[drewdc]

First, excuse my ignorance with the definitions and painting questions in general. We are having new cherry wood floors put in the house so ignore the color of the floor in the picture... we want to paint the railings... the railings have a clearcoat(?) on them... do i need to sand these railings down before i paint or will the faux wood or kilz primier work here to start? i'd like to stain the railings cherry and paint the vertical pieces(?) white.

how would you approach this project? we need something to do this weekend and thought we'd try and knock this out..

thanks in advance!!

 

[diy mike]

Anything you're staining will need to be sanded down to bare wood. For the sections you're painting, a light sanding followed by a coat of primer will suffice.

I'd get the staining out of the way first, then tackle the painting

 

[Matthewt1970]

Please don't paint those beautiful railings.

 

[drewdc]

that carpet in the photo will be dark hardwood in 2 weeks... so we'd like to paint the railings to match... also if i had zoomed in you'd se how dirty they are from everyday abuse...