paint a banister

S

ssm

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hi

we have a mahogany banister and are thinking of painting it cream to brighten the place up a bit.

has anyone ever done this and would you recommend it?

can we just put the paint on or would we have to do something else first to make it stick?

thanks!
 
I did this in our house. I just used an undercoat first and then the gloss. It looks much better
 
ssm said:
has anyone ever done this and would you recommend it?
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Am a big fan of maintenance free so painting a bannister would be a definite no no IMHO. Painful job which I was delighted to get rid of in our house. It also seems sinful to destroy beautiful wood like mahogony by painting it. Sorry to be so direct but I'd put it on a par with painting red bricks on the front of a house.
 
ssm said:
hi

we have a mahogany banister and are thinking of painting it cream to brighten the place up a bit.
Click to expand...

I've just recently painted mine in an off-white satinwood (not a fan of gloss paint) and it has really brightened up that part of the house. Took a primer and 3 coats of paint to get it right however.

Another option would be to paint the spindles and leave the handrail - this can also look well. In my case, I painted the lot as there was a bit too much wood going on around the house and I am happy to be rid of some of it.
 
I have the opposite problem - how to remove 105 years worth of white paint from lovely mahogany bannisters. I've done a trial run (there are 68 of them!) I've tried Nitromors gel but they're ornate and it's very difficult to remove the paint completely. The handrail is unpainted and is absolutely beautiful, I'm having the doors dipped, and the stairs and floors stripped, stained and varnished but short of removing the bannisters and having them dipped too I don't know how I'll get the same finish. Any suggestions?
 
I stripped all the varnish off our staircase and steps about 8 years ago....took me 3 weeks. Think they are teak. Started with Nitromors Varnish and Lacquer Remover and a paint scraper. I found it really difficult. A neighbour then told me to use Nitromors All Purpose Paint Remover and a one inch chisel to scrape the varnish off. It was so easy... you just need lots of patience. Also you need to be careful not to put too much pressure on the chisel. I would agree with Rois maybe just do the spindles and the sides of the steps and retain the mahogany handrail. We used DH white by Dulux and it brightened the hall and landing so much. This link has some nice examples
http://www.naturalstairrunners.co.uk/
 
Thanks Ann, I've stripped doors and fireplaces before and it's time consuming etc. but any large flat surface is easy by comparison with these bannisters! I've had most success with wire wool and the Nitromors but if I use wire wool that's too coarse it removes the paint but marks the wood, too fine and it doesn't remove the paint!
 

I had the same problem in my last house (dated 1881) when renovating it.

First of all be careful as you probably have lots of old lead paint there. It took me 3 weeks to remove paint from an ornate glass door using everything I could find - went through about 10 tins of Nitromers, wire wool, a paint gun etc etc.

If you could get the spindles dipped then that would be your best option by far as you'll drive yourself demented trying to remove paint from 68 of them. If not, I would just sand them down, put on some fresh paint and leave the handrail as it is.
 
I would leave the handrail in its original colour but paint the spindles. Painting spindles however is a dog of a job, did it on mine. Have you thought of leaving the mahogany banisters but painting the walls cream?
 
Re: paint a bannister

thanks for all replies.

have cream walls and a cream carpet but it still looks dark in the hall. also have a big mirror on the wall.

when i say its mahogany am not sure what exactly it is...its a dark wood but as just in a housing estate it could be just varnished that colour. have no idea really!!
 
i hate being pedantic, but this is a pet peev of mine...

its "baluster", in a "balustrade"...

but anyway, if the area is 'dark', i think painting the balustrade will not help much. i would advise perhaps looking at trying to incorporate fanlights over doors into this area...
 

I had the same problem of wanting to remove paint from ornate balustrades. I had them removed and dipped in paint remover. It was a bit pricy as I got a carpenter to remove the replace them afterwards, but it looked great.

Well worth the money and effort.
 

It's either/or really - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/banister
I would hate to think that I've been saying something incorrectly for half of my life
 
Its possibly teak. Hardwood should have a long grain and not many knotty bits. I stripped the handrail in my house and I'd never do it again. It looks great, white spindles and brown handrail, but it took 6 weeks all round with stripping and sanding and stripping and gouging paint out of crevices, rinse and repeat!! I'd take it apart and get it stripped.

Stripping the handrail got lots of dabs of paint stripper on the spindles, I painted them again but they still look bad in places.
 
Other ways to brighten up the hall:
1. Remove clutter
2. Cut back hedges outside
3. Wash all windows
4. Light reflecting paint
5. Lights
6. Leave doors open from other rooms

A high shine on dark wood can lighten a room too. Maybe a coat of high gloss varnish on the existing banister?
 
Another option to consider is to put some nice bright light-reflecting wallpaper on just part of the hall (i put it at the top where the stairs meets the landing around the window).

The eye is immediately drawn to the wallpaper and it also makes a nice feature wall.
 
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