Refresh your home by painting the trim in a clean, refreshing white.
Well hello! I've been away so long and I apologize. I picked up a new job painting a lake house.
Its a thirty year old home that is getting a fresh coat of paint everywhere, and I do mean everywhere. The interesting thing is the homeowner (a friend of mine from high school) loves painting and redid their main house so she really wants to paint the lakehouse. In fact, she wanted to paint the entire thing next week as she's taken off a week of work. Fortunately, for us both, she realized that there was just too much painting for one person to do in a week. So SuperPainter (me) came to the rescue.
I've been working for three weeks on the place and yesterday I turned it back over to the homeowner.
I have painted all of the ceilings, all trim, the windows, the doors, light fixtures...everything! All while battling some serious allergies or a sinus infection, not sure which yet.
Now the homeowner will be painting the kitchen, the dining room, livingroom, hallway, bathroom and three bedrooms.
Once the week is over I'll be called back to finish what hasn't been done. I also have a few doors to do. Whew!
It's really been challenging and tiring and I have to thank my mom and dad for coming out and helping. But I have to admit the fresh paint on the tired old woodwork looks amazing...so much so I'm thinking about doing my own woodwork, at least the upstairs.
I've noticed a lot of magazines and television shows are showing white trim and bright and richly colored walls. If you've been this trend and want to imitate it there are a few things to remember.
Prep your woodwork! Your woodwork has a stain which can make paint crack and peel. To prevent this you need to do some prepwork. You can sand everything, which is a pain, or you can buy a primer that is designed for this. There are a lot of primers out there that work so you should research your situation a little and talk to your local paint store. If you have a mold problem make sure you get a primer that helps kill mold.
Protect the environment. Primer is harder to get off everything than paint. (Even skin) So take the walls and adjacent surfaces, use dropcloths and be careful.
Don't expect perfection. Primer is primer, its not paint and it doesn't need to look perfect it just needs to coat the surface. So don't waste your time trying to get the primer to look like a top coat, it just won't happen. But do make sure you do not have drips.
Once you've primed your woodwork you can begin painting. It will take about 2-3 coats to get a nice finished look and a semigloss works best as it's easiest to clean.
And finally, because there are so many coats of paint you need to let it cure for as long as possible before you put anything against it or attach anything to it.
It's work but so worth it if you have old, tired woodwork. And the lake house looks fabulous!
