I'm excited to be able to show you one of the most fun projects I think I've ever done and that's lacquering lamps it's such an easy process and you get instant gratification but remember one of the first things we need to do is clean it with my clean slate first because of all the residues liquid gold all the products that have been used on these lamps over a period of years we've got to get that off so we've got a really beautiful clean surface to start with so the first thing you want to do is just take the clean slate take a lint-free rag load it up and then completely wipe down the surface almost in a scrubbing type motion and get down into all the crevices allow it to air dry about 20 minutes and then you're ready to start all right so this lamp is made out of wood when I'm going to be lacquering wood real wood I want to make sure that I come back with my primer this has a leveling agent in it which will even out the surface and give you a beautiful primed surface to have a glossy err lacquer so be sure and shake the can up very well you're gonna hear the agitating ball inside it that agitating ball is shaking up the pigments and things in the paint and getting it ready to come through the nozzle so you'll notice on this cat that it's going to be spraying in a V so you want to take that into consideration when you're spraying your piece always work about seven inches away the other thing is make sure that you're working in a very ventilated area I prefer not working outside if you can open up a cardboard box leave three sides and set the lamp inside that cardboard box that way you're not going to have any of the breeze coming in and taking the lacquer to another area or making it bumpy or making it to where it doesn't have a beautiful shade so this is my primer I'm going to come about six to seven inches away as you notice I'll spray it out just a little bit before I come over to the surface it's gonna come on kind of in a white finish but it's gonna dry down more clear after I've applied this to my entire lamp I'm going to allow it to dry about an hour and then I'm ready to put on my color so we've allowed our primer to completely dry make sure you wait at least an hour if the humidity is high we need to allow at least an hour and a half sometimes two hours and I want you to come back with some 400 grit sandpaper and lightly sand over the surface and a lot of times I'll close my eyes just to make sure that I can feel any imperfections that might show up then after you've lightly sanded it down come back with the lint-free rag just make sure you rub all that away so you don't have any of that debris there because it will make your lacquer uneven looking so then I've chosen sea side now remember depending on the direction that you're going to be spraying it that this is going to spray out in a V not in a conical shape so you want to take that into consideration as you're working on your land after you've shaken it up very very well be sure and stay about seven inches away from your piece and I'm going to spray just a little bit before I actually come over onto the piece use this can like you would a paintbrush thinking about how you might paint from side to side you don't want to spray it in a random motion because like you would hairspray but think about it being very methodical spraying into the wet edge each time you layer it a lot of times people think just one coat is enough on lacquer we need to think about doing three to four coats the more layering you do the brighter the finish and the more depth that the finish is going to have so I'm gonna continue to work my way around this piece don't you love this Shane already because we took the time and primed it that priming acted as a leveling agent and it really made the surface perfect to be able to do a beautiful job on my lacquering i primed my piece I allowed it to dry for about an hour to an hour and a half I put on three coats of lacquer in Seaside color allowing it to dry every time about an hour lightly sanding it with 400 grit sandpaper in between coats and now I'm ready to finish up with my bright idea the bright idea is a sealer it's going to enhance the color add to the depth as well as the protection so while we're working on this lamp you may decide to use this same finish on a piece of furniture where that way it's protecting especially the top make sure you shake it up very well the same application of spraying from left to right go over the entire piece one coat is going to be ample on this we're just going for extra Sheen and extra protection now a gorgeous little white lampshade and we're ready to add a pop of color to our room now it's your turn to go enjoy the backing