Best Way to Paint Doors and Window Trims
Painting the interior of your home is a task that has the potential to cause frustration for the average home DIYer, as the aspiration for a beautiful home can often be derailed by the smaller details. As we’ve said before, a good paint job is the sum of many small jobs done right, so it is important that the smaller detailing of your home’s interior is completed with as much vigilance and perseverance you exercise whilst painting the walls and ceilings. Although painting your doors and window trims may seem quite daunting and require a slightly steadier hand than needed for larger surfaces, do not worry, as these step-by-step instructions will help you paint fine details perfectly the first go!
Doors
- When it comes to doors, the last thing you want is to find are scraped edges and/or a door that can’t fully close due to the increased thickness from the new coats of paint. So before painting, inspect the door in the frame and to check how much space is between the doors edges and the frame. Approximately 3mm should be plenty of room, however, if you have less than this, or the door is already tight when opening and closing, you will need to plane the edges of the door down to allow for the extra thickness brought upon by the paint.
- Remove as much of the door furniture such as door handles, hooks, hangers etc, as painting around these obstructions will look messy and unprofessional and ultimately, make painting a lot more difficult than it needs to be. Using a good quality painters tape, tape up any furniture that you cannot easily or practically remove. Then, using door stoppers, wedge the door to ensure that it is secure while you work.
- Also tape up all the hinges and when doing this ensure that none of the metal hinge is visible (it is better to use a lot of tape, then to get paint on a moving part – as this may impair the doors ability to open and shut).
- Wash and sand the surface of the door thoroughly to remove dirt, dust and grime, as well as abrade the surface for strong adhesion. Ensure that you wipe and wash the dust from sanding the door prior to moving on.
- Once the undercoat has been completed, apply the topcoat on using a synthetic brush. With brush strokes following the grain of the door, it is easiest to paint in this order: 1) mullions 2)main panels, 3) rails, 4) styles and 5) edges. When the topcoat has dried, repeat the process for the other side. Once this has been completed, begin this step again, as you want to apply two layers of the topcoat before removing the tape and placing the furniture back on.
By: Toronto Painters
Windows and Trims
Painting windows and trims can seem quite daunting, as the surface area is significantly smaller and harder to stay within. To overcome this problem, you can use painters blue tape to mask around the edges, as this will allow leeway for some mistakes and over-edge painting and is also low stick (preventing it from peeling off any paint when being removed).
- Similarly to painting a door, inspect the gap between the moving parts of the window to ensure there is enough room for new layers of paint. If the window is already tight when opening and closing, or less than 3mm of space, plane it down to create that extra few millimetres.
- Next, using a sugar soap solution, thoroughly wash the window frame and glass to remove all dirt, dust and grime. Then place blue painters tape around the edges of the window glass and frame, ensuring that there are no gaps between the frame and the tape.
- For window frames, use a good interior enamel paint as the topcoat. Carefully begin to paint around the edges of the frame (near the glass) and work your way around – this will create a border that will allow painting the main frame less stressful. says
- Next paint the edge of the frame (near the wall), working your way around with long strokes following the grain of the surface. Once again, this will create another border to surround the middle of the frame, allowing some leeway for mistakes.
- Exercising the same long strokes, paint along the middle of the frame and work your way around.
- If the particular window frame you are painting is able to open/close, refrain from applying thick layers of paint into the grooves of the frame, whilst also opening and closing the window every 20-30 minutes to prevent it from drying shut.
And that’s it!
Happy Painting!
By Adam of Interior Painters Guelph