on ahead and catch fire, right?

You MIGHT need to buy a very, very rent-able spray gun (one that doesn't clog too badly?) and just go ahead and buy a gallon of some very, very serious oil-based lacquery paint. Like an industrial kind. Benjamin Moore makes a bunch of different kinds, but you'd probably have to had it special ordered.

Curtis, I didn't think of that so I did some Googling. It doesn't seem that baking is the norm for auto paint, but I think always good to ask the shop what process they use.

Auto paint description here:

http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/ab_auto_body_work/article/0,2021,DIY_13675_2278674,00.html

Trick question! Lacquer used to be a specific material and process (involving sap, insect wings and pigs blood....no kidding). Now, it is generally used to refer to a shine level achieved by either a material OR a process.

Adler uses MDF as a base which is sprayed with an aerosol plastic (for lack of a better description). The process is so toxic that it can't be done in the US.

The closest you'll be able to get to this high-shine, high-glam appearance is to take it to the body paint shop.

If you want the vintage 30's lacquer....look for nitro-cellulose lacquer paint. I think you can get it from specialty paint folks...or you can approximate the look with thin brush coats buffed-out with car-buffing-compound.

Lacquer can be used to produce a very very high gloss (ie, piano finish) it just takes a fair amount of work

first you need to sand, raise the grain, sand again then fill the grain, sand once again, seal the grain, sand again, then lacquer one coat, cut between every second coat with an extreamly fine cutting compound (Rottenstone) and continue to lacquer and cut untill you have the desired finish.

You can produce a finish thats actually of a higher gloss then anything else on the market, it just takes a HELL of a lot of work and a couple of weeks of it hahaha.

I just purchased the west elm overlapping squares headboard and want to paint it gloss white to get that J. Adler - lacquer effect.
http://ww2.westelm.com/cat/pip.cfm?template=8grid&pkey=cfrnbed&gids=p053&cid=frnbed&area=shp
I think I am going to use what is called Dutch door paint from Fine Paints of Europe.
http://www.finepaintsofeurope.com/

I used this paint on my front door in a super high gloss black. It looks great (you do see some brush strokes which don't bother me) I hope to have better luck with the headboard since I'm starting with a clean surface that does not have 20 coats of paint on it already. With a fine grit sanding between each light coat it should turn out. Not willing to invest too much on a $200 headboard.
Funny how AT is always reading my mind.

Hello:

Posting for the first time, though I've been enjoying the site and input for a while.

Does anyone know who makes the little white sectional sofa on Oprah's set-- or is it likely a custom-designed piece. It would be so cute inmy little living room, if it's not outrageous in price. I've tried Googling it various ways, but all you come up with when you put "Oprah" and "sofa" in the same line is "Tom Cruise"!

Thanks

Judith

In my experience, on smaller-scale items, it depends mostly on how grainy the piece is to begin with, and the amount of work the person involved is willing to do. I could get something at home that I would find satisfactorily lacquery; other people, especially the ones who aren't crafty, would probably want to send it out. You wouldn't be able to do this in a super-cramped apartment.

On smaller pieces, I've sanded, then used gesso as a base and then used ultrafine sandpaper to smooth it out. Several layers of paint follow, each allowed to dry to hardness and then sanded lightly. Tack cloths are used after sanding. Final coats are high-gloss polyurethane. There are several tricks to get rid of any tiny air bubbles. The whole process takes time and elbow grease, and is certainly glossy, but may not have the look you want anyway. I have found that metallic spraypaint doesn't go on evenly and requires many more coats than other types of paint, so I'd skip that route.

Since gesso isn't maybe the most ideal thing for furniture, I would try Kilz primer instead.

Other than that, what other people said. It's just a matter of smoothing out multiple layers of paint and then putting something ultra-glossy over them.

David n DC,

Will you post how that turns out? I have an art deco Chinese-style armoire that I am contemplating painting red with the door paint from Fine Paints of Europe. I am thinking that I probably need to strip it first, so maybe this is too ambitious to do in a NYC apartment.

I have also been trying to discover the source of the sectional white sofa on the Oprah set. I would truly appreciate knowing where to purchase a conversational sofa like it. thanks!

I found an article in a recent magazine.
I think this may b e it...

I have just completed painting & polyurethaning a chinese 18th Century Cabinet.

I used Acrylic satin paint in Black/Brown, lightly sanded it then high gloss polyurethaned the cabinet 5 times in super thin layers (super fine 2500 sanding each time) & it looks great. When using oil based high gloss paints I found they are never ever true in color (i.e. the chocolate/brown color came out a brown grey due to the oil in the paint).