We have a few rooms of dark stained trim, casing, and baseboards that we would like to paint white. I am pretty sure it is oak, I have not seen it to be sure at this time. It has already been taken off the walls so that should make it easier. What is the best way to prepare them for painting? Should we sand them first? Just a light sanding or should we try to remove more of the stain? What grit would be best? We are planning on using the finishing paint shown below, Sherwin Williams Pro Classic Acrylic Latex, painting finishing staining trim baseboard If you must paint this stained wood, a light sanding with 4-O steel wool or 320-grit sandpaper should be fine. All you're doing is roughing up the surface coat, usually poly, which will let the paint "key" to the surface better. Be aware of the finish originally used on the wood; only poly will take a latex topcoat well, while on most other finishes like varnish or oil-based finishes, latex will not bond to the surface properly;

it may peel easily, or even bead up when applied. If this is the case, roughing up the topcoat is not enough; you will have to sand off the topcoat to get to raw wood, and on a profiled wood piece like mouldings, this can be difficult or impossible. Also be aware of the type of wood; certain woods are "open-grain", and will absorb paint deeply into the structure of the wood, requiring many coats to "fill" the wood and get a solid color on top. Otherwise, the grain and any knots will show through the final coat until you put 3 or 4 thick coats on. If you have to go down to bare wood on an open-grained wood, you have to seal the wood with a product that is compatible with your paint base. Regardless of the religious factor involved in painting hardwood trim, (lololol) if you must do it, you need to buff sand the wood, 150 or 220 is fine for this step. PRIME the trim with BINs Bullseye, pigmented shellac. After the Bins dries, very lightly sand it again with 220-400 paper or 4/0 steel wool.

It will be smooth as glass. The shellac will seal the grain and block any bleeding into your new color. Now go ahead and paint away!Best Cat Food For Sensitive Cats I've painted over lots of old houses, most homeowners want to update the house by painting the old outdated look of wood to something more trendy like bright white. Best Fishing Reels Under 50 DollarsI recently had a job where I painted the walls, baseboard, window trim and sills, doors and ceiling all the same shade of white (Benjamin Moore designer white) in a flat finish. Vegetarian Weight Loss CoachThe ceiling was sanded flat and all the knobs and outlet covers were changed to a tarnished stainless steel design. When the room was finished it looked really cool and updated.

I know that flat paint isn't recommended on baseboards but the owners were older and the room was low traffic so I think it will be fine. Anyway I have had the most success tarnishing varnished woodwork with TSP. I prefer not to sand it because the varnish acts as a barrier, keeping in the stains from seeping through. Also older varnish probably contains lead,so you do not want to make it air born if possible. Once the woodwork is tarnished, I always have the best results spraying a quality oil based primer. I try to do everything eco-friendly so I use a lower VOC product that Dulux makes. Finish it off with 2 coats of sprayed on white paint and everything will look great. For most people I would recommend a semi-gloss for anything high traffic and now days I always try to use latex but sometimes you will have to use oil for some applications still.Browse other questions tagged painting finishing staining trim baseboard or ask your own question.Transforming builder grade honey oak cabinets into sultry, dark espresso cabinets is easy.

I’m going to walk you through it step by step as much as I can in this tutorial. I hope you’ll find it easy, non-intimidating and then recommend my blog to all your friends so my blog can grow and grow. Since I do this all for free out of the goodness of my little heart. Alright, let’s do this. You need some supplies first. They’re not pricey, but you do need all of them. If there’s an appropriate alternative, I’ll list it. Otherwise, plan to get exactly what I list to get the same results I did. YOU CAN DO THIS! -General Finishes Java Gel Stain (YOU CANNOT SUBSTITUTE THIS! I had a ton of trouble finding it locally, so I bought it on Amazon and had it to my door in about 4 days.) If you’re doing a small vanity, order the 1/2 pint. If you’re doing a whole kitchen, order the quart. I ordered the quart since I am doing a vanity + a whole kitchen. A little of this goes a LONG way. -General Finishes Satin Poly/topcoat or any other satin polycoat will do. -Painters pyramids to use on cabinet doors so you can paint both sides at once

Total cost for all of the materials should be between $50-$100ish. UPDATE: Due to insane amounts of traffic from Pinterest, there’s now a FAQ post about this very tutorial below. You can read it here. And if you don't mind, a quick tweet about this tutorial will help me keep up with all the emails I get. Here’s what my vanity looked like before I got started. Step 1: Remove all hardware and put it in a ziploc baggy. Step 2: Prep your area. Step 3: Clean all cabinet frames/drawers/doors and remove them. Step 4: Lightly sand cabinets and remove dust with a tack cloth. do not go overboard. Also, unlike other staining methods, do not wipe it off. You want to put on a nice, thin coat. Make sure the stain doesn’t glob up on/in corners, that’s when cheesecloth/gauze is handy. Then you let coat 1 dry for 12 hours. Then you put the 2nd coat. Let it dry for 24 hours. Then put the last/third coat and let it dry for 5 days and then seal it with 2 coats of gel poly.