How to paint interior doors with their hands. The basic methods of painting and tips masters.
To refresh your usual interior there is no need to stock up on too much cash. There is a simple trick how you can easily and quickly transform your living space. It may be enough to paint your interior doors giving them a unique identity corresponding to the personality of the owner. They can become bright and unusual, classical or extravagant. Knowing the simple rules how to paint interior doors making them look pleasant is the key element of the whole process.
Preparation for painting doors
To avoid getting paint in locks and other important parts of the door (especially in case you have a hollow cored door or paneled door with glass) they should be covered with a masking tape.- Apply special chemical composition onto the old covering for its deletion. It’s applied using a tampon and then left for half an hour. It’s better to use technical carbolic acid, sodium or potassium (all of these substances are used in 20% solution).
- Once the old covering is deleted the door should be washed with water and dried completely (it usually takes about 3-4 hours for all the moisture to disappear).
- After the interior door is prepared for painting, defects and cracks on the surface should be carefully repaired. For this purpose putty is traditionally used. It is spread evenly on the whole surface, then left to dry.
- After the complete drying the door is treated with sandpaper, and then the door is primed with a layer of varnish.
Choosing paint
Nowadays the market has a wide range of paint types and colors. The most popular colors used for painting interior doors are black, white, red, brown, etc. There are traditional enamel paints and spray paints. When making a choice, you should consider several factors. Buying the traditional paint, it is also necessary to buy more brushes and rollers. And White Spirit, of course. Drops on the floor and dirty hands are not the only issues you will have to face with dealing with enamel. Brush marks always look bad. So the question appears – how to paint an interior door without brush marks?
The best choice is to use spray paints. They allow you to perform painting works more accurately. An airbrush easily covers even the most bizarre terrain of your door. For getting started it’s enough to shake the bottle in order to stir the contents. The bottle is perfectly stored for a long time (unlike the cans with enamel paints which dry very quickly).
The main advantages of acrylic spray paints:
Spray paints can be used for several years. Spray paints don’t dry up in their bottles. Bottles are usually shut so tight, so the paint doesn’t dry out and evaporate. It can simply be stored in the pantry and be used when something needs to be tinted.- Using spray paints does not require having any painting skills. The paint is easy to apply on the desired surface, the layer of paint is quite thin.
- You don’t need to use different painting tools in the process of painting.
- Spray paints are sprayed together with air, whereby the drying time is reduced. The second layer of paint can be applied in a couple of minutes after the first layer has been applied (using enamel paints you would have to wait for 2-4 hours).
- The wide color range allows you to choose any desired shade – from golden yellow to silver-gray or chocolate brown.
- Synthetic paints of this type create a perfectly smooth, stable, reliable covering which dries fast.
Important! Using spray paints give you the opportunity to work on the bugs. Spray water-based paints are easy to apply and they dry quickly. Moreover, if 20-25 minutes after the painting your artistic vision of colors suddenly has changed, so no problem: during this time the applied paint can still be easily washed off with warm water and detergent. Nitrocellulose-based spray paints allow can give your interior doors saturated silver shades, from mouse-gray to the color of aluminum or silver metallic. Paints of these type don’t require priming and subsequent varnishing. Paints with special effects will help you to turn the doors made of timber into chrome, gold or copper, emphasizing the refined taste of the owners.
While the painting process it’s important to act strictly according to instructions, spraying the paint with the specified distance – about 1 feet. You will need to spray several layers of paint to get the perfect final result. Use the following instructions:
Layers are spray crosswise- You may use a spray-gun for paints for more comfort working.
- Move the bottle with spray paint with light movements of the hand near the object to be painted back and forth.
- Never spray paint with circular motions – it’s a popular (“graffiti-based”) mistake.
- Before applying the next layer of paint let the previous one dry for several minutes.
- Continue painting until you get the surface that you enjoy.
- After few layers of paint are applied, you will get paint covering of suitable thickness, so the paint will not spread on the body of your door.
- Painting crosswise provides a good result as the paint is distributed evenly on the door.
- Don’t hurry – the prolonged pauses between paints layers accelerate the drying of the final paint covering.
We hope this article helped you to find an answer to the question how to paint interior doors with your own hands in a proper way.
Read more: How to paint a front door.
