Sometimes the lowest-impact solution to a problem is the best! That was the case with my recent project helping my client Cathie fix up her dinged-up trim.
The trim has shown this wear since Cathie and her husband Kurt moved in, so they weren’t certain how the damage happened. After looking closely, Kurt deduced that instead of being stained wood as it appeared – it was actually faux-painted. When I came to take a look, I found that Kurt was right – and that it was actually the paint that had chipped off making the damage more obvious than it might have been if the woodwork was stained.
The solutions seemed a bit more difficult than deducing the problem, however. One option was to remove the trim so it could be completely stripped down and re-finished – but this ran the risk of damaging the surrounding venetian plaster. Another option would be to sand the trim down in place, but that would be less than ideal in terms of associated time, mess and cost.
After talking with Cathie, I offered a 3rd solution – which was to just re-paint the damaged areas – matching the existing faux painting around these areas to make it all blend in. This would be tricky to match all the different colors and patterns – but certainly possible and far less impactful!
After less than 3 days on-site, I was able to take care of all the trim and doors on their second floor --- and the difference was significant! Cathie and Kurt were thrilled with the results and how easy it ended up to get there!
Below are a few “before” and “after” pictures. I forgot to get before shots of the doors – but these images of the trim help tell the story.
Enjoy!
Jason
