Prepping and Painting Trim

Paint all of the trim in the house.

Every single piece.

Every single doorway.

Every single closet opening.

Every single piece of base moulding.

Every single window sill.

That's what we've been up to.

Momplex

The baseboard was already prepainted, but we had to go back over the spots where I filled nail holes with wood filler with touch up paint. This literally took like 10 minutes.

Preparation is everything.

After days and days and days of painting trim, we let everything dry overnight. And then the magic moment when the painter's tape is removed .... did she do her job?

Perfectly.

Man are we ever glad to be done!

If we had not put the time into properly preparing the trim, it would have never looked this good. And we'd probably still be painting. So a huge thank you to our friends at 3M DIY for the care package and sponsoring our massive trim painting project.

This post is a collaboration with 3M DIY. All opinions expressed are my own, and I only recommend products that I use and love. To learn more about safety and preparation, visit 3MDIY.com.

Step 1 Diagram

Step 1

Jealous much?

This is what the Momplex, Unit B, built just for Mom who likes to sew (the Ram's Mom) has looked like for the past couple of weeks.

I'll spare you a photo of what we look like. The good news is paint does eventually come out of your hair. Eventually.

It sure is easier to cut a piece of trim and nail it up, isn't it? Painting really is the tough part!

To make things easier, we decided to whenever possible, paint whatever we can on the ground as opposed to on a ladder over our head ... or even worse, on our knees, in a corner of a closet, painting baseboard.

So first up, we created a conviently located painting spot for pre-painting trim.

Step 2 Diagram

Step 2 Instructions

Our friends at 3M DIY knew we were about to take on a monster painting project, so they sent us a little care package to make things easier on us, including this heavy duty non slip paint drop cloth.

Step 3 Diagram

Step 3 Instructions

We spread the drop cloth down on the floor - it's got a special webbing, kinda like drawer liner, so it stays where you put it. It's also waterproof, so no nagging feeling, wondering whether or not the paint drips are going to soak through.

Step 4 Diagram

Step 4 Instructions

And then we painted as much of the trim as we possibly could over the drop cloth. These are the headers for the windows and doorways. It was definitely easier to paint 30 of these guys over a drop cloth, instead of on a ladder over our heads!

Step 5 Diagram

Step 5 Instructions

While the headers were drying, I got to work on the windows jambs. The plywood we used was already sanded, but I took a second to fill any cracks or knots with wood filller.

Step 6 Diagram

Step 6 Instructions

Then I sanded the wood, starting with a medium grit sandpaper, and working my way down to fine grit. The window felt smooth and splinter free when I was done sanding it.

Step 7 Diagram

Step 7 Instructions

To prepare for painting, I then cleaned the windows with a vacuum ..... I swear I didn't try to coordinate my beloved hearing protection with my outfit. For me, even running a vacuum, I protect my hearing.

Step 8 Diagram

Step 8 Instructions

Once the window is cleaned, I taped it off with painter's tape.

MORE INFORMATION: ScotchBlue Painter's Tape

Step 9 Diagram

Step 9 Instructions

On the inside of the window to protect the actual window from getting painted. This only took a few minutes per window.

Step 10 Diagram

Step 10 Instructions

Then we nailed up those prepainted headers and aprons.

Which left us with ugly nail holes in all the trim.

Nothing a little wood filler can't fix! I love the 3M wood filler from our care package because it doesn't shrink as much when it dries and it's easy to sand excess off.