How to Paint Trim

I have been itching to paint the trim in our house ever since we signed the papers at closing! Our house was built in 1994 so this oak trim was pretty popular. All of the trim, doors and even the kitchen cabinets are this color and style.

We went and priced this specific trim at Lowe's because while doing some renovations, we needed to buy some more. It's about $30 for 8 feet... not cheap at all! I am very appreciative that the previous owners (and the ones who built the house) didn't skimp because otherwise I would want to replace it.

I'll be honest, after realizing how expensive the trim was, I told myself I could live with it for awhile. I was also dreading having to paint this much trim. It's all over!

There are two other issues. We aren't quite ready to replace the doors (we definitely want to but other things are taking priority) so once I paint the trim around the doors, it might look a little funny.

The other issue being the windows. I will most likely not be able to get out the panes inside of the window that are the orangey trim color. So those will have to stay that way until we need to replace the windows. I'll end up with white trim around an orange window frame with orange panels but I guess it's something I can live with for a few years.

I recently painted our half bathroom on the main level and decided to get all crazy and finally paint the trim in there as well. This sparked the insane person inside of me and I said, "I'm ready to start painting ALL of the trim. Bahahahaha!!!" Ok, that was supposed to be my attempt at an evil laugh. Really I am crazy because I have a nursery that isn't even started, a master bedroom that I intend to paint, and a million and one projects up my sleeve.

But alas, here we go with my tutorial on how to paint trim.

First you want to thoroughly clean your trim. You might be surprised at how dirty it is! I just used a damp rag but you could also use a little soap if you think they need it. Just make sure to go over it again with a clean rag to get all the soap off.

Then I took a 180 grit sanding block and lightly scratched the surface of the trim. You want to get rid of the shine so the paint can stick well.

Then I took another damp rag and cleaned the dust off of the trim as well as the floor.

The next step is to tape your floors and walls. I used blue painters tape because it rips off easily and doesn't peel away your paint. If you are going to be painting your walls in the near future, then there's no need to tape them off.

Next you'll want to use a primer. Some people don't recommend this step but I really feel it will help your paint hold up better and longer. It also has stain blocker in it so your white paint shouldn't turn yellow in a few years.

In my bathroom the walls were going to be the same color as the trim so there was no need to tape off the walls. Yeah!!

I also painted the trim in my hallway. I was giddy with excitement over this! I did tape off the walls as you can see because I had already painted these a few months ago and wasn't too excited about the idea of doing touch ups when I was done.

For the paint I just used white paint right off the shelf from Lowe's. I chose a Satin finish. I love Satin because it gives it a tad more shine then the walls but doesn't have a blinding effect like semi gloss. Semi Gloss and Satin are the two most popular sheens for trim. I also paint my doors in the same sheen as the trim, so keep that in mind.

I am completely amazed at how different it now looks.

Let's look at how much brighter and lighter it looks compared to the old trim.

The old trim was dark and made your eyes glance down at the floor making the room feel smaller. With the white trim, your eyes are free to glance up at the walls and towards the ceiling so the room feels bigger.

Keep in mind that it may take a few weeks for your paint to completely cure. You may notice that a chip happens easily, especially those first few days. I haven't had this happen yet in this house but it didn't happen in my last house. Just sand down that small spot and repaint it.

Being the crazy person I am, I even painted the trim around the door.

You can leave your trim as is but I like to use to caulk to cover up nail holes and also fill in the space by the wall. I'll have a tutorial for that coming up soon. :)

Next up is painting that front door. I told you, I am going project crazy over here. My husband might send me to the looney bin soon!