How To Caulk Window Trim

If you caught our latest mail service almost building a board and batten emphasis wall, then yous've seen nigh of our office room past now. There are a few angles and furniture pieces that we haven't shown yet, and so stay tuned for our whole office reveal in the near time to come! What you probably don't know most the part is that nosotros started working on it over a year ago when we painted information technology (during the pre-blog era). In this post, nosotros're recapping a uncomplicated all the same effective affair that we did in here to really make our paint job look professional: caulking the trim!

Earlier Caulking

We all love a good before moving-picture show, right? Here's i of the office that we took during the prep phase of painting. We stopped ourselves before opening upward the pigment cans and fabricated a signal to snap this film earlier we forgot. Anyone else guilty of getting so wrapped up in their projects that you lot forget to have pictures? 😅

It was the same story as the rest of our house: dirty, off-white walls, brownish trim, and no overhead lighting. Nothing some corrective updates couldn't fix! First, we hired an electrician to install four recessed lights (pictured in this photo) and put them on a dimmer switch so we tin can control the brightness of the room. Then, nosotros freshened everything upwards by painting the ceiling, walls, and trim. Pigment is the simplest and almost transformative DIY project if you ask me! The ceiling is flat white ceiling paint, the walls are a blue-tinged white – Maui Mist by Behr, and the trim is our get-to Ultra Pure White by Behr. Y'all tin can run across a full list of our house's paint colors here.

After we painted the office, we sort of pushed it to the back burner and moved on to other projects. Nosotros used it sporadically for storage, but never fabricated it a truthful role. Then, COVID-19 hit, and Pete needed a designated space to piece of work from dwelling house in. So we turned our attention back to the role, and realized that our original paint job was missing something…

…caulk! Do you encounter all the gaps betwixt the trim and the walls?? The problem hither is simple – we didn't caulk the baseboards or the trim around the windows and doors before we painted. So nosotros were left with gaps where the trim isn't 100% flush with the walls (which is common in older homes). And since our paint colors are so light, the dark gaps actually stand out.

The solution here is to fill all of the gaps with caulk, which is and then easy to practise! No affair how experienced a painter you lot are, using caulk volition ever requite your paint task a seamless, professional person look. And it'south quick, too. With the two of us, we got most of the caulking done during halftime of a Patriots game. Here'due south what we did:

x Unproblematic Steps for Caulking Trim

Wipe downwardly the trim with a damp rag to remove any dust.
Employ scissors or a utility knife to cut the tip of your caulk tube. TIP: cut it at a 45-degree angle, and don't cut too much off. A smaller bead of caulk is easier to command and reduces wasted caulk.
Load the caulk tube into a caulking gun.
Squeeze the trigger of the caulking gun to run a continuous bead of caulk along the trim where it meets the walls.
Dip your finger in water, and smooth the caulk dewdrop by running your finger along information technology, pressing down lightly.
Wipe off excess caulk onto a paper towel.
Repeat steps 4-6 until you've caulked all the noticeable gaps.
Permit the caulk dry per the caulk tube'south instructions.
Paint over the caulk with your trim color (paintable caulk NEEDS to be painted, or it will turn a gross yellow color and attract grit).
If the caulk smeared onto the walls at all, paint over information technology with the wall color to prevent discoloration.

That's it! Caulking is inexpensive, effective, and doesn't require special tools besides a caulking gun (the i nosotros use is under $seven, and our favorite brand of caulk is under $5 a tube). Nosotros simply used half a tube for this small room, so we kept the residue for another time. To store caulk and preclude information technology from drying out, we cover the tip with plastic wrap and a rubber band (making it closed). We keep our caulk tubes at room temperature in a spare closet with our leftover paint.

Subsequently Caulking

In a perfect earth, you'd want to caulk the trim in your infinite before painting. Don't exist like united states and learn the hard way! With a little more DIY experience under our belts, nosotros know better now. We still have a few rooms that we need to revisit and caulk, but nosotros tin can happily check the office off our list! Here's what the trim in in that location looks like now:

Everything is prissy and seamless now, and most importantly, no more gaps! A picayune caulk and touch-up paint (and patience) was all information technology took. Possibly we'll get the motivation to caulk the rest of our house soon 😉