Spray painted wood without primer - am I screwed?

Hey.

So I've been working on my very first project for a while now, it has been taking forever partly because I don't know what I'm doing and partly because of time restraints. You guys could probably knock it over in a couple of hours, but it's been taking me like a month or so worth of weekends.

Anyway, I'm building a spice rack tower, similar to this one on amazon. I'm making it out of pine.
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/J-K-Adams-CSL-48-SM-Maple-Wood-Carousel/dp/B000FJPO5C]spice rack[/ame]


I'm almost finished now and I stupidly bought some cheap spray paint from bunnings (glossy black $2) thinking it should be fine. I've applied a first layer and it did not turn out great.. and afterwards, I realised that maybe I should have used some primer or something.

What should I do? Should I just keep putting on some more layers and it will get better, or do I need to try and sand it down or something? Or maybe I can just cheat somehow and put a primer or something on now and then more paint after? I have no idea :)
I got a feeling it will be a huge amount of effort to try and remove the paint and I was really excited about bringing the spice rack in this weekend. Also, I nearly killed myself just trying to sand the inside of the 40 holes to a somewhat smooth finish and I don't feel good about doing all that again...

EDIT: I should clarify what I mean by the paint not being fantastic. First of all it's a bit blotchy, but I can live with that (and probably improve it a bit with subsequent paint coatings). The main problem is that it doesn't feel nice to touch. It was really smooth and nice before I spray painted it and now it feels rough and not so nice. Maybe this is normal, am I supposed to sand after painting or will the next layer fix it? It is supposed to be "glossy black", so I expected a really smooth finish. This also made me worry about how durable it will be, ie whether the paint is just going to flake off and look #### in a few weeks. I'm strongly leaning towards NOT sanding it and starting over, but some tips and suggestions on what I can do from this point on to make the best of it would be much appreciated.

Hi tompab,
The fist coat on pine always raises the grain, whether it be undercoat, sealer varnish or paint and it has to be sanded smooth and at least another 2 coats applied with another light sanding between each coat.
Hope this helps.
Regards

it gets blotchy as some areas soak up more paint than others so more coats will help with sanding inbetween coats. I forgot to prime a project and used cheapo black spray can and it has flaked off in places. I normally use a sanding sealer then prime with 1 coat of undercoat then sand and put on the topcoats.
Pete

The rough finish is normal for the first coat. It makes no difference if it is paint or primer.

As said above , the first coat raises the grain. You will sand it smooth fairly quickly with fine sandpaper, say #220 grit.
The second coat should be fairly smooth.

The second and third coats will get rid of the blotches.


I hate paint and varnish because they raise the grain and ruin a smooth sanded timber.

My preference is to use an Oil finish, like Danish Oil (Scandinavian Teak Oil is available in most hardware stores and works fine).
You wipe it on and a few minutes later you wipe it off.
You get a finish just as good as your fine sanded finish........no raised grain, no dust and no rough spray paint.

You probably need 3 or four coats but they are quick to do and much more enjoyable than painting, IMHO.

You may not be fixed by an inclined helical plane arranged about an axis.

First how much does this item matter and how long is it expected to last?

That may change things...if it was suposed to be a museum piece and last a century, I'd be saying sand all the way back and repent of your foolishness.

But if its just a bit of kitchen tat that you want to last a few years till it either ceases to be attractive or you can make better...well.

as for sanding..and a gloss finish......HMM

The unfortunate fact is that you can not cover sanding and preparation errors with a following coat.

so you will need to sand.

Now this is why we use primers, undercoats and sanding sealers...they raise, lock, seal and fill grain better than top coats, and they are a hell of a lot easier to sand.

So think on that and the idea that you need to sand......more than the oft sprouted "light sand".

if you expect a good finish you need to sand untill you remove any roughness or scratches from prevous coarser grits....and between every coat...and allowing enough time for the finish to set up.

NOW..another word to the beginner......mat or satin paint shows imperfections less than gloss......a good gloosy finish requires perfect preparation.

so, think about going to the same paint but in satin.

as for sanding of every little hole.........getting some mechanical assistance in the way of a flap disk or a flutter disk (harder to find) may save your sanity.

hope this helps.

be sure to report back and show us some pictures.

cheers