Painting the Trim and Molding: Dining Room, Check.

In my quest to make more of a mess out of our house, rather than less, I’ve taken on the monumental task of painting all of the moldings and trim on the first floor. This is no easy feat, as there is wood EVERYWHERE in this place. And not the pretty, dark kind, either. Oh no, we’ve got the blondish golden oak stain going, on boring pine wood. Half of the trim has paint on it (not from us!), while the other half is unevenly stained, creating widely different shades of color within the same room.Painting it is the only solution!

That’s where the fun begins, since it requires a multi-step process:

1. Taping up of the walls/floor. The flooring is hardwood and linoleum, making it easy to tape — but it takes forever to do it correctly.

2. Lighting sanding the wood. Gotta scuff up the glaze so the paint will stick.

3. Two coats of primer. I use latex-based because it’s easier to work with and dries pretty quickly between coats.

4. Two topcoats of semi-gloss paint. Using a pure-white hue to contrast with the light cream paint we put on the walls..

I can’t get away with doing fewer coats because the wood shows through. But I’m very happy with the results, take a look! I think the room looks a lot bigger and more elegant. I can’t wait to finish the other rooms. If I didn’t have to go to work, I could get a lot more done, ha ha.

Before

After

1 comment to Painting the Trim and Molding: Dining Room, Check.