One of the extra projects we didn’t really plan on doing originally was refinish all the trim in the downstairs. But while we were fixing the cracks and prepping to paint it was easy to see that the trim had not been protected the last time everything had been painted. (Neither had the baseboards, but it’s not as noticeable except in the dining room where we painted navy and the sloppy paint is a light color. We did a good job taping, I swear.)
So all the trim came down, was labeled and then refinished. To refinish it, Brandon used a Citrus stripper because it’s not as toxic. We could be around it with out worrying about breathing it in or getting it on ourselves too much. It says it works in like 2 hours, but Brandon left it on and wrapped it in plastic wrap for 24 hours. Two hours was not even close to having it stripped.
After it sat for 24 hours, we were able to wipe them off and then sand them down. Everyone got involved in that process.
You can see Morgan using the small wire brush. Those worked great to get in the crevices of the trim. Then for sanding these sanding blocks were helpful.
Then, much to Brandon’s relief, he tried just putting poly on the trim and it looked great. That meant no staining! It was pretty amazing how just the coat of polyurethane brought out the natural coloring of the wood. We think it’s red oak trim so maybe that’s why it looked so good.
I did not take a great before picture of them, but trust me, they were splotched all over with paint. Once they were dry it was a matter of nailing them back up and we didn’t have any issues with that since we labeled and kind of kept them bundled by room throughout the process.
I do need to touch up the painting in the rooms, but I’m hoping once we get furniture in the rooms, the baseboards and door frames with paint won’t be quite as noticeable. This was an easy project that made a big difference in my opinion but I was also up on the ladders with all those paint spots in my face. 🙂