Painting skirting/architrave/doorframes

A

airgead07

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we are currently in middle of new build and looking at skirting,arch,door frames etc.

The doors we were looking at were white oak (I think,not 100% on that as been a while since we looked at them), its a light brown colour anyway.

We are thinking of going with red deal skirting, architrave, doorframe (as a lot cheaper than oak) and painting an off white(based on recommendations on aam).

Has anyone else done this and does it look good? Don't think the red deal would go with the doors if they were just stained and don't want to be looking at too much wood.

We are looking at putting semi solid oak flooring in some of the rooms,(sitting room, hallway,landing, conservatory).

As per aam posters an 'off white' is good to go for with skirting,arch etc. possibly
http://www.colortrend.ie/collections/select, colourtrend, French White 0401W. Any opinions on this?

I read a post that recommended not going with a gloss finish? Does anyone know why, have they done this? Would dust not stick to a mat finish more?

Thanks in advance for all info.

 
We painted all skirting, doors and architraves last year in French white, looks really well, I was impressed with the Colortrend paint and I am usually a Farrow and Ball girl! Chose the Colortrend over the F&B as it was cheaper, very happy with the colour.
Make sure your painter/decorator fills in the gaps between the skirting and the wall, mine didn't do this and it really bugs me still, takes from the overall finish that he did not do this.
Good luck with your decorating
 
I paint radiators & skirting boards with the same paint as the walls.

Again I've used nothing but Colortrend for the last 20 years and can highly recommend them.

For woodwork ask for your chosen colour in Satin Wood (similar to Eggshell) finish. Great for furniture too - have recently painted quite a lot of old cheap pine-y type bedroom furniture & it looks brilliant.

Brushes can be cleaned in washing up liquid & water and there's hardly any smell compared to traditional gloss paint.
 
thanks guys, Thirsty, you would definitely recommend the satin wood finish as opposed to gloss?

would anyone paint the door saddles?
 
I would paint the door saddles with a floor varnish it is more hardwearing and won't mark as easily
 
One thing to bear in mind is that if you are only in the middle of the build is, that once you move in the house will still be drying out and even morso once you have heat turned on....so, if you get someone to fill gaps between skirting, architraving etc, then there is a possibility that due to drying out, movemments etc, some wood will inevitably come away slightly from walls...

In theory, the longer you leave it after moving in to paint etc, the better in some ways....
 
Not a fan of door saddles myself - I removed them all in my house.

Yep, Satin Wood much more forgiving than gloss and looks nicer in my opinion.
 
Hi Thirsty, what would you use instead of a door saddle where carpet and wood, or tile and wood meet?
 


Hi airgead07,
We are in the very same position as you - have white oak doors. We had originally intended having white oak skirting, frames and architrave....until we saw the cost!!

We have gone with MDF skirting, frames and architrave and are in the process of painting them a light cream at the moment, before they are fitted. The paint is an 'Original Cream' by Dulux - Matt.

I have seen this done in two houses previously (white oak doors with light cream architrave etc) and it looks really well. The painting is very time consuming and if I were to do it all again I would get someone to spray paint.

The actual 2nd fix will be starting in next fornight so will be interesting to see how it turns out.

I have also seen houses that have white oak doors with red deal frames and architrave and in my opinion it just does not look right.
 
Hi Sasol

How many doors do you have?How did you jusdge many buckets of paint did you required?

What process of painting did you use for arch/skirting etc
eg sand, primer, undercoat, finish?
are you applying the finished coat as well before they are put onto the wall?

Am thinking about getting them done to undercoat, then use decorators acrylic caulk to fill in any holes and fill the gap between skirting and walls and then apply final coat?

apologies for all the questions
 


We have 16 internal white oak doors and about 600 ft of skirting. so obviously just skirting and frames + architrave for doors needed to be painted.

We didn't use anything in particular to judge how much paint we needed - We just bought 4 tins of paint at the start and bought more then based on how far the first 4 lasted for. The paint I was using was only available in fairly small tins (maybe a litre or so) so we went through 9 or 10 cans so far.

The skirting, frames and arcitrave all came pre-painted in white, we didn't like that (the colour) so thus the change to cream. I didn't to anything about sanding as assumed/hoped this was done previously.

We have applied two coats to everything and will probably apply a third. We will do all coats before they are fitted to walls - I can imagine that it would be a total nightmare trying to paint that quantity of wood after it has been fitted, as well as having to worry about paint getting on the doors etc.

I haven't even thought about what we will do about the gaps between skirting and wall - will be hoping these will be minimal but may go down the route you suggested if necessary.
Hope this helps!
 
Re the 'saddle' question

Depending on what / where the joins are you can use a wood or brass strip to cover the join.
 
I painted my red deal skirting, architrave and door frames white (doors are walnut). On the recommendation of a local painter, I:

  • dabbed the knots with knotting varnish (this prevents them from falling our during drying process)
  • filled holes/cracks with a standard white filler ( I used One-Time filler for the smaller cracks)
  • then applied primer (B-I-N is what I used)
  • sanded them using medium sandpaper
  • finished with 2 coats of Satinwood.
It might be better to apply the primer before you fill the holes as you will be able to see any imperfections more easily on the white primer.
I bought a 5 litre tin of Satinwood and this done a lot of the skirting, architrave and door frames in my house (3000 sq ft). It took me ages to paint the whole thing so the end of the paint had gone off and there was small grains in it. If I was doing it again I would buy 2 * 2.5 litre tins, although it is probably more expensive.
I used a filler called "Painters Mate" or "Decorators Filler" between skirting and the wall.

I stacked the skirting and architrave on stands, barrels etc in the house before the carpenter cut them to size.
 
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