Trying Out Flat Out Flat

Friday morning I was up early drinking coffee in the piece and solitude of my living room like I always do on my days off alone.  I love how quiet the house is.  I really enjoy how the light changes as the sun comes up in our neighborhood, how the sunlight breaks through the woods at the edge of our yard.  It’s just me and Emmitt and the coffee. But this particular Friday every time I would walk in to the kitchen to top off my cup there on the counter was this:

Mocking me.

So I poured me a strong mug of Cafe du Monde  and dove in.

I never did get around to waxing this $7 end table so it appeared to be my best option at 8:30 in the morning.  I had been researching Flat Out  on General Finishes website for a couple of weeks.  There is a lot of information there plus videos.

Here’s what I have learned so far:

1. Do not shake this product.  It will cause bubbles in your finish.

2. Stir this product well before you apply it.  I used a 2 inch foam brush, the Dollar Store kind with a wooden handle.

3. Work Fast because this stuff dries fast.

Y’all can see right here that the edge that I started with is already drying as I was finishing this first application.

4.  Minimize your backstrokes. 

Because Flat Out dries fast you can wreck that first coat if you continually go back over it.

So don’t.

Think of it like when you paint you nails and then try to just touch up a spot…… you wreck it.

5. Wait at least two hours between coats and lightly sand the piece with a very fine sanding sponge.

This will create fine white dust.

 I used the attachment on my vacuum to clear away the sanding dust and I wiped it with a paper towel to be sure before I applied the next coat.  GF recommends a total 3 coats of Flat Out and no more.

General Finished also will tell you that Flat Out Flat will cause your finish to have less clarity due to the matting agents they use to get that ‘Flat Look’.

In the above photo the top of my table is dry.  The edge is wet.

Flat out is milky in color.

That did freak me out a bit at first, especially on a black table but it dried clear.

Here is the finishes table top.

You can really get a feel for the sheen the finish has in the above picture.  It is not as ‘matte’ as I thought it would be but I can truly say that I am quite happy with the finish.  And it is important for me to note that it was considerably easier on my hands and fingers as apposed to waxing!

Because of that milky color I figure that using Flat Out on a black piece of furniture was the worst case scenario.  It is was $20 or there abouts at my local woodworking supply shop.  Not as expensive as wax but not really cheap either.  I really want to try it on different colors and I am curious about how may pieces of furniture I can get out of one can.

So…….. this adventure continues.

Paige