Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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How To Paint Trim Without A Paint Sprayer

“I’m Blue Da Ba Dee Dabba Da-eeeeee” (anyone remember that song?). Picture us maniacally singing it while priming and painting trim for hours days. We’re slowly losing our minds, but we’re having fun doing it. Please feel free to click over and jam out so we feel less alone (and slightly less certifiable).

Ok, so when we last left our hero, er, our foyer, he was sporting some snazzy blue trim.

Wallpaper13

We had stripped down all the wallpaper, and had also removed two closet doors and the bathroom door so we could take them out to the garage and use our paint sprayer to apply a coat of primer and two coats of white semi gloss paint.

As for how we like our paint sprayer, it has definitely been a huge help in these two scenarios:

  • when we can remove something and lay it or lean it on a drop cloth and spray it (like doors, cabinetry, or crown molding before it’s installed)
  • when we don’t have a ton of other rooms/floors/areas to tape off (like when we had removed the carpeting upstairs and could quickly spray all of the trim and doors without worrying about getting it on any of the floors upstairs)

We’ll still definitely roll walls and ceilings (we think the sprayer is best for when we tackle trim, doors, cabinets, furniture, etc). Like how you wouldn’t spray paint walls but you might spray paint cabinets, doors, or furniture.

Foyer1

Here’s a video of it in action, just in case watching the motion of someone using it helps you picture things. John’s moving a little slow here, so for an even smoother finish we learned to go faster (it lessened the chance of drips).

The pros that we’ve found to this particular model (we had a Graco True Coat II – but we’ve since switched to this Wagner model) are:

  • great coverage (it goes on thicker and smoother than a brush or roller for a faster finished result)
  • you don’t have to water down the paint with anything (many sprayers require this, and it’s nice and easy not to have to worry about it)

And just to be balanced, here are the cons:

  • as with every paint sprayer, there’s overspray, so it’s not as controlled of an application as using a roller or brush since you get paint flying around outside the item you’re sprayer (check out the image above – all the paint on the plastic drop cloth behind the doors is overspray)
  • you have to learn how to control it so you don’t get drips – spray quickly and don’t hold the sprayer too close to the surface (this just seems to take some time to master, so it’s not as much a shortcoming of the sprayer as it is a skill that the operator has to hone)

So with the doors out in the garage being primed and painted with the sprayer, we dove into priming and painting the rest of the trim in the foyer by hand.

Foyer2

As for why we didn’t remove the trim and spray it in the garage like the doors, we were all for using it on the doors that way (which were easily removed and brought out to the garage) but removing and reinstalling all of the baseboard, chair rail, and crown in the foyer, as well as the trim around the seven doorways (!!) in there would have taken forever. We also considered taping things off and then spraying while standing in the foyer, but it leads into the kitchen, the dining room, the office, the portico, two closets, and the bathroom – so taping those all off to protect them from flying paint would have taken about a million years.

So we primed, and we primed, and we primed, and we primed (two coats on all of the blue baseboard, trim, chair rail, and crown). This is my tired of priming face.

Foyer3

If you have shiny wood trim or glossy painted trim, you’ll want to rough it up with sandpaper and wipe it down with liquid deglosser before moving on to the primer and paint step (be sure to use a stain-blocking primer if it’s raw wood). But since ours was chalky and matte painted wood, we didn’t need to sand or degloss it, and we could skip right to applying a primer followed by some semi-gloss paint.

It really depends what color you’re starting with when it comes to how many coats you’ll need of primer and paint, but in our case it was four coats (so after two coats of primer we could move onto two more coats of paint). We used Benjamin Moore’s Simply White in semi-gloss just like the trim and the doors upstairs. Here are some other designers’ best white paints you could use instead.

Foyer4

Finally after everything dried we could rehang the doors (with the new knobs that we ordered to match the ones upstairs).

Foyer17

We have yet to paint the back of the front door in the same teal color as the front of it (or ebonize the stair railing and paint those blue spindles white)…

Foyer19

… but it’s already a lot lighter and more open than it felt when we inherited it with blue trim and wallpaper aplenty.

Foyer Before1

Here’s a before picture from the other side.

Foyer Before

And a now shot with the white trim and doors. It’s also funny how much less blue the slate looks now that all the blue trim isn’t reflecting on it. It definitely still has some blue undertones, but it feels more neutralized now that we de-blued the trim.

Foyer9

So while the stairs are still quietly mocking us, we’re slowly inching towards a fresher looking foyer. We can’t wait to paint those yellowed walls.

Foyer6

And just in case you’re worried that we might be close to done painting blue trim, you’ll be comforted to know that it’s still hanging out in our office and our dining room – both of which not only have window trim and baseboards, but also have crown molding (along with blue chair rail and built-ins in the dining room). So there’s a fair chance you might be reading about us painting blue trim for the next decade or so. While we softly cry into our paint brushes.

Foyer8

But man oh man, does the glossy white result make us happy. The things we do for love.

Psst- In family news, here’s what we did for the Fourth of July and here’s how we spent our sixth anniversary.

Comments

  2. Brit [House Updated] says

    While I am not altogether sure what “ebonizing” means for your stair rails, I am confident it will be an improvement on what’s there now – anything would be! Looking forward to seeing more if everything coming together…

    Reply

  4. Crystal @ 29 Rue House says

    What a difference!! The slate does look so much better now too! I think you’ve painted to houses’ trim while I’ve still needed to do my one house. I think I need to stop being lazy/avoiding it and get on that. :)

    Reply

  5. Abbey says

    Looks great! I thought I should tell you that when that song came out, I was convinced the words were: “I’m blue, if I were green I would die, If I were green I would die…”

    Reply

  7. Jessica says

    Your new house is beautiful! I love watching you guys make it your home. I have a question for you. I know white doors with white trim is pretty common and always looks great, but have you guys ever considered painting the interior doors a dark brown or grey, and keeping the trim the nice glossy white? I’ve heard it can make your house look more custom or expensive. I’m not sure.. What are your thoughts on that?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We love that look! This house feels so dark/dingy that I think we like the “reset” that white doors and trim brings us, at least to start with. But who knows where we’ll end up down the line!

      xo
      s

  8. Whitney says

    Wow! Amazing what a difference it makes in making the room seem bigger! I am sure if the old owners saw how much it changed the room they would feel a little blue they didn’t do it sooner (sorry bad pun!)

    Reply

  9. Derek says

    Oh man. This definitely makes me antsy to get rid of the blue in our mudroom hallway. We kept the blue, but got rid of the border & sponge paint job, but decided to keep the blue, since we had so much other painting to do – but the before and after of this makes me think we should get that crap outta there!

    Reply

  10. Clementine says

    It already looks so much more “you”. What a difference white paint can make! (I will now have that song stuck in my head the rest of the day… thanks. ;)

    Reply

  11. Faith says

    Looks so bright and cheery!
    I was just just wondering why you wouldn’t paint the inside of the front door white? I think that’s more Feng Shui…

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We’ve done that in every other house we’ve owned, but we’ve never had sidelights before, so we like the idea of a pop of color to draw the eye and make that a focal point. If we hate it we’ll just paint it white though :)

      xo
      s

  12. Jennifer R. says

    I am with you on this one! My husband and I just began painting all of our living room trim white. Our whole house has white trim (thank goodness) except the living room is all dark stained wood. What a chore! But it is so exhilarating when the day is done and you look around and the room looks so much brighter. We also painted the stair spindles and I can’t stop “stairing” at them :o)We still a second and possibly third coat of paint to do and a lot of cleaning up the edges.

    Do you have an tips for hand painting quarter round trim? Any tips for cleaning up the lines afterwards such as scraping windows and getting paint off of wood floors or brick.

    You guys are awesome! Thanks!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We taped off the floor with Frog Tape (helps things not seep through) and then anything that got through I just scraped the slate (we also scraped windows upstairs after we painted with a razor -took a little while but worked like a charm).

      xo
      s

  15. Jessica @ Mom 4 Real says

    I absolutely adore it!!!! I painted my daughter’s closet doors when I did her room reveal on my blog, and LOVE the effect of the doors popping off of the wall instead of just blending in. Yours are gorgeous, and I would never have thought to paint the trim!!!

    Reply

  17. ashlea says

    Wow, with the blue trim gone the floors really do look more grey now. Before they clashed horribly. So I like the floors now. I hope y’all are keeping them.

    Reply

  22. Holly Marie says

    It looks AMAZING guys!! Amazing what painting over blue trim does to liven up the WHOLE house! I can only imagine all the hours of painting and just want to say- BRAVO!!!

    Reply

  23. liz says

    It’s really amazing how some paint and a door knob can make something look like “you”. Seriously, I am excited to see all the future details… but even with the yellow walls and the blue slate floors… the place now looks like “Young House Love”.

    I love seeing the process… even if it will be a decade of posts about blue trim updates!

    Reply

  24. betty says

    hahaha that song. i always thought they said “i’m blue, if i was green i would die..” hahah oh man. the foyer looks 10x better already! and crazy how yellow those walls look with white vs. blue. so you are going to paint the inside part of the front door the same blue as outside? i’m also curious to see if you’ll leave the scallop-y design on the stair risers (i’m not sure if thats the right term or not)

    Reply

  25. Katherine says

    I’m hoping it makes you feel less tired and more energized when you read all the comments on how AMAZING it looks. What an incredible transformation.

    Reply

  27. Stacey says

    The blue trim and crown-moulding really squashed the foyer. These before and afters are good examples of what not to do when decorating. I’ve been wondering if you’ve picked an interior colour scheme/wall colours yet? Any musings available? Or are you just living in it for a while to feel out the character of the house?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We’re hoping to write a post a little later this week about what colors we’re feeling for this house (we have a date with a big shoebox full of paint swatches tonight or tomorrow).

      xo
      s

  28. ale norris says

    thank you for always getting ridiculous songs stuck in my head! (fergie? eminem? now this?!) i always look silly at work after reading song-related posts because i get distracted and start singing along.

    Reply

  29. heather says

    While I am currently despising you for your Monday morning song choice to get stuck in our heads, I do applaud the effort on the trim and getting everything back to white. It looks nice! We’re just about to start 2nd coats in all the room in the addition for paint, before we finish the floors. Thankfully I have no trim to work around. That said, I’m still sticking my fingers in my ears and going *LA LA LA I CAN’T HEAR YOU* until it’s time to actually pony up and do it.

    Reply

  30. Suzanne says

    Looks awesome! I love the slate floor…so different and classic. I’m picturing the interior side of your front door painted black!! Can’t wait to see how everything else keeps progressing.

    Reply

  31. KarenH. says

    Wow, what a big difference a little bit of paint and lots of sweat can make, eh? That blue is so overwhelming and oppressive. But on the other hand, I’ll bet it’s a HUGE reason why you guys got it for that awesome price :) People took one look at all the painting they would have to do and ran screaming.

    Have you considered installing new stair banisters? Will you be removing the banisters to spray paint or will you paint them by hand? What colors are you thinking of in the front hall–I have to admit that the yellow looks SO much better with the white trim, but I”m sure in non-pictured reality it’s more dirty/dingy than bright :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We’re planning to paint the existing bannister for now, but we’re completely open to rebuilding the bannister down the road if we come up with something better and save up the loot :)

      xo
      s

  35. Jeremy says

    Is it wrong that I still have the Ifel 65 CD and occasionally bust it out when I am feeling the need? My wife hangs her head in shame every time.

    Reply

    • Bren says

      Tell her not to hang her head, BANG her head. That song is still good. Even my college age kids love it! I had it stuck in my head when I read this post earlier, but after a quick trip in the car, Radioactive is stuck on repeat (in my head). Blue was waaaay better!

  38. Laura @ Rather Square says

    Nice job on the doors and trim! We have a lot of “almond”-colored baseboards and trim in our house that definitely needs some brightening. But it looks like there are a lot of coats of paint on them already, and then they are chipped down to the wood in a few places. How “gloppy” were your baseboards before you repainted them?

    Also, I know what you mean about the floor looking less blue. Our entryway was yellow with red carpet (!) and bounced a weird yellow light all the time on the white ceiling and stair rails. So we painted it a warm neutral gray and added a new textured berber carpet, and there’s no more strange yellow tones bouncing off everything in sight anymore. Changing colors really makes a huge difference!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Our baseboards were actually in good shape (not drippy or gummed up with lots of paint – our guess is that all of the trim was painted this color by the builder and then the previous owners moved in and left everything exactly as it was when the house was built). In your case I’d check out the paint desk at a home improvement store and ask them what they recommend (they might have a stripping agent or a scraper that could work).

      xo
      s

    • Jessica says

      Thanks Laura for asking this question. I’ve been super jealous of how they’ve been just painting things without having to strip. I was kind of hoping they had some sort of secret. We’ve striped 1 door in our house that was painted: white, yellow, red, green then tan/cream. My theory is that they used it to decorate with the seasons.

  41. Barbara says

    It looks amazing. I had a similar issue but in my case all the trim was battleship gray. I generally like grey, but this was awful. I had to sand and degloss. Ouch, my arms.

    Reply

  43. Samantha says

    Can I just say, I LOVE this house. No wonder you guys jumped at it. The layout is great and even *some* of the existing features (like that slate) offer a lot of potential. This place is going to look awesome as you continue to freshen it up and live into it.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Thanks Samantha! We feel the same way – we still wake up and say “is this real life? How did we get this house?” then we remember the trim and say “oh yeah, but we have things to paint…” – haha!

      xo
      s

  44. Ginny @ Goofy Monkeys says

    I hadn’t thought of painting the interior of the front door the same color as the exterior – is there a “rule” for this? I would have assumed you’d paint it white to match the interior of the house….

    Anyway – I like the changes to the blue trim. I did have a question – we have white trim and painted it white again when we moved in (from gloss to a more satin finish) but the paint is peeling all over the place. Any idea what could cause this?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh no! Sounds like you painted over oil-based trim with latex paint. I’d sand it to get it smooth (do a lead test first to be sure) and then use an oil-based primer (which neutralizes oil-based paint so it can then be painted with a latex semi-gloss paint for a nice peel/bubble free result). And as for the back of the door, it can totally be white or the color that’s on the front – or even another color if someone wants to get feisty. Haha!

      xo
      s

  46. Christina says

    The power of paint never fails to shock me. It looks amazing!
    When you first announced you were moving, I was sad (loved your old/2nd house) but now, I’m thrilled to watch you guys do this again.

    Reply

  47. Lizzie says

    “I’m blue….” Thanks guys! I’ll be singing/humming that song all day – I’ve always sung it “I’m blue. If I was green I would die, if I was green I would die.” Am I the only one?

    Reply

  48. Misty says

    Wow. it is so much brighter. I wish these posts went on and on and on… I am so excited about seeing the changes to this house. It makes me appreciate a house with “good bones” so much more! I’m looking at MLS with all new eyes thanks to you guys.

    Reply

  49. Sally says

    Wow, that looks so much better! I can safely say I feel your pain, as I’ve had to do the same thing to navy blue trim, and the end result is totally worth it! Be sure to give yourself a good DIY reward and do something fun before you tackle the rest of that blue :-)

    Reply

  50. Michelle says

    OMGooooodnessss, that looks so much better! I don’t know about you guys, but sometimes I have the hardest time finding motivation for “maintenance” type projects like this. The ones that require more creativity and design planning are so much easier to tackle (at least at first). How do you work through the “this just has to be done even though I might lose my mind from the boredom and monotony” projects?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I think we’re at that “cheap and free projects” phase since we bled so much money in the first month that we were here with more necessary inspection item updates (getting trees down, fixing and painting rotten siding and trim, etc) so now we’re in that “just remove wallpaper and paint things and take down glass shower doors” phase where it’s not as exciting as things like building or renovating or gutting or tiling, but it’s so helpful on the budget, and it really helps us “see” the house when we bring it back to a neutral state from all of the dark trim and wallpaper :)

      xo
      s

    • Eri says

      I see what you are talking about Sherry. And the fact of the matter is, we are still constantly, I mean CONSTANTLY, changing our mind after one year in our house about what we want to do or how we want it to look etc (Pintrest is guilty for this… I can easily picture us crying “Why didn’t we think of this?” or “We could have done that!” etc), so early hasty commitments seem risky.

      So we will let our wandering minds take their course to settle (which is good for our bank account too!) and look forward to where we end up.

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