If you have finally gotten around to taking on the task of interior painting that you've been putting off for months (or years), here are some quick tips to help you get it done a little quicker and easier. This post will cover walls and previously stained areas such as baseboards or casings.
If you are going to paint that ugly brown stained trim, I suggest you start with that before you paint the walls. The reason for this, is that you won't have to worry about getting any paint onto the walls because you are going to painted over it. Now, first of all, don't bother with trying to strip, sand, or bleach out any trim that has been previously stained. This would take way too much time, it is way too much work, and stain penetrates wood to such a point sometimes that it is almost impossible to get off unless you sand the heck out of it and deface the wood essentially damaging it. So once something has been stained, either you are going to paint over it, or you are going to have to replace it all. There is no reason why you cannot paint over something that has been previously stained providing that you take the necessary steps to do it correctly. If you just paint over stain, the stain will eventually soak through turning your paint job brown, and also the paint will peel very easily.
So, how do we go about painting over previously stained wood? First of all, using about a 200 grit sandpaper, sand off all the "shine", or gloss that is on the wood. In some cases, there might not be an gloss, but usually there is. You don't have to sand the heck out of it, you can even do it by hand. Just lightly sand until the gloss is dulled. It is an easy task. Once finished, get a wet sponge and wipe the dust off the trim.
Next, and this is the absolute most important step: prime the wood. I wouldn't use any other primer than Bulls Eye water-based Interior Primer. This stuff is awesome. You can brush it on, it covers very well, and it dries super quickly. You will notice that once it dries, it isn't very easy to scratch any of it off of the surface with your fingernail. This primer grips the wood surface far superior than anything I have ever used and provides an excellent sealer so the top coat of paint that you are going to use won't have stain soak through it. It also provides a good surface for the paint to adhere to as well. Once everything is primed and has completely cured for at least several hours, or even a full day, lightly sand the surface with a very high grit sandpaper. This will smooth out the brush marks so they won't show through the top coat.
You'll still be able to see the brush strokes after you are done sanding, but they will be smoothed out so that they will hide well underneath the top coat of paint. The next thing you want to do is mask off any carpeting or flooring that is beneath the baseboards if you are going to be painting those. The best way to do this is to buy some paper at Home Depot and tape the paper onto the floor and tuck it into the carpet edge with a butter or puddy knife as best as you can. This should be sufficient enough to paint baseboards and avoid getting paint onto the carpet. Or, you can tape the paper to the carpet edge and tuck the tape into the carpet edge as best as possible. Although, I have never painted anything in my life where I haven't gotten paint on something. But it can be cleaned if you get to it quickly enough.
Now, for the top coat. I recommend using a satin oil-based paint for the top coat. If you use a fine brush and go slow, you can achieve a good satin finish. Once the first coat is finished, you will need to lightly sand the top coat to reduce brushmarks, and then apply a second coat. Repeat again with a third coat if necessary. The reason for this is that it is hard to achieve a good satin smooth paint finish with no brush marks. But taking your time. Sanding and then re-coating can give good results provided that you use an oil based paint. Now, to make this process fly, and to achieve almost professional looking results, if you don't mind spending , I suggest you get yourself a Wagner HVLP Control Sprayer. These babies are awesome. They will spray a nice looking coat very quickly with near professional results. And you shouldn't have to spray any more than 2 coats. You can also spray the primer on with this as well to make it all go very quick. And if you use a sprayer, for trim, you can go with a high gloss latex paint if you desire. It still ends up looking pretty good, almost as good as the oil-based paint.
Next, you are ready to roll the walls. Want to make this go a little quicker? Instead of edging the area near the ceiling and trim, go ahead and roll the walls first with a paint roller. Get as close to the trim and ceiling as you can with the roller without getting paint on them. Now, the work has been cut out for you. Because once you are done rolling, you can see how much edge work you need to do. Assuming the trim work has been completed, use a low stick masking tape to tape over the trim so that you do not get wall paint on the trim. Next, get a high quality sharp edged brush, and paint the edges near the ceiling and trim until it meets up with the areas that you rolled. Painting in this order seems to go a lot quicker. And if you are careful, you don't need to do much masking on the floor. Just lay some plastic wherever your roller pan is at, and go to it.
And that's it. You just saved yourself 0 - 00 from having to pay someone to paint it for you. Using the methods above makes it painless, and rather fun to know how much money you are saving. It only takes about 3 days to perform, only working a few hours each day. All of the time is taken in allowing the paint to dry and cure for trim masking and second top coats. Meanwhile, you go and do something else with your day while the paint dries.
So when it comes to stained wood, don't forget the Bulls Eye Water Based Primer. Do not use any other primer. It's great stuff. And I highly recommend spending for a Wagner HVLP sprayer. It can be used indoors, delivers a finish that is almost as good as a 00 professional sprayer, makes the job go 10 times quicker, and you'll have it to use again and again. When it comes to do-it-yourself paint projects, the Wagner was the best thing I had ever bought. For example, I had a lot cabinets in my kitchen that I had paid someone to professionally paint a satin cottage white. This guy did a good job and used a high quality professional sprayer to deliver a smooth oil based satin finish just like what is seen new homes. However, I was missing a couple of cabinet doors that the previous homeowner had removed in the process of turning the home into a fixer-upper. So, I had to have some new doors made and were duplicated to look like the cabinet doors that were originally present.
Anyways, the painter wasn't able to paint them because they were still in the shop being made. So, once I got them back, I primed, and then sprayed two coats of oil-based cottage white paint onto them with my wagner. They turned out great and almost matched the finish performed by the professional painter. The only way you can tell the difference is to examine each door very closely and feel with your hand. Both are smooth finishes, but the professionally painted doors have somewhat of a "thicker" finish or feel to them. But standing two feet away from the cabinets, one cannot tell at all which doors were painted with the Wagner and which ones were professionally. Basically, unless you told someone, no one could tell the difference at all. Even if you told them, it is still hard to pick out which doors I painted with the Wagner. It takes a sharp eye to recognize the differences in the smooth finish. In fact, some might even argue that the finish that the Wagner put on is better. Definitely a good investment.
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