The last coat cannot conceal a surface that was never prepared.

Preparation is invisible and decisive. Sanding, filling, cleaning and priming take most of the time and produce nothing anyone will ever look at, while the final coat gets all the attention and can only reveal what lies underneath. Every trade knows this and most of us keep hoping it is not true. Finishing well is mostly a matter of what happened long before the finish.

In whatever you are making this week, give the unglamorous stage the time it actually needs. If something is going badly, the answer usually sits a step or two further back rather than in more effort at the end.