When it comes to giving your room a simple freshen up, giving the skirting boards a couple of coats of paint is one of the quickest things you can do.  Once you’ve taped up the carpet to protect both it and the paint from getting hairy you can choose your brushes depending on what type of paint you are using.

Water based (acrylic) paints go on better with a synthetic brush while an oil based flows better with a natural bristle. Regardless of whether you choose water borne paint or oil you must remember there are two ground rules when painting skirting boards.  

1: Always use an undercoat. If you don’t you risk the top coat peeling back off every time it gets a little nick. It also means that the next time you try to prep your skirtings for painting you will not be able to sand them down at all as the paint just won’t have bonded with what’s underneath. Undercoat is the glue that bonds old paint to new finishes. If the skirtings are new then they should have a primer and an undercoat to give the best base for your chosen top coat. 

2: Preparation is key, if you have a lot of runs in your skirting I’m sure you’d want to get those out. A fairly abrasive paper like a 120 grade will do that for you but may leave the area a little rough. Once you’ve gotten rid of those then just a little go with 240 grade paper will smooth everything down and is perfect for between coats. If you’ve had to put any filler on the skirting to get rid of joints, screw or nail holes then this will need an additional coat of undercoat to ensure it’s not visible once you’ve applied the top coat. Filler is very porous so if you forget to do this you’ll end up with dull spots in your finish.

Once you have chosen a colour that suits your decor and followed the guidelines for painting it’s important to remove the tape while the top coat is still wet. If you allow it to dry then you can end up with either a seal between the newly painted skirting and the tape which will then damage the final look as it’s removed or you get that horrid little line of sticky paint that sits out from the skirting like you see when you change the carpets. I’m sure it goes without saying that this part of the job requires great care and will likely end up in you getting your choice of topcoat over your fingers. Please do not use white spirit to clean them off. If it’s water-based a soak with warm water and soap will do the trick. If it’s oil-based then either use a proper hand cleaner paste or if thats unavailable to you then lots of moisturiser and a soak in warm water and soap will eventually get it off.

Want to find out more information? Get in touch with our decorators in Kent AP Decorators.