Update on My Favorite Paint

I seem to remember mentioning that this paint is my best friend and has made the task of de-oaking our house almost easy. I said almost.

And obviously you guys want to know more about it too this post was one of my most popular. I know when I was thinking about using it in our house I googled Ace Cabinet Door and Trim Paint to death but was frustrated with the lack of information out about it at that time. So I hope my experiences are helping someone else. I also have received a lot of emails about it as well as questions on message boards. So I wanted to answer the main question I have been receiving: dry time.

On the Ace Cabinet and Trim paint can it reports that dry time is 24 hours to recoat and longer with darker colors. This is a long time in comparison to normal paints and quite frustrating when you have something small to paint and have to wait 24 hours in between coats. I know, I have been there. But in my opinion the self-leveling properties of the paint and the hard shell like finish are worth the extra frustration (not to mention it is cheap).

When I am using the straight High Hiding White I have not had to wait more than 24 hours in between coats. (and maybe I cheated a couple of times and did more like 16 hours.....but don't tell). Twenty four hours after two coats it still felt a little "soft" and I would not go hitting it with a baseball bat or scratch it with a nail but it was definitely not sticky and able to be used. In my opinion it felt totally hardened and ready for full abuse in about a week.

The darker colors did require a little more dry time. I especially allowed more dry time with the cabinet doors since I was flipping them back and forth to paint them.

The staircase I allowed a full day and a half in between coats and tried to keep our hands off of it for a couple of days after it was finished. But considering it was a staircase and it's purpose is to be touched, again we cheated on that with no negative results.

The cabinets (painted black) I allowed two days between coats and then three days after that to totally harden before we had our hands all over them, putting up on the hinges. Again we were gentle with them a week or two after that until they totally hardened. When I added a coat of polyurethane they seemed to harden even faster.

But I have noticed the upside of longer drying time with a darker color is that you have longer to manipulate the wet paint on the surface before it starts to set on you. This is especially helpful on larger surfaces with multiple planes like cabinet doors.

All of my drying times are based on painting indoors. Most of the painting was done in the incredibly humid midwest summers but the A/C was providing some relief. I did not turn on fans to speed it up as I was concerned that it air movement would deposit dust on my newly painted surfaces.

I have had a report that people are experiencing longer drying times than what I did. Since I am not a painter and have not used this product anywhere else than my house, I have no idea why that is. But if you are thinking about using this product I wanted you to be informed of all the positives and negatives so you can make an informed decision and if you are needing a short dry time this is probably not the product for you.

I still love the paint and will use it on all my remaining de-oaking projects. In my opinion that smooth sprayed-on look is worth the inconvenience of longer drying times. And I am happy to report that only one room and one addional window still are honey oak. And that room is the future nursery. Oak is almost history at our house.

Happy Painting!!