White spots on kitchen island after scrubbing off paint splatter

6 years ago

I have a kitchen island that had some paint splatter on it after I painted the kitchen ceiling some years ago. I should have gotten rid of the paint spots long ago. However, I only did it a few days ago.

Most of the paint came off easily. But there were some spots that were quite stubborn. I was using a rag soaked with a mixture of bleach, detergent and water. This was probably my first mistake. Maybe the mixture was too harsh for my purpose. The actual reason I used the mixture was that the inside of the island had a lot of dust because the island’s top had been removed when I was having my kitchen ceiling plastered. This made it easy to move around (the top is really heavy). So the dust had settled inside the island.

Anyway, what I noticed was that I now had some white spots on the certain parts of the island after I finished scrubbing off the paint.

How can I fix this? Would wipe on polyurethane solve it? Or do I have to re-stain the whole island? I hope not. I only have myself to blame for not asking how to deal with the paint spots before I embarked on the project.

I’m attaching a photo so that you can see the spots that I’m talking about.

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Comments (3)

Aglitter
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
I'd be curious to know what the original top coat was on this island. Some finishes are more chemically resistant than others. If this was a 2-part conversion varnish, you might have been able to get away with a bleach solution. If it was more like a 1-part lacquer or varnish, then you probably have breached the coating. The best thing to do would be to try to match whatever the original coating was that was used here. Is there a way you can find out what that was? A wipe-on poly stands the chance of not adhering to your base coat, depending on what the original coating was and whether it was oil-based or water-based. Also, a different coating could yellow in time and leave you with an even bigger color match problem. Best thing would be to refinish with the original coating. You might be able to sand and apply another coat. If this was a conversion varnish, then it would need to be stripped and re-applied from the base up since a new coat of conversion varnish won't adhere well to an older layer, but I guess you could always try.
PRO
Joseph Corlett, LLC
6 years ago
Hit it with a stain pen.
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User
6 years ago
Start thinking about painting your island an accent color. If you can scrub off the finish like that, then you are going to have future issues with durability. And don’t use bleach on cabinets. It ruins finishes.