Which paint for interior woodwork?

glitch

glitch

glitch

Soldato
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What paint would people recommend for interior trim (window boards, skirting, etc) and doors?

I'm wanting a matt/flat white finish (no gloss, no sheen, please) and really want to avoid the dreaded yellowing. Hard-wearing paint would be a bonus.

Trim is a mixture of softwood for door linings and associated bits and pieces, moisture resistant MDF for window boards, HDF for skirting and then whatever Howdens Dordogne smooth white doors are made from.

All are bare wood, nothing has been primed, aside from the doors.
 
I really like Homebase own Acrylic quit dry Satin/Matt gloss paint, it requires a couple of coats to get a good finish (with a light sand between coats) and it wont break the bank! And for radiators Screwfix Satin Radiator spray has given my ageing radiators a whole new lease of life.
 
The big decision in my mind is whether you want water-based or oil-based. Waterbased is extremely easy to use, but is not hard wearing. Oil based is easy to get a perfect finish and is very hard-wearing, but is messy and can yellow.

You can actually use water-based undercoat or vinyl paints as a top-coat and you can add two coats of decorators dead-flat varnish for protection. I use that approach to match cupboard doors to walls. You paint the cupboard door with the vinyl paint you used on the walls then give it two coats of decorators varnish. The decorators varnish will darken it very slightly but gives a really hard-wearing finish. You can do the same for radiators as well. You can also use the dead-flat varnish to turn a gloss paint matt. So.. many options.
 
A flat/Matt finish is really unusual the current trend is very much eggshell/satin rather than gloss but I don't think I've ever seen flat Matt wood work in a house.

Good luck with it once you've sanded and then painted 4 coats on all that woodwork you'll never want to see a brush again!
 
Sorry, sorry, sorry... hate being that person who posts a thread and never replies.

To clarify, I meant eggshell when I said flat/matt in my original post - was trying to emphasise the no sheen aspect. I (will) have matt walls throughout the house, so eggshell ought to work just fine.
 
Pocah said:
The big decision in my mind is whether you want water-based or oil-based. Waterbased is extremely easy to use, but is not hard wearing.
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I've never really seen good results from water based on interior woodwork especially long term.

That said I'm gonna have to redo some of the skirting I think (oil based) as some of it has gone down really nicely but a couple of patches for some reason have started to peel in small parts - think there must have been some contact while they were drying or something.
 
glitch said:
Assuming yellowing is the main peril with oil-based, can you elaborate on what could be seen as not good with water-based?
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Water based are more tricky to apply. They dry very fast. It's a completely different painting technique to solvent based. Also they are not as hard wearing. You also need care to get a good quality paint, some of the cheap ones are absolutely terrible. Dulux and Johnstone's are two that make good water-based gloss paints.

But as I say there are alternatives. You can achieve a true matt finish by applying vinyl to wood then a decorators varnish. Very easy to apply, very hard wearing. You have to be a bit inventive if you want something different.
 
Can you paint Dulux eggshell over an aging gloss? Probably needa sanding right? Would you need to sand a little bit to give grip or sand all the gloss off? Cause I've got a LOT of woodwork to do :(
 
glitch said:
Assuming yellowing is the main peril with oil-based, can you elaborate on what could be seen as not good with water-based?
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In my experience inconsistent finish, doesn't wear well, etc. someone did it at work and after a few months it just looks terrible - albeit they probably didn't care too much about the end result.

DampCat said:
Can you paint Dulux eggshell over an aging gloss? Probably needa sanding right? Would you need to sand a little bit to give grip or sand all the gloss off? Cause I've got a LOT of woodwork to do :(
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Definitely need to sand - not too heavily and I highly recommend wearing a mask while doing it. Use a sanding block or some other tool. Shouldn't need to sand it all off in most cases.
 
I can't recommend highly enough using an on tool dust extractor for powered sanding. I bought a Lidl wet and dry vacuum with an automatic start and use it with my cheap as chips draper orbital sander the reduction in the dust is immense. I still use a mask but the secondary dust on surfaces is massively reduced if not eliminated.
 
DampCat said:
Can you paint Dulux eggshell over an aging gloss? Probably needa sanding right? Would you need to sand a little bit to give grip or sand all the gloss off? Cause I've got a LOT of woodwork to do :(
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Applying Dulux eggshell its not critical that you sand, but it is recommended that you give it a good clean using sugar soap and a cloth. If the surface of the gloss is really rubbish then you can run over it with some sandpaper. You really don't need to go over the top here. A very light quick sand is enough with a 120~180 grit paper. If you have a large area to sand then sure get a detail sander but as someone mentioned with dust extraction. That's essential with gloss paint, cus its very irritating. The dust is very fine and will ruin your hoover bag or filter so be prepared to replace one or both.
Bear in mind that painting solvent based paint on old yellowed solvent paint, it will leech through. If you want to stop the yellowing coming through after time you need a coat of a sealer primer such as zinsser.
 
Thanks for creating this thread as I'm doing mine this weekend. Had major issues with all the crown paint I bought. The gloss is terrible (like their emulsion).

Might get some dulux eggshell, says you don't need an undercoat which is good.

My local dulux shop has a 2.5l tin for £36 which I don't think is too bad.
 
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