Painting Over Old Painted Pine Boards on Walls

Completing a pine wall with paint may give your room a completely different feel. Natural knotty pine is rustic and a little bit state — but when the rest of your decor doesn’t mesh with this, you don’t need to scrap your personality and start buying primitives. You may create above the pine, even if it’s been previously painted. Your biggest decision aside from color is whether or not you would like to get the knots to show through the paint. A few handy tricks can disguise the knots so well that only you will know that pine resides under the newly painted finish.

Wash the walls with a powerful cleaner, such as trisodium phosphate. Wipe the walls down to remove all traces of cleaner and let the wood dry.

Determine what type of paint is currently on the walls so you know what type of paint to work with. Rub a rag soaked with denatured alcohol in an inconspicuous spot. If a paint comes off on the rag, then the paint is latex. If no paint comes off, then the walls are covered in oil-based paint. It is possible to apply latex primer and paint over oil paint, but you can’t use oil primer and paint over latex paint. In this case, you’ll need to use latex.

Sand the walls to rough up the surface of the paint to prepare the timber to get latex- or oil-based primer.

Wipe away dust using a tack cloth.

Turn around the ground, windows, doors and baseboards to protect them from primer and paint. Remove curtain rods and switchplates using a screwdriver. Place plastic or canvas dropcloths on the ground to protect it from drips and spills.

Scrape wood filler from the container using the corner of the putty knife, and apply it in a thin layer to some cracks or bigger knots that you want to hide on the walls. Smooth the wood filler with the long, flat edge of the putty knife, scraping away any surplus that’s left on the timber. Let the wood filler dry in accordance with the manufacturer’s directions. If you want the knots to demonstrate through the painted finish, then do not use wood filler.

Sand the spots that have wood filler to ensure the surface is smooth. Wipe away any dust with a tack cloth.

Employ a primer coat to the walls, and allow it to dry in accordance with the manufacturer’s directions. Apply a second coat to guarantee the pine boards are adequately primed. If you’re using oil-based primer, then you might need to let the primer heal for an elongated period of time — check the manufacturer’s info for paint-drying particulars.

Paint the walls with the latex- or oil-based colour of choice. Let the first coat dry in accordance with the manufacturer’s directions and apply a second coat. Once the walls are almost dry, then remove the painter’s tape — this ensures you do not pull off any paint when you remove the tape.

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