Anyone paint their interior trim white?

[cbrsurfr]

My house was built in 1999 so I have ugly red oak trim. Probably looked great when the walls were beige and appliances white, but not anymore. Minus the half bath and my office all of my walls are in gray tones which doesn't go well with the oak trim.

Has anyone painted all of their trim? Should I leave everything and paint in place or remove them? Would it be easier to replace everything with white trim? I have a LOT of trim I would have to do, house is 2900 sq feet.

Additional problem I have is all of my interior doors are stained and flat hollow-core so I would need to replace those as well. I will probably have that done. Would a contractor just use pre-hung or use slabs?

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I did it with my Father years ago and we've thought about it in our home but decided to put the project off because new trim would be better.
Only advice I have is buy a better than good quality paint that is thick, take your time, and get good paint brushes. I'd leave it in place and use lots of tape. Removing them can be difficult and is asking to break one which will ultimately cause you to replace all of the trim.
Hanging doors isn't too hard you have to fiddle a bit but it can be done.

 

[NetWareHead]

Paint it and spend the time to tape everything properly for neatness. It would cost far more in both time and materials to rip the trim out and reinstall. New trim would have to be cut, (think of all the corners & miter cuts) installed, nail holes sealed and painted. You would also inevitably damage walls etc... in prying off some of the trim.

 

[Homerboy]

We've done it in a few rooms in our house (1940s Cap Cod) -- in fact just did it in the living room last month. Baseboards, window frames etc.

Sadly, after 70 years, that nice woodwork starts to turn very "orange" in color and lose it's appeal.

Prime it very well (there's special primers to go over that poly coat without needing to scuff it up) and it will take 2-3 coats to get nice even coverage.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

painting all our trim now. Renovations meant most of the trim in the upstairs was removed so it is a breeze to paint. The downstairs still needs it and is time consuming. Luckily my GF has a steady hand. She doesn't mask anything an very rarely messes up. A quick wipe with the sponge and the mistake is gone.

 

[RearAdmiral]

I did something similar, as mentioned you'll definitely need a primer. I did 4 coats total on my project.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Not the current place. I've lived in places with painted trim - when we nicked the paint one day and my mom realized it was solid oak underneath, she cried. (We had just finished repainting several walls with earth tones and installing hardwood flooring. She hated the white trim.)

But we ended up moving out before we had a chance to strip and refinish the trim.

 

[cbrsurfr]

I did something similar, as mentioned you'll definitely need a primer. I did 4 coats total on my project.

Ugh when I hear 4 coats that makes me think replacing would be better. Rough guess is 1000 linear feet. 4 coats would be brutal and I'd be painting every single weekend until 2017.

If I replaced everything it would cost more but I could setup a bunch of sawhorses and do all of the painting in 1 weekend. Sure I would still have to cut and fill nail holes, but I could get it all done in much sooner. I'm not worried about damaging walls removing the old stuff, this was built in the heyday of getting things done quick. I popped the bath trim off no problem when I did the flooring.

 

[RagingBITCH]

I painted all the trim at my old house and doors. Took a few weekends but made a difference in brightening up the place dramatically. Also depends on the area you live in too - some areas like Colorado that I've been, it's all stained wood trim. In Texas, it's predominantly white.

If you have a steady hand, you can get away with painting it without too much fuss and taping/prep. That being said, you have to be good at painting to get away with that. Our kitchen remodel involved a lot of new trim all over and they were able to hand paint the trim after priming.

Or, you could get a quote for new white trim, a quote for painting the trim, and see if either or is worth the time and effort you'd spend to do it yourself. After spending all last summer with holes and a trench in the yard trying to dig and fix the sprinkler system myself, it was well worth it to have "a guy" come do it. (Who also made repairs earlier this year)

 

[KentState]

I've repainted all the trim and doors in our house. Went out and got a 5 balloon bucket of Behr semi gloss pure white. Looks great against the greys, greens, yelloiws and blue variants. I also purchased all new paddle switches and plates. Mainly used frog tape and replaced caulking as necessary.

 

[cbrsurfr]

I think I'm going to have a door guy come out first before I do anything. That way we can discuss the trim. I spent 7 months last year flipping a house and about 6 years working on my previous house that was a disaster. I deserve a break - provided the costs aren't insane.

 

[Red Squirrel]

White is pretty standard now days. That said, painting oak is almost a sin! But if you really want it white due to it going more with the current decor, I would go ahead and paint it in place. Easier. Put on a good primer and then 2 coats of paint, maybe 3 as the oak might absorb a lot. Some may even say two coats of primer. Use good quality primer/paint.

I personally usually don't bother with tape, I would maybe put some on the floor in case of dripping, but otherwise I'm just really careful near the edges. Takes some practice and you will probably mess up at first, but you can either wipe it, or go back later and do touch ups with the wall paint. Start in an area that's less noticeable and by the time you do it all you'll get good at it. I find with tape you have to place it DEAD ON or you will just mess up anyway.

 

[slashbinslashbash]

Tape on the floor + 12" of paper. Tape along the wall above + 12" of paper. Leave all the tape and paper there until it's done. The painting itself will be the quickest part. Each coat will be done very quickly. If you do a good masking job, you don't have to go slowly when applying the paint.

 

[Greenman]

Tape on the floor + 12" of paper. Tape along the wall above + 12" of paper. Leave all the tape and paper there until it's done. The painting itself will be the quickest part. Each coat will be done very quickly. If you do a good masking job, you don't have to go slowly when applying the paint.

I've never once in my life seen a mask job actually work. The paint always bleeds under the tape.

 

[MustISO]

I've never once in my life seen a mask job actually work. The paint always bleeds under the tape.

Haven't verified this but Consumer Reports tested paint masking tapes and said the latest Frog Tape works perfectly, can be left on for extended periods and doesn't allow any paint bleed.

 

[mizzou]

I would love to completely strip the white off the windows and trim in my house, but it would be an incredibly laborious task.

I really need to take apart my old double hung windows, have the glass shop restore them, and then re-rope and weight them.

The problem with painting wood is that it takes only a little bit to basically permanently cover the wood. It's hard to change your mind later. I prefer to leave wood in a natural state with a very light stain.

 

[Subyman]

I agree with not taping. I never tape trim to paint it. Get a decent brush and practice. It is easy to get a tight line with a little practice. The pros hardly ever tape paint. Tape is used for perfect grout lines and such, but not for paint that often other than on HGTV.

Is the oak glossy or have any shine to it? If so you will need to prep it before priming. You'll need at least do a prep pad on all the trim. If it is gloss then you will need to give it a good sand with something like 220. That will be a full week end right there

You will need to prime or the paint will flake eventually off of the previous finish. I usually use Kilz because it has good bite and is very cheap, but it stinks. If you live in the house you may want to go with something else but you'll be surprised by how much the primers are that will actually work. Don't expect to use PVA primer or some cheap stuff on trim. Then you'll need a few gallons of trim paint. Don't get crap. I recommend Pro Classic. Probably a satin would be best for you if you don't want a ton of shine.

Have fun! I just finished taking a house from oak to white. Windows, doors, and baseboards. To do it properly it took over a week of full time work. Think probably 5-6 weekends if you've never done it before.

IMO, hire it out if you don't enjoy the work. It is a very tedious process.

 

[slag]

We took all the interior doors off, replaced the brass hinges with silver after spraying the doors white. Also painted all the trim and jams at that time and it looked really good imho. Bad thing about white doors is that they show finger prints like crazy, but it really makes homes "pop" and is the "in" thing right now. We didn't have any issues with paint bleed using normal blue 3m painter's tape.

 

[Subyman]

I'm not too big on spraying trim. It looks great, but you really need a professional spraying set up and multiple passes to get enough paint on the trim to hold up to the kind of abuse that trim typically sees. For a home owner and only doing it one time, I'd brush for sure. Depending on the doors, the OP could smooth roll them.

 

[slag]

I'm not too big on spraying trim. It looks great, but you really need a professional spraying set up and multiple passes to get enough paint on the trim to hold up to the kind of abuse that trim typically sees. For a home owner and only doing it one time, I'd brush for sure. Depending on the doors, the OP could smooth roll them.

Agreed. We sprayed the doors and they turned out great, but brushed the trim. Doors came out great. We did spray them with multiple coats, but also did 22 doors so it took a couple days.

 

[MrPickins]

No need to use tape, google "Cutting in paint". It just takes a bit of practice.

Also note, a terrycloth rag pulled tightly over a putty knife makes for easy edge cleanups if you make a mistake.