When clients call us for interior painting, one of the questions we often get is whether it is possible to paint over stained woodwork.  The short answer is yes, you can absolutely paint over stained trim and doors. Today’s coating technologies make almost any surface paintable.  Converting your stained wood to painted wood is time consuming and takes an expensive primer, but if you are willing to put the effort in or pay a professional to do it, it is not only possible, but can make quite a difference in the appearance of your home.  Both stained wood and painted wood have a long tradition in decorating and have been used in very high end settings.  From the mahogany panels in the late medieval era to the high gloss painted wood in the Georgian era, wood is a very versatile decorative element that adds value to any home.

Prep Work

If you are a DIY expert, you can follow these following guidelines to paint your own wood trim.  First, you will want to clean the finish to ensure any years of furniture polish, wax, skin oils, and other contaminants are removed.  Our crew uses denatured alcohol to clean the current finish.  You may find that you need a more industrial cleaner if you run into gummy contaminants.  In these situations, we use a Goo-Gone cleaner followed by the denatured alcohol.  Once you are sure it is clean, you can now start the next step.

Our crew then sands down the finish to abrade it.  We want to make sure that the finish is porous so the bonding primer has another way to key into the current coating.  You can use a liquid sanding agent to make this step easier, but we always recommend you at least lightly sand the surface to ensure you get a good bond.  Nothing will be more disappointing and difficult to fix than paint peeling off your woodwork.  If you take the time to prep it well, you will be rewarded for your efforts.

Priming

The next step is to apply a high quality bonding primer.  Some painters will caulk before this step, but we want to make sure that the caulk has a good quality primer under it to make sure it adheres well for years to come.  Most caulking failures are due to the caulk disbonding from the substrate, not the caulk itself failing.  We recommend you apply primer on a few areas of the woodwork and let it set for 24 hours.  After a short cure, try to scratch the primer off.  If it is adhered well to the woodwork, you are good to go with the primer.  Make sure you apply the primer with a high quality brush and lay it off well to avoid heavy brush texture.  Our crews normally prefer to spray the woodwork to get a smooth finish.

Caulking

One the primer is dry, you will be able to apply a fine bead of caulk to all the joints.  Stained trim is not normally caulked unless someone has used a clear caulk, but this is unlikely.  If your woodwork is caulked, you will need to determine if it is silicone or acrylic caulk.  You may want to consult a professional at this point to see how to proceed.  Our crew would identify this first and make a plan of attack.  If all is well, just use a very thin bead and wipe it down with a damp rag to make sure you still have good profiling and that it will look clean and tight when your final coats are applied.  This is a tedious step and doing it well will again pay big dividends.  Any nail holes that have not been previously filled should be obvious once you prime.  These should be filled with filler like Drydex.  Do not attempt to caulk them, this will not look good.  Shortcuts will show and the effect you were hoping to achieve will be diminished or ruined altogether.

Painting

It is important to give the caulk time cure.  If you attempt to paint over caulk that is not fully dried and, at least partly cured, you risk the caulk cracking and prematurely failing.  Once you are sure the wood is ready to paint, we recommend using a top quality trim paint.  Our go to products are Sherwin Williams Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel, Sherwin Williams Gallery, or Benjamin Moore’s Advance.  You have quite a few lower cost options, but these are the ones we recommend with Advance most likely being the lowest cost option of these choices.  Make sure you apply the paint evenly and laying off the brush marks with long, light, smooth strokes.  Our crew always prefers to spray, but some decorators like the brush texture.

If you would like a quote or advice on painting your stained woodwork, we would be happy to schedule a time to meet at your home and take a look at your project.  You can reach our sales team by calling 317-528-9500.