Interior painting

[Larry David]

I am about to start a major repainting of 5 bedrooms, hallway and foyer. Everything is presently painted in a flat, white paint. Should I paint the trim around the windows and doors and baseboards first or should I paint the walls first then the trim and baseboards? I am not excited about this task.

[SARGE..g-47]

Walls first Larry and then "finesse" that trim as that's where all the real fun of painting is. Nothing like a well trimmed sash brush and a steady hand with good paint that glides on. Oh yeah!

Didn't mean to get carried away, I just love to paint for whatever reason?

Regards...

[Tom Slick]

use good brushes and roller covers, you'll be happier in the end. purdy and zinzer are the only brushes I'll use for a good job.

[MilDoc]

Agree completely with SARGE, Tried both ways in the past, but walls first works best. Also, buy GOOD blue painter's tape, ie, Scotch. The generics are cr**p IMHO.

[dlminehart]

Also, it helps to remove the tape before the latex dries hard to it. Avoids lifting paint with the tape.

[cabinetman]

I've tried it both ways. I actually swear at the paint if it bleeds under tape. One point to think about. If you're not taping, doing the trim and caseings first lets you have a straighter stroke and more normal hand/arm position to do the walls. Then If you get any trim paint on the walls you have a fairly straight stroke to prove how steady you are.



"I'M NEVER WRONG - BUT I'M NOT ALWAYS RIGHT"

[Pappy]

I am about to start a major repainting of 5 bedrooms, hallway and foyer. Everything is presently painted in a flat, white paint. Should I paint the trim around the windows and doors and baseboards first or should I paint the walls first then the trim and baseboards? I am not excited about this task.

Neither....Buy a smaller house!

[offthemark]

I've tried it both ways. I actually swear at the paint if it bleeds under tape. One point to think about. If you're not taping, doing the trim and caseings first lets you have a straighter stroke and more normal hand/arm position to do the walls. Then If you get any trim paint on the walls you have a fairly straight stroke to prove how steady you are.

A little practice (which you are going to get) and you can do a straight edge without tape. Saves tons of time. Without tape, I do the crown and casings first, then the walls, then the baseboard. It's easier to do a straight line with the wall paint against the casing than the other way due to the small area on the side of the casing. Because the wall paint can drip and/or run onto the baseboards, I do them last. It's also easier to paint a straight line from the bottom than from the top as you don't have to worry about gravity.

Good luck.

[mpauly]

I recently bought a fixer upper house and am about 1/2 way through the finish painting of the entire inside (going room by room as time allows). I'm with Cabinet man, I don't get good results with tape and prefer to paint the trim first, then cut in the walls. I'd only suggest painting the walls first if you were going to use a high gloss paint on the trim and if you get any high gloss on the walls, the flat paint might not adhere well to the gloss.

A 2.5" Purdy Sash brush is my go to brush, the angled tip really allows you to get a definied, straight edge for cutting in. I tend to get the best result if I get on a ladder and get real close to the area I'm cutting in (especially at the ceiling or top of door/window trim) so I can see the exact edge of the paint line. I also only use purdy rollers because they are the only ones I have found that don't lint (leave bits in the paint) and don't cost a fortune so I don't feel bad throwing them out after I'm done with a room. I usually do one coat per evening, so I store the rollers in a plastic bag in the fridge in between coats (keeps the paint from drying on the roller so you can use it on the next coat).

I also have gotten the best results using benjamin moore paint, I find it just rolls on much smoother than the others I've tried. The washable matte finish is worth the extra $5 a gallon if you plan on needing to clean anything off of it (kids?). I thought Ralph Lauren paint was ok as well, but I had a horrible time with Behr.

With any painting, the prep is the most important. The best paint job is still going to look bad if the walls underneath aren't smooth. Also, if you have any semigloss on the trim already, use some TSP to clean/de-gloss it so the new paint will adhere or scuff it up with a scotch brite pad. It doesn't sound like it, but if your walls are currently dirty, I'd suggest a TSP wash and prime before finish coat (My prior owners were chain smokers so I had to wash and prime the whole house).

Good luck.
Michael

[jhart]

Wegner has a power roller unit that is really slick for ceilings and good sized walls that don't have a lot of cut up areas (i.e. windows, buffets etc.). Takes a little more time for clean up, but you can really apply the paint, versus loading up a roller all the time. Probably takes about 1/3 the time of a standard roller.
I usually do all the cutting in first, leaving about 1" distance from the cut in. Works really great if you have two people doing it, one cutting in and one rolling.

[thrytis]

For the amount of painting you have to do, something like the power roller or a PaintStick is well worth the investment. I picked up a PaintStick for some painting i did recently and it saved a ton of time running back and forth to the paint tray, and the results were better since it was easier to keep a wet edge. Well worth the $20. The PaintStick lets you suck up paint into the roller handle and squeeze it out through holes in the roller, the power roller i think just pumps it out of the can through the roller. I've read some complaints about the PaintStick taking more time to clean than a normal roller, but i find it easier.

[cwsmith]

I'll echo the other opinions. It seems that all I have done in the past several months is paint. First this house, and now I'm repainting the house we purchased last fall and hope to move into before winter.

With the latter, I paid a so-called professional to remove the wallpaper, prime, and paint the entire interior. What a waste of money that was. Now I'm painting it correctly!

I like to paint the walls first and the trim second, but the comments regarding getting a nice edge near the trim is right on. I usually go back to "trim out" the walls next to the window and door trim. Baseboards are always painted last.

The paint quality is very important and I'm sure we all have our preferances. I'm using mostly Behr, but a recent use of their "Kitchen and Bath" proved to be tricky and I really don't like that paint. It's semi-gloss, but all too thick and even with a good brush and roller, it doesn't spread smoothlly. I ended up thinning it a bit on their recommendation, but still don't like it.

A good quality brush is essential and I've tried both ends of the scale. Brushes can get very expensive, so take good care of them. (I couldn't believe how much their price went up in the last ten years... almost like gasoline!) When you have a good quality brush (I prefer a 2" or 2-1/4" brush, you can do a lot of edgeing without needing to mask first. The "blue" tape is very good, but you have to get the tape off before the paint drys, otherwise it'll have a tendency to lift


CWS

[Larry David]

Thanks for all the good advice. This is such a great website, one of the few I visit anymore. There is so much crap on the internet anymore.