If you’re a somewhat experienced home-painter, you may feel comfortable painting your walls. You’ve painted a few children’s bedrooms and been happy with the results.

But now, you’re considering a trickier home renovation project: Giving that gorgeous crown molding a refresh. Your newest venture is anything but simple.

Beautiful wall details can make your space look luxurious, elegant, and refined. But messy craftsmanship looks just the opposite: sloppy.

While advanced painting is best left to the experts, if you’re dead-set on painting your baseboards or wall trim, follow the tips below for a paint job you can be proud of.

Picking Your Supplies

A respectable paint job always starts with the right tools.

When you paint wall details, it’s essential that you use the right kind of brush. Look for an angled enamel brush with a tapered edge. These brushes hold more paint, so you’ll notice fewer discernible lines and sharper edges to boot.

Pick Your Paint

Primer is always important, but especially so on detail work. Find a sealing wood primer for your trim.

Much of how your renovation comes out will be determined by picking the right paint. When working with trim, get a glossy paint sheen. These are both easier to clean – essential for baseboards – and shiny in a way that will make your space pop. You likely want a light shade of paint, which will outline your space without drawing too much attention to itself.

Prep Work

Now it’s time to prep your space. Start by cleaning the trim with a damp cloth and checking for any damages – even small gouges – which will need to be caulked and repaired before repainting. And if the prior paint had any sheen, you’ll need to sand down the boards. It may be annoying, but it’s important if you want your trim to last and look great.

Once you’re ready to start painting, start by putting down tarps to protect your floors from any drips. Then use painter’s tape to mark off your boards from the rest of the wall space. Be precise – small errors here can make the work look messy.

Paint With Perfectionism

Your painting technique matters a lot when working on trim. Starting with your primer, apply it with long, even brush strokes, each new stroke moving toward the previous one.

Once the primer has dried, start applying your paint. Use the same technique you used to apply the primer, leaving sufficient time for the paint to dry between coats. Since your paint is likely a light color, make sure you put on enough coats for the color to look even throughout.

Call in Backup – Cover Your Crown With CorsPaint

Even for the most experienced of DIY painters, skillfully painting trim can be really difficult. The angles – especially for ceiling details – are tricky, and small mistakes are abundantly obvious. You may not have needed professional painting assistance in the past, but when it comes to crown molding, there’s no shame in asking for an expert hand.

That’s where our team of CorsPaint painting pros come in. We have all the experience – and importantly, the equipment – to paint your crown molding or any other accents with ease. We can tackle work on the ceiling; we can make those beat-up baseboards look good as new. Give us a call for a truly elegant renovation.