Wanna give your home an instant facelift without going broke? Try painting your wooden trim white throughout your home. It is so easy, even your kids can help you do it too.
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The Dilemma (Before):
We bought an older home with tacky, ugly, & old honey oak wood trim & molding everywhere throughout the house.
The inspiration piece for us was clean polished modern white trim & molding that you normally see in brand-new build homes.
But how do you get the look without the hefty price tag?
DIY!
The Solution (After):
An updated, brand new to you, clean, fresh & modern white trim & molding that is consistent throughout the entire house. It looks brand new because of DIY from you.
Painting your trim white is an easy and frugal way to update your older home without breaking the bank. As we newlyweds, we were cash-strapped during those early days of owning a new home and prepping our nest for our future babies. We were young, in love, and nose-deep in debt, no less.
But even so, we still wanted to try our best to make our house into a home before the babies came. We quickly learned that when it comes to home improvement projects, “done” is an arbitrary concept based on one’s time, money, energy, & mood!
That is certainly the case when it comes to paint colors because painting our wood trim may seem easy in theory but it is not simple. We are STILL learning this concept now as we continue our home improvement DIY adventures practicing on our second home, which is very time-consuming.
So, what can you do besides watch paint dry? Be sure to have lots of music & podcast episodes ready when you paint, you’ll thank me for it. 😉
TLDR? Grab Your Basic Tool Kit Checklist here:
Here is a list of everything you’ll need to get started with painting your trim white:
Supplies Needed:
- 1 cup of cold water
- 2-3 angled trim brushes
- 1 gallon semi gloss white paint
- 6-8 cans of Zinzer or Kilz Water-based White primer paint
- 1 fil stik or spackle
- 1 pack of fine sand paper
- Several plastic bag
- Rubber bands
- 4- extra plastic cups for paint & water
- Latex gloves
- Safety goggles
- 3-4 rolls Painters tape
- Foam/poster board or metal shield
Materials:
- Large plastic sheeting
- 1 paint cover sheet?
- 1 paint cover bunny suit
- Clean paint clothes only for diy projects
- Plastic expandable shoe covers
- Paint tray kit
- Plastic shopping bags
- Wire paint brush scraper
- Plastic baggies for wet paint brush
Sick of looking at your ugly house? Let’s Fix that!
Instructions:
- 1-Prep the area:
- lay down a drop cloth around the perimeter of your baseboards
- Use painter’s tape to tape off the edge of the trim that meets the wall to keep the walls clean from paint
- Lightly sand the trim & baseboard & dust off debris with a clean and dry paint brush
- 2-Spray Paint The Trim with Primer:
- Use primer to create a barrier so that the paint will stick & stay brilliantly bright and white but also not absorb into the wood.
- Use a plastic/metal shield or even white poster board to block the paint from the walls
- Follow the instructions on the can & spray the trim with Zinzer or Kilz Water-based White primer paint
- Wait 30 minutes to 1 hour in between each application to dry
- 3-Fill in gaps, cracks, & holes:
- After 1 coat of white primer, fill in any gaps, cracks, or holes in the trim with spackle
- 4-Sand lightly:
- Lightly sand the trim until smooth
- Dust off the trim with a clean & dry paint brush
- 5-Paint w/brush:
- Paint a thin coat onto the trim using an angled or trim paintbrush,
- Repeat these steps as necessary
- Can paint trim & baseboards up to 3 think coats of white semi-gloss finish paint
- Let dry for 1-3 hours in between coats
In SUMMARY:
If you want to give your house an instant facelift without going broke, then painting your trim & baseboards white is the easiest way to do just that! Not only is painting your trim white an easy diy project to do, it will save you a ton of cash too.
Just be prepared to put in some time, because you know what they say about paint. So crank up the music or a catch up on a few of those podcast episodes you’ve been meaning to listen to because, well, this is it! 😉
To recap, here’s how to paint your wooden trim white:
1- Prepped the area before you paint with painter’s tape and a drop cloth
2- Spray Paint The Trim with a water-based primer so the paint will stick but not absorb into the wood.
3- Fill in gaps, cracks, & holes on the trim and baseboards
4- Sand the trim & baseboards lightly and dust it off with a dry paintbrush
5- Paint a thin layer of semi-gloss white interior paint on the trim & baseboards with an angled brush & repeat up to 3 coats if necessary.
CONCLUSION:
In those early days of new homeownership, we traded hours for dollars with hopes that it would net us a good return by doing much of the home improvement projects, like painting, by ourselves.
I’m happy to say that this same frugal mentality did just what we hoped for and then some.
We were able to sell our house quickly because of a few simple updates that we’ve DIY, much of that was from painting the trim, walls, cabinets, staircase, doors, shutters, etc. on our own.
Want more tips and tricks on DIY home improvement? Check out more of my helpful articles below.
Other Helpful Resources:
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