Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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How To Use A Paint Sprayer On Trim & Doors

If we’ve made one thing clear about our new house, it’s that we’re not crazy about the trim colors…

Trim Painting1

Somewhere between the Williamsburg Blue and the Muddy Mauve, our painting hands began to quiver with excitement. Or was that dread? Not sure.

Trim Painting2

We reasoned that while all of the carpet was up and before the new hardwoods went down, we should take advantage of the can-get-painted subfloor and go ahead and tackle the upstairs trim. Correction: trim and doors. Sixteen doors to be exact… which we removed and de-hardwared first for easy painting.

Trim Painting3

Attempting to quickly paint four bedrooms and closets worth of trim along with a long hallway plus nine windows (with tons o’ mullions) and the aforementioned sixteen doors seemed like a job that warranted a paint sprayer. So we decided it was finally time to get one. And thanks to a suggestion from the Bowers, we picked up this Graco TrueCoat II which was on sale for $180 at Lowe’s (update: we’ve since switched to using this Wagner model with more success). We opted to buy one instead of renting it because there’s still plenty of stuff to paint in this house beyond just these things – so we’d like to have one that we can use a bunch of times as we move from room to room (did we mention there’s still a ton of blue trim downstairs?).

Trim Painting4a

The sprayer is a lot simpler than I expected. It’s pretty much just a plastic cup attached to the gun, which just plugs in. So there wasn’t much in the means of set-up (although we definitely read the directions twice just to make sure we didn’t screw it up). Then we dove into our primer coat.

Trim Painting4

We’ve heard that the biggest pain of owning a paint sprayer is clean up, so we opted to use a provided bag in the paint cup to keep it clean and hopefully eliminate one step afterwards.

Trim Painting5

We don’t have a ton of pictures of the process because one of us was downstairs with Clara while the other sprayed. And also, the process was pretty darn fast. We could zip along the baseboards of one room in about 10 to 15 minutes, and the majority of that time was usually spent refilling the paint cup.

Trim Painting6

So I definitely agree with what everyone had told me about spraying: it’s MUCH faster, but you use a lot more paint. I could only get through about two door sides before having to refill my paint cup. But boy was it satisfying to watch that blue paint disappear with each swipe. And it’s not that you’re wasting paint, it’s just that you’re getting more coverage (spraying the front of a door once might take twice as much paint, but it’s akin to two coats applied with a brush).

Trim Painting8

Once we feel a bit more seasoned with the sprayer we’ll do a deeper post about using it, but for now I feel like we’re still getting the hang of it. Our biggest challenge is fighting the urge to go back and “touch up” a spot we missed because we found it’s very easy to apply too much paint and create drips.

Trim Painting9

But if you go slowly and resist the urge to double spray, the smooth factory-like finish is amazing.

Paint Glossy Finish

We made the call to paint the windows by hand rather than attempt to get every nook and cranny of it sprayed (we pictured a ton of rogue drips and a bunch of overspray covering all of the glass panes). After the fact, we’re not so sure it was the right call since our hand technique will still require some glass scraping with a razor and all of the blue/mauve windows took one coat of primer plus 3 coats of paint each since we were doing them by hand. Woof.

Trim Painting11

So yeah, this has pretty much been keeping us busy for the last few days. Spraying only occupied two mornings (priming one, painting the next) but we’ve made several trips to hand paint the windows and other areas that we couldn’t spray easily. I’ve lost track of which trip these photos were taken, but you can see what a difference it’s making.

Trim Painting10

We didn’t bother to tape off the walls or floors or anything around the sprayed areas (except for some too-close-for-comfort outlets and vents). So it means the walls are in desperate need of painting now too, but that’s a project for another day.

Trim Painting12

Some rooms, like the guest room and our master, only had cream trim/doors so they didn’t require any primer. Which meant this whole paint job only took 2 gallons of primer. Not bad for four rooms, four closets, nine windows, sixteen doors, and a giant hallway (about 30% of those had cream paint).

Trim Painting13

But we needed 4.5 gallons of white paint. Had we been able to predict that we’d have bought one of those five gallon buckets at the start, rather than making the multiple trips to the store we’ve been making. Live and learn, right?

Trim Painting14

The paint we’re using is Benjamin Moore’s Ultra Spec in Simply White (in a semi-gloss finish) based on a few recommendations for that type of paint from you guys (and knowing it’s one of the best white paint colors out there). It’s No-VOC contractor-grade paint that’s more affordable than BM’s Natura paint that we usually use and so far we’re really happy with it. Instead of being over $50 per gallon, it’s just $36 through our local paint store (I’m sure it varies by location, but it should be in that range), which has certainly made buying five gallons of it a little less painful.

Oh and as for choosing the color, we brought home about ten swatches of white and just picked the one that looked the best when we taped it up next to all of the others (some were too yellow, some were too blue, but Simply White looked clear and crisp without feeling too warm or too cool). Of course it’ll look a whole lot better after we paint those yellowed walls and ceilings…

Trim Painting15

Our total budget for four rooms and four closets worth of trim/baseboards plus nine windows, sixteen doors, and a giant hallway has been:

  • Paint sprayer: $180
  • Primer, 2 gallons: $36 (on sale)
  • Paint, 5 gallons: $180 (we still have half a gallon leftover for a future project)
  • TOTAL: $396

It’s certainly more than we envisioned spending, but because we’re on a time crunch to get the new floors in before we move, we’re counting our lucky stars that painting so many things went as quickly as it did. And now that we own the paint sprayer it’ll probably will work out to around ten cents per use by the time we’re done painting this house (so. much. blue. trim.).

Trim Painting16

Next step is to rehang all of the doors (after we replace some of the old pitted brass hardware) and then we can get to laying those hardwoods. We contemplated getting some other painting done while the subfloor is still exposed – walls, ceilings, closet interiors – but we’re starting to feel that move date creep up on us (T minus 2 weeks!). We figure we can move in with unpainted walls and ceilings more easily than moving in without completed floors – and thankfully we’re no strangers to painting walls and ceilings with hardwoods that are already in place.

So that’s what we’ve been up to. How about you?

Comments

  1. Robin says

    I suggest you paint as much as you can before the hardwoods are installed. I know- easy for me to say- but I’ve painted plenty a ceilings and wished i didn’t have to worry about splatters. It’s not the big drips of paint that will get ya- it’s the fine mist of splatters from the roller brush raining down on your new hardwoods that will just make you crazy!

    Reply

  2. Rachel says

    the change already is beyond ridiculous! can’t wait to see the rest of the house come along! congrats!

    Reply

  3. Ren says

    We just bought a house with a very similar trim issue, minus the doors. I doubt I’ll ever understand the appeal of blue trim, but the paint sprayer seems like a great way to tackle the task, might just look into that myself!

    Reply

  5. Jeanna says

    I can’t get over what a difference the white trim is making already! Looks so good :) I am wondering though, that you will have enough time to install the wood flooring yourselves……….. you need to finish the painting, and pack in 2 weeks!! Yikes! How do you plan to do all that and install flooring too??!!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes, we’re planning to DIY it! No idea how we’ll get it all done, but we hope to tackle some this week, pack in the evenings, and tackle more next week while packing more in the evenings of that week as well. Worst case scenario we’ll have to move in with only two rooms done and finish the other two after we’re in, but we hope we can get it all done! Packing might just be us throwing everything into boxes and crossing our fingers though, haha!

      xo
      s

  6. Catharine @ Your Modern Couple says

    I was seriously stressing for you guys when I saw all of that blue trim (knowing you’d be painting it high gloss white) but assuming you’d be doing it by hand. What a relief! I’m going to have to remember that sprayer when we finally buy a house :)

    Reply

  7. Angie says

    I seriously don’t understand how y’all don’t use painting tape. I had no idea you could get paint on glass and razor it off or cut in without using it. Maybe it’s only for those with steady hands and that’s why it seems so impossible to me.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I bet if you paint things for 7 years you’ll get the hang of it without tape. Steady hands seem to come with time, so I taped things off for years and then found a nice short handled brush I loved and over time I got better :)

      xo
      s

  8. Kitty A. says

    Wow, so crisp and new looking! I think I might need to repaint all of my trim now…or move. Two questions, if you don’t mind…

    1. Are you worried about trying to cover the semi-gloss overspray on the walls? I know semi-gloss often requires a little sanding before you go over it with, say, eggshell wall paint. (Or maybe the spray is very fine, I don’t know.)

    2. Did the previous owners rent back from you after you closed, or has the house been empty since you closed? I guess what I’m trying to say is, why haven’t you done more work prior to moving in? Sorry to be cheeky, I know you guys are super busy. I just wish you had time to paint the ceilings before you move in!

    I am so excited about your new house and look forward to seeing what you do with it!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Good questions! It’s just a fine mist and when we get semi-gloss paint around trim and then use eggshell paint over it on the walls it doesn’t seem to have any issues for us (using a quality paint like BM might be what makes the difference although I’m not sure if all paint these days just has better coverage). As for why we didn’t start on the new house, we just weren’t done with the current house. So we decided we could very easily get overwhelmed and stressed if we were trying to juggle two houses, so finishing one before moving onto the next one made the most sense for us. We have painted two houses worth of ceilings with wood floors already installed, so it’s not a big deal to us if we do that here- plus it gives us more time to pick colors (we might want a soft tone of color on some of them anyway, so we’d have to redo them if we went with white right now). Hope that makes sense :)

      xo
      s

  9. Priscilla says

    Wow! What a difference the crisp white paint makes. Just wondering if you two are going to install your own hardwood
    floors. I can hardly wait.

    Reply

  10. Melissa @ Loving Here says

    Painting trim is one of the most rewarding yet time-consuming projects. We tackled it first thing (after removing popcorn ceilings and wallpaper of course) in our house last summer. We still have the basement to go and I’m considering the sprayer. Can’t wait to hear more about it!
    Our latest progress involves the garden stuff…which is frustrating because the weather isn’t cooperating! http://lovinghere.com/super-soil/

    Reply

  11. Janet says

    Consider for your upstairs hallway and laundry room Benjamin Moore Edgecombe Gray HC-173 and half-bath Raindance 1572. Revere Pewter HC-172 might work for the master bedroom.

    Reply

  12. Mikki says

    I’m curious why you chose to go with Benjamin Moore’s Simply White as opposed to Decorator’s White which I thought you used in your current house. Any differences that you can highlight?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      All paint reads differently in different lighting, so although we brought that swatch over with others and thought it would be our pick, it was reading a little blue in this house and Simply White was more pure white in this lighting situation :)

      xo
      s

    • Grace says

      Going off of this comment, does this mean you will carry this same Simply White through the rest of the house (downstairs included)??

    • Marissa says

      Do you have any thoughts about using off-the-shelf white vs an actual color white for trim? We are first time home buyers and plan to tackle our trim this weekend (yikes). Our area paint stores have recommended both/either option. Also, would you paint a ceiling simply white (to match your trim) or the off the shelf white (to showcase the trim more)? Too many questions, I know. Welcome to my brain.

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I’d do Simply White again but in a flat finish (semi-gloss on trim though). That way nothing is more yellow or gray and it all works together.

      xo
      s

  14. Erin says

    Definitely save the wall painting for post-floor installation. We ended up painting one room twice (before & after we put down hardwood) since we ended up bumping the walls a few times with boards and the nailer mallet.

    Reply

  15. Ellen says

    I take it the original trim paint was in good shape – i.e. you didn’t have to do any sanding or scraping to get up any flaking or loose paint at all? When we paint any trim or window details in our house, we have to do a LOT of sanding and scraping before we can just paint over it… But then our house is almost 100 years old…

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Thankfully yes! It was even chalky and matte so we didn’t need to sand/degloss before going straight to primer. I can’t imagine all the prep you’re doing!

      xo
      s

  16. Laurel says

    ah, moving in with half the floor unfinished…i know a little something about that! we are moving into our first home next weekend, and we’d had asbestos floor tile removed in half the house (they were broken in places and it was not a good situation). we were all set to pick out flooring when we discovered puddles of water on the floor after a rain storm :( we’re on a hill so one corner of the room is below grade. so there is a lot of digging and waterproofing in our future. and a crowded 1/2 of our house until we figure out what needs to be done! ack. the joys of homeownership.

    Reply

  17. Denise says

    White looks AWESOME! Builders grade paint for the trim might be ok but do yourself a favor and DON’T do builders grade for the walls!! If you need to clean a wall for any reason, builders grade will literally wash off but the mark will still be there. Built a new home 8 years ago and, unbeknownst to us, walls were done (spray) with BM’s builders grade. NOT GOOD! We don’t have little ones around so it’s just normal useage.
    Can’t wait to see your progress!!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Thanks for the tip Denise! Maybe the formula has changed? We heard from a bunch of readers who have used Ultra Spec on walls/trim/doors and love it. I think in general over the last 5 years paint has improved in leaps & bounds (more no-VOC options, more self leveling cabinet paint, etc). We still love Natura though, so we’d definitely go back to using that on walls if we didn’t like the Ultra Spec!

      xo
      s

  18. Janel says

    Hey Sherry…do you see what’s going on here?!?! John is slowly adding to his “harem”: nail gun, power washer, now the paint sprayer! Girl, this ain’t no Sister Wives! LOL! Nah, j/k John! ;-)

    #boysandtheirtoys

    #orisit”theotherwomen”?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes, we just followed the cleaning instructions (rinsing things, running water through them with a cleaning solution, etc). Not too bad. Might have taken 15 minutes.

      xo
      s

  20. candicemcc says

    So I have a theory that people generally have a bit of a surplus of either time or money. (Granted, sometimes you have a surplus of neither and I imagine some lucky folks have both.) Right now time is VERY limited with working 40+ hours each week and have 2 kids (2-years-old and under). So I opted to have someone come in to paint all our trim and doors. Let me just say that I think you probably spent about 10% of what it would have cost you to farm it out. Great job!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Totally agree! Weighing if you have the funds/means to outsource something or if you have the desire/time to do it yourself is a huge factor in all home-making I think :)

      xo
      s

  21. Michelle says

    I know you haven’t gotten around to painting the ceilings/walls but I was wondering if you had an idea of what you were going to do with your ceilings with the simply white trim…meaning are you going to do white ceilings etc? I am having the hardest time picking a ceiling color, I’m so stuck. I am doing BM Palladium Blue in my living/dining room with a basic white trim and I have no idea what to do to the ceiling.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I think we’ll do white ceilings in some rooms and other rooms will have a soft tone of the walls or even a soft accent color (like a white bedroom with a soft blue ceiling). I would do a half-tint of the walls in your living room. So pretty!

      xo
      s

  22. Ruhi says

    I am so stressed out for you guys! I can’t believe you have to install floors and pack up your house in two weeks. I’m sure you’ll pull it off but I am stressed at the thought of it. :-)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I go between freaking out and thinking “well moving is always stressful so this is par for the course – and in two weeks no matter what we’ll be in there” – haha!

      xo
      s

  23. Bobbie says

    you guys put me to shame…it’s taken me weeks to finish the trim work in my kitchen while still juggling life and all the things that come with having 3 little girls! lol
    You definitely inspire me to get things done!

    Reply

  24. Jenny says

    Have you thought about how you are going to do the transition between the new hardwood floors and the wall? We have always attached our based trim after laying the flooring in order to cover the raw edge against the wall. It appears in the photos that your base goes all the way to the subfloor.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yup, we realized this morning that well have to pop up the baseboard and reattach it over the hardwood so it’s the right height, but hopefully it’ll only need a few touch ups since it’s already painted :)

      xo
      s

  25. Terri says

    You will LOVE your paint sprayer for brick. I spent several hours on our breezeway brick wall, then a friend mentioned the sprayer. DONE in about 15 minutes!

    Your new house is just lovely!

    Reply

  27. Karyn says

    Isn’t it weird how fresh painted trim can transform a house?! I just finished painting (by hand, so jealous of your sprayer!) the hallway upstairs, kitchen, living room, dining room, and two story foyer by myself, ceiling, trim, walls. It took a few late nights over a few weeks, but now that it’s done I’m so glad I did it. Can’t wait to see this house transform!

    Reply

  28. Erin says

    Love the white trim. Huge difference from the blue, eh?!

    Picked up your book the other night by the way. I was at Barnes & Noble and it was the last one on the shelf. I wasn’t outside the store 10 mins before the weather started getting bad and we had to head to shelter before the weather got bad. Your book kept me entertained underground! :)

    Reply

  30. Mike Grant says

    Congrats on the new house, I am very jealous. Can’t wait to see what a great job you will both do. A quick suggestion on painting the doors quicker. If you screw two pieces of strapping about 24 inches long to the bottom of the door to act as feet, you can stand the doors up in the middle of the room and spray both sides of the door without having to lean them up against the wall. Another method would be to screw them to the top and lean them against the wall allowing you to rotate the door and spray both sides without resting the painted top edge against the wall. Best of luck.

    Reply

  31. Kaci says

    This is amaze-balls! I wish I could afford that sprayer for our rental. EVERY room has to painted – trim included! We got a reduced rent rate if we agreed to help fix up the house for it’s eventual sale. We had NO IDEA what we were getting into! It’s hard to put work into a house you don’t actually own. That’s why you guys’ motivation is so inspiring! Gotta get to work over here!

    Reply

  32. amy good house says

    Will you add little quarter-round foot moldings after you install the floor? The sprayer can come in handy – spray all those little pieces down outside before installing.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes, the spacing that our hardwood floors need actually require us to pop up the baseboards and use quarter-round too, so we’ll be detailing that as we go!

      xo
      s

  33. Kerry says

    Great job so far, the white trim makes such a huge difference! I am so excited to follow along as you transform this house – it is going to be amazing!!

    Reply

  34. Sarah W. says

    This may have been asked in the previous 300 or so comments, but are you planning on ORBing all that brass hardware before re-hanging the doors? It certainly would be a great time to get it done all at once.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Sadly a lot of it’s too pitted and damaged to get ORBed so we’ll be donating it to the ReStore and investing in some updated ones that work/close/lock/aren’t rusted :)

      xo
      s

  35. Jennifer says

    You’ve given me hope for my weekend project. I had the not-so-brilliant idea that I’d repaint our fence myself. 2 months later, I’m 1/6th of the way done. Brushes and rollers just aren’t cutting it, so I’m renting a sprayer from Home Depot and sending the kids and husband to visit great-grandmother for the weekend. My neighbors have been so encouraging when they see me out painting, but I’m sure they’re sick of looking at the two-toned side of the fence that faces their house!

    Reply

  37. Caroline says

    Another tip for getting paint off windows: lighter fluid. Don’t need a whole lot and just put it on a paper towel and wipe! I recently painted a window-ed door and used a razor and then the lighter fluid to clean the paint off the windows.

    Reply

  39. Dominique says

    we also just bought a house (our first house actually!) however while we were in the home hunting process I demanded a house with white trim and wouldn’t settle for less. I’ve only ever painted trim in one room and I promised myself I would never do it again. But now that I see you guys making this look really easy I’m slightly jealous. But only slightly :)
    -you two are incredibly motivational.

    Reply

  40. Matt says

    Wish I thought about the plastic bag in the cup when I was painting. I have a Graco also, but the one with the air compressor type deal(for lack of better term) that attached to the sprayer via a hose. The added benefit to clean up is getting any unused paint back in the paint can! So much paint was wasted in the sprayer cup, ever after holding it upside down for an hour. Now you just squeeze it out of the bag back into can! I will certainly be doing this when I paint my kitchen cabinets in July! As always, you rock!

    Reply

  41. Laura says

    Seeing trimmed painted white makes my giddy inside! Some a simple change makes all the difference in the world.

    Reply

  42. Ian says

    You guys are sooooo lucky that you didn’t have to sand. The woodwork in my 45 year old house is even beyond sanding, it’s scraping back to bare wood for us, groan!

    Take a look at this little trim, it looks like the previous guy painted it every 5 years with a yard brush! http://handycrowd.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/scraping-paint-from-old-trim.jpg

    I just hate throwing away perfectly good timber though, so scraping it is.

    p.s. A relatively steady hand plus a scraper IS the fastest way to paint windows, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise! Just make sure to buy a plastic scraper that holds a stanley knife blade for the scraping. Easy peasy!

    Good luck with the actual move, fingers crossed for sunshine.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yes, we try to reference what you guys suggest in future posts that we write. For example in this one we mentioned that some readers recommended BM Ultra Spec paint so we gave it a try and liked it for our trim!

      xo
      s

  44. Rachael P says

    Had to laugh when I read you used Simply White. I have painters at my house painting my ceiling that color as we speak. We will do our trim to match. It is a great white. Just warm enough to not feel industrial. Hope you are as happy with it as we are :-)

    Reply

  45. Maureen says

    Congrats on the new house! It looks better already and I am really looking forward to seeing what you do with this one. I referred a co-worker to your blog yesterday because he is building a console table for his sofa. Someone may have already asked, but I don’t have time to scroll through hundreds of comments- are you painting the walls in a flat or semi-gloss finish? I always to eggshell walls, semi-gloss trim and flat ceilings. A friend of mine had done semi-gloss stripes and dots in her daughter’s room and when they repainted, the semi-gloss stripes and dots showed through the new eggshell finish. You may need primer to cover the overspray on the walls. Something you may want to talk to your paint store about.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes, eggshell walls are our current favorite. And flat for ceilings. But as for the oversprayed spots, it’s such a small amount of mist that good quality paint (like BM) should cover it no problem. We got semi-gloss on the wall around trim when we paint rooms in the past and eggshell BM went right over it :)

      xo
      s

  46. Mary Beth says

    Sorry if this has already been asked, but won’t you have to remove the baseboards to install the wood floor? We wound up having to buy all new baseboards when we ripped out our floors and installed hardwoods – too many were broken, chipped or bent after prying them off the wall!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We just realized this morning that we’ll have to pop them up or they’ll look too short, but we pried a few off and they came up without so much as a dent/scratch, so we’re hoping the trend continues!

      xo
      s

  47. kayla aimee says

    We have owned a paint sprayer for three years now and I DID NOT KNOW ABOUT THE BAG IN THE CUP TRICK. I read this post right before we are about to do our kitchen cabinets and I am like PRAISE THE LORD AND PASS THE AMMUNITION.

    Reply

  48. Kitty says

    Thanks for answering my questions. I just wanted to add that I painted my front door in Calypso Blue from the YHL colors at Benjamin Moore and it looks amazing with my 1960’s orange brick split level. Now I want to paint everything in my house that color!

    Reply

  50. Tiffany says

    We are putting in a privacy fence and we plan on solid staining it white & then also re-staining our deck with the same color stain. Do you think this paint sprayer would work for that?

    Reply

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