Crown molding and baseboards make your room finished. They can also provide a pleasing contrast to your interior wall color. But once they are on your walls they can be hard to paint. Following a few easy steps can make it easy to do.
Steps for Baseboards Painting
Arm yourself. Painting is all about the right preparation and the right tools. For baseboard painting, the right tool isn’t a brush or roller, it’s a paint pad. A paint pad is similar to sponge on a handle. They are generally the same size as baseboards so you just swipe the pad down the baseboard.
Get your baseboards clean. Paint doesn’t stick to dirty surfaces.
Tape off the baseboards. Get the blue painter’s tape. Regular masking tape will work, but it can pull the paint off the wall, defeating the purpose. Run a strip along the top of the baseboard. You also want to tape off the bottom. You need to tape plastic along the baseboard so that you don’t get drips on the floor. Paint stores have a product that is tape and plastic all in one so you don’t have to buy just plastic.
Time to paint. Put some paint in your paint tray. You don’t want to have too much because it can slosh and get messy. Dip your paint pad in the paint. You want to get it on the pad part but not the handle part. Make sure you scrape off any extra. In one smooth motion run the pad along the baseboard. When you start to run out of paint on the pad, repeat the process. Make sure your strokes overlap for proper blending.
Clean up. You need to wait at least 4 hours for the paint to completely dry before you remove the tape. If you can leave it overnight that’s even better.
Steps for Crown Moldings Painting
Cover any mistakes. Before painting is the perfect time to fill in any gaps between the wall or ceiling and your crown molding. Put caulk in the gaps to close them up. You can also hide any nail holes in the molding with wood putty. You need to let caulk completely dry, you can’t paint on wet caulk.
Time to tape. You need to tape along the ceiling and the wall.
Apply primer. You want to give the paint something to stick to, and it makes the paint go on smoother.
Put on the paint. When you are crown moldings painting you want to make sure you use the right brush. You want a beveled or angled brush. You can get a sharper, cleaner edge that way. Apply the paint with smooth side to side strokes. Don’t go up and down, you will get a huge mess and splotchy painting. Overlap your strokes so that the paint looks smooth.
Wait for the paint to get completely dry and take the tape off. You should have a sharp line of paint on just your crown molding.
While painting baseboards and crown molding can be a little more difficult than painting a wall, following these steps will help you get it done with no problem. If you are intimidated by the process or simply don’t have the time, don’t hesitate to call your Athens painting contractor to handle your interior painting project expertly.
