A couple more tips when painting doors

I am painting a couple of opening doors (and one non-opener) ready for fitting the walls in place on the second floor.  These are usually done at a later stage after the walls have been decorated but this time, to make sure they open in the direction I want them to, they both need to go in behind the walls before they go in place.

I always take the door out of the frame to make it easier to paint it neatly along the door jamb.  This can be a real difficulty sometimes if they are well-made; the door sill will have been glued in place really well and it takes a lot of wiggling and cutting with a knife to free it.

Suddenly, after five years in the game, I found a brilliantly easy way.

removing the bottom sill to free the door

Find a very small screwdriver and use it like a chisel.  I put it exactly over and a little bit in the join and tapped gently with a hammer - hey presto, all done.

Now for a couple of painting tips.  When you remove the door it will reveal the little pin holes visible in the door frame where you will want to return the door to eventually.  They fill up with paint very easily so, each time you give the frame a coat of paint, just make sure you clear the holes afterwards.  I like to use a very fine drill but anything of the right thickness will do - large sewing needle, piece of wire etc.

I am easily frustrated by waiting for paint to dry between coats so I make sure I paint all the pieces I will need for the job I am about to do.  That way the first piece is often dry enough to flip over and allow me to paint the other side by the time I get to the end of all the bits and bobs.  So paint the two sided pieces first, then all the one-siders; remember the order you did them in.

Even then as a belt and braces check I prop the doors on the door frame with as little contact as possible between them ready to paint the other side.  I was concerned that even when touch dry, if they lay face down on a surface, they can tack enough to spoil the finish.

All the trims are given two or three thin coats of paint.  I even add a tiny bit of water to the paint to thin it a little.  A real life coat of paint needs to be reduced to one twelfth of its thickness; not literally, but you get the idea.

They are buffed between coats with the finest finishing pads I can find.  These door have had their second coat of paint and now I am looking at the tiny gaps where the panels slide behind the frames.  On their third and final coat these need to be found and filled in.  It can be annoying when you have a door sideways on and every time you look at it you see a tiny black line where there is a gap in the wood.

Beware, if you keep following this blog, you may become as pernickity as me!

(28/11/16)