Tips for Painting Trim

Part of the Video Series Home Improvement & Repair Tips

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Get expert DIY home painting tips on how to paint the wood trim around doors, baseboards, and crown molding in this free online home improvement video. Avoid common painting mistakes and make your DIY interior paint jobs look like they were done by a professional!

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Posted by N2MeSelf on Thursday, 06 December, 2007 at 3:25 AM

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Greg Lim gives a lot of advice that saves the "painting newbie" a lot of first-time painter mistakes. He is a natural teacher! I look forward to more of his HGTV professional style segments.

Video Transcript

Tips for Painting Trim
The last thing you want to do in a room is paint the wood trim - around the doors, the baseboards, and the crown molding if you have it. and it’s exceptionally important to tape off the edges of this. And a lot times when you’re using trim paint, especially if it’s oil-based paint, it has a tendency to seep, even under the tape. No matter how well you tape and how well you press it against the edge. So I have a little trick to take care of that seepage. And that is to apply a very thing layer of caulk along the edge. It doesn’t have to be much at all because you’re basically going to wipe it off. Once you’ve done that, just use a wet finger - nothing beats a little spit- to take off the caulk. But you’ve still left a very fine membrane in place which is going to prevent the paint from seeping behind the tape.

And after that, it’s really just very straight forward. Things like a door stop are a lot easier to just remove than to tape around. The thing you want to do with trim paint is just to put on a light coat and don’t overwork it. There are flattening agents in the paint which are going to cause it to flatten out. A lot of times people will continue working the paint with the brush thinking, well, I need to get rid of these brush strokes. But all they’re doing is thickening the paint the more you work it. So what you want to do is use just a couple of strokes to apply it, and then just leave it. It will flatten out, and you will end up with a really nice job.

About the Expert

Expert: Greg Lim is a professional handyman and residential property manager. In the seven years he’s been a contractor, he has fully renovated two houses. Read More