A friend who has upcycled so many amazing things told me to get "GRIPPER" primer from Home Depot as she has a specific way she re-does furniture. In order to avoid sanding or any other prep work she paints on a coat of Gripper, waits 24 hours, paints another coat of Gripper, another 24 hours then paint whatever color she wants...sounds easy enough.
It was very hard to give it 24 hours because by nature I am not a patient person, this was killing me!!!
All in all I am super pleased. Out of pocket on this one? $21 for the Grippper (I still have more than 3/4 of the gallon left) $15 for the black semi gloss paint (next time I would skip this all together) and 2 cans of Rustoleum Spray paint ($5 each so $10). Grand total...$46 but if you think about the fact that I only used 1/4 of the Gripper that would knock the price down to $15.25 for the whole project had I just bought a small amount of Gripper and 2 cans of spray paint!!! (live and learn)