How Much Paint?

I have done a fair bit of painting - and I think this guy is just trying to sell you more paint to be honest.  Bare wood will soak up quite a bit of paint, but I don't think you will go through a gallon.  A small table would be okay with a quart in my opinion.  Did you look for mistinted paint to try to bring costs down?  Another alternative would be to get your paint at Walmart or somewhere else cheaper than Lowe's.

Thank you!  My gut was telling me he was trying to sell me more paint than I needed.  I appreciate your input!

I don't recommend going cheap on paint. I used to paint houses for a living, and every time I bought cheap paint I was sorry. It always wound up taking longer and costing more to get good results.
A better bet is to go to a paint store, which should be able to sell it to you in quarts and give you a better quality of paint.

You can also use less paint and get better results by putting a layer of shellac on the wood first. That keeps the wood from absorbing the paint, and prevents funky spots from sap and oils. Dewaxed and colorless shellac is often sold under the name Sanding Sealer. For this project all shellac is equivalent, so buy what is cheapest.

A warning about shellac though: you need to use brushes designed for oil paint (sometimes called China bristles), because it does unpleasant thing to nylon bristles. You also want to clean out your brushes with denatured alcohol. Don't use any water or soap to clean a shellac brush. Shellac turns into an unplesant sticky gum if combined with water. I'm told you can follow the alcohol with household ammonia and it gets the brushes really clean, but I haven't done that. I use shellac often enough that I just keep special shellac brushes. They dry stiff, but soften up quickly in alcohol or shellac, since the solvent for shellac is alcohol.

Be sure to seal your shellac well when you aren't using it, because the alcohol evaporates. It also wants to absorb water from the air, and water makes a bad combination with shellac when it's in solution (dry shellac repels water pretty well).

I agree that a quart should work for you.  I recently painted 2 dressers and a desk - 2-3 coats on each - and didn't even use up an entire quart on all that.  It does depend on your paint, though.  Some have much better coverage than others.  I'm with Clay, I'd rather spend a little more on good paint.

Thanks everyone!  I really appreciate it.  Now I just have to figure out how I'm ever going to come to some sort of compromise with the 3 year old about the color...he likes his colors VERY vibrant!  :)

It's a kid's table.  I'd run with the vibrant.  Besides, it's paint.  You can always paint it again when his tastes change, or you just don't care for it any more and he's forgotten the controversy.

Also, you might consider choosing a milk paint, and give him this pallet to choose from: http://www.leevalley.com/US/wo.....,190,42942

They're strong colors, but a bit more subdued than he's likely to pick on his own.

That paint looks great!  We actually just ended up letting him pick whatever color he wanted.  I really didn't mind the vibrancy so much, but I'd been hoping for something in the blue palette and he chose to go with a bright Buzz Lightyear green!  But he was so excited to get to pick out the color that it more than makes up for our "artistic differences."  :)

Sounds like you have already picked up your paint, but wanted to share that you can also pick up paint fairly cheap at a Restore.  http://www.habitat.org/cd/env/.....store.aspx The one by my mom's house in WI was 5.50 for a gallon and the one here near me in WA is 8.00 I think.  You have to dig around and look for the paint you want but sometimes you can find the base and then take it in and have it tinted for free.  Just ask they are super helpful in the store.

krystalmarie, thanks so much for posting that!  I read about the Restores on various blogs, but didn't have a clue they had one here!  Even if we already have the paint, I'm dying to go check out the store just because!

Not sure which island you're on but we have one on Maui, it's off of lower main.

We're on Oahu, but the website said there is one here.  I am excited to check it out!

Oh, and back to how much paint - We bought a quart of exterior primer/paint combo.  I've put 2 coats on, and will likely hit it once more just for some spot coverage in areas.  I painted top and bottom of the table (preschool picnic table) and still have half a quart of paint left.  So, unless that guy at big blue was confused that my little bitty picnic table was going to be bigger than it is, he was trying to sell me WAY too much paint!  :)

And I have to concede:  My 3 year old was so right when it came to picking out a paint color.  That bright green looks ADORABLE on his table!  Love it!