How to Paint Stained Trim

If you decided to go with stained trim in your house, and are now tired of looking at it. Or you bought a house with stained trim that you find hideous. Here are the steps to take to turn that eye sore into beautiful trim work.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Primer
• Paint
• Brush
• Tape (optional)
• Drop Cloth

1. The first step, like most painting projects, is to make sure you have everything valuable protected from paint spills and drops. Cover floors and anything else thats needs it with drop cloths or plastic. Also, if you don't trust your painting skills, now would be a good time to go ahead and tape around your trim.

2. After you have covered all valuables, its time to primer. You will need an oil based primer for this project. Most stains and varnishes are oil based, and you can't paint water based products over an oil base finish. The water based paint will peel off if bumped.

3. After you have primed its now time to paint. You may now use either and oil based or water based paint. I know I just said not to paint water based paint over and oil based paint, and this is true. But when dealing with primers you are ok. Water based paint products will stick to an oil based primer. Why its like this I'm not exactly sure, I just know it doesn't work with paint or varnish, and does with primer.

4. Now that your trim is complete you may now remove tape, and return the room to its proper glory, and elegance.

Tips & Warnings

• When removing tape be careful where you may have painted over the top a little. Sometimes the paint will dry on the tape creating a bond, then when the tape comes up so does the paint on your trim creating a touch up issue. Very gently pull off the tape, and you may even want to take some kind of knife down the edge to insure a smooth removal.
• DO NOT PAINT WATER BASED PAINT OVER OIL BASED VARNISH!!! I know I said this before but I can't stress it enough. It will leave you with more of a mess, and a harder project than when you started.

[jlcamp]

on 4/29/2009 You are right autumn sanding does improve adhesion of the primer. However, the whole coat doesn't have be removed only roughed up a bit. Also not many people are into sanding so often times the primer does go on without the sanding step and works most times.

[autumn1234567]

on 4/22/2009 Good tips on how to paint stained trim. What about sanding to get that coating off? (I'm in the middle of like a million home improvement project). 5*

[miasavc]

on 2/7/2009 It's good to know this kind of info. Thanks for sharing!!