Interior Painting Tips

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 $79, 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.

If you are looking for a Maryland painter, please call us today at 301-589-3930 or 888-549-0929 or complete our online request form.

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