Furniture, Wood and Cabinetry Finishing - painting wood table plaid

i want to suprise my college roommate by painting this hideous wooden table in our room. it's very small and round. our comforters are a plaid. so i took the table, i sanded it down, primed it, and spray painted it the color i needed it to be. now i want to know how do i start to begin to make plaid stripes on it.i know i have to paint it but i don't know how i begin or what to do. i would greatly appreciate an answer. thank you. mandafaith

Manda:

Hope your roomie likes surprises!

You didn't say what kind of paint you used, but since it's an aerosol I'm going to assume it's either oil based or acrylic enamel.

First, let the table dry completely - at least 24 hours, preferably 48. Go to your friendly paint store and ask for a masking tape called 'long mask'. It's made by 3M and is designed to stick well enough to mask an area, but not tightly enough to pull a new finish off.

Next (having already selected your other color), use the masking tape to put your pattern on the table. Press it down firmly, but don't be overly concerned with getting it down letter perfect.

With your aerosol, go over the table ONCE - and walk away and leave it alone until that coat dries. Come back and go over it again. The second application should find you standing 90 degress around the table from where you were. Once, lightly, then go away

Repeat this process until you have painted the top lightly 4 times - once from each 'side' of the table. Then let it dry completely and remove the tape.

Don't try to completely cover all the squares in your plaid pattern with one pass - remember yo're going to be making four passes, so just 'mist' it on each time. By the time you've made the fourth pass, everything will be covered.