I’ve read quite a lot about the Canadian born Fusion Mineral Paint recently. With its booming popularity over the pond and a growing interest here in the Uk I was intrigued. An 100% acrylic Paint with no need for a primer and no need for a top coat and a nice matt finish, it almost sounds too good to be true!

I got my hands on a lovely oak sideboard with Art Nouveau style carving and the potential to create a eye catching modern look.

This is the sideboard in question…

The usual preparation began, taking off the hardwear, taking off the doors and old hinges and the shelves inside. Fusion Minerals instructs that a full rub down and removal of old varnish needs to be carried out and that a 220 grit paper is adequate for the paint to adhere. So I set about thoroughly sanding the sideboard using firstly 80 grit then 120, around the carvings applying white spirit to help remove the varnish then sanding using my arrow head sander to get into the nooks. A good clean down and we’re ready to paint.

So the plan was to hand paint the interior and then spray the exterior but the paint glided on so nicely it was a pure pleasure to hand paint with. The stereo was on and I painted the whole sideboard by hand. The paint dries in no time, around an hour.

The paint is said to be self levelling and therefore dry with very little brush marks, this is pretty true in fact, I found the dried finish to be really quite good. However, unlike non acrylic paint if you see bumps and scratches after the first coat you can sand back and smooth, acrylic doesn’t allow you to do this as it just scratches off when sanding rather than smoothing which is a little frustrating for a perfectionist.

Reviews say you only need one coat but I strongly disagree and applied a second. A day later I try the scratch test and I’m sorry to say I was disappointed as the paint scratched off pretty easily despite claims it is very durable. Therefore I applied a polyurethane matt clear varnish to ensure my future purchaser of this sideboard would be happy with the durability of the paint work.

The final colour is fabulous and I finished it off with a gold wax guilding trim under the bees waxed oak top and brushed brass modern hard wear to off set the vintage style.

I will try Fusion Mineral Paint again, I would like to try and spray with it as I think it would spray nicely as the paint is very fluid. I’m currently not convinced about the claims of durability and no need to use a top coat varnish but I’ve not yet found a paint that can do this apart for an oil based paint which is particularly toxic to work with on a regular basis. Watch this space Fusion Mineral Paint!