Visiting from Pinterest? Welcome! I’ve received many comments on this post asking us why we didn’t paint the trim before installation, which would have been an obvious fix. Our contractor installed this trim before we knew it wasn’t painted, so we didn’t have this option. Plus, I thought this would be a helpful tip for the many people who are repainting or touching up existing trim. Enjoy!
The last project of our second-floor construction project has been painting the trim and crown molding. It is taking longer than we thought.
Note to self: If you are painting the trim white, always go with the pre-primed trim.
It’s not that we have anything against priming the trim ourselves. It just takes a lot of patience, careful work…and time.
After trying a few tactics, muttering a few expletives and wiping our share of white paint off the walls, we came up with a plan. Chris and I both set out with a large spackle knife and used the sharp thin edges to protect our walls and carpet.
It worked particularly well on the floor where we could push the carpet all the way down and get right to the bottom of the trim…
And it worked on the wall side, too. For the floor boards, we were able to wedge the blade in between the wall and board (without harming anything) and protect the wall from paint. It was a bit more difficult on the window trim and crown molding, but keeping the knife at an angle helps keep the paint in.
We were awfully whiny as we recalled how quick the pre-primed trim was when we used it in other rooms. One coat of slick satin paint was all we needed compared to the two-plus coats that we did this time. But, it does look good!
I should have asked before we took this project on, but do you have any advice on trim painting?
