I’m not a complete newbie to refinishing but I have no idea what went wrong.

I’m refinishing a set of solid wood kids table and chairs. I did the same prep as I’ve done for any other project. I washed down the set with ammonia and water. Let dry completely and then gave it a wipe down with a tack cloth.

I painted on two coats of primer with about 45 minutes between coats. It was early fall weather and humidity was not high at all. Well within the guidelines.

The next day I painted my first coat of latex paint and left the chairs to dry.

A week later, I finally got back to finishing the project and I accidentally bumped one of the chairs up against the edge of the table while moving it into position. It was NOT a heavy hit. My new paint and the primer chipped right off and I can see the original red finish. Another one of the chairs accidentally got tipped over and paint + primer also chipped off where it made contact with our laminate floor.

Last year, I painted a set of chairs from IKEA with exactly the same process. They are used an abused by my two little guys and yet look completely new.

What went wrong? Does BIN Zinsser age and expire? I know I can fix the chips and move on, but I’m guessing that any further bangs might just chip off more paint. Kind of useless for a kids furniture set.

Any ideas? I can start all over again but I don’t want to make the same mistakes.