Decorating your skirting boards doesn’t have to be a daunting task. If you prepare it properly beforehand, the decorating process will become much easier.

When decorating skirting boards, you’re normally either painting or varnishing them. You’ll only be varnishing them if they are made using a natural wood – MDF can only be painted.

Painting Skirting Boards

Preparing Existing Skirting Boards

If your just freshening up your interior with a lick of paint, you’ll be redecorating your existing skirtings.

Depending on the state of boards, you’ll have a few options.

If they’re in pretty good condition, you may get away with wiping them down and applying a new coat of paint over the top. This is done all the time. If you’ve ever taken a piece of skirting board off the wall, you’ll have seen the layers of paint that have been added over time.

However, for the best finish (and for skirting boards with a lot of wear an tear, you’ll want to sand the skirting boards down.

It would be best to sand them down to the bare material so that you can prime and paint them to bring them back to new. This process can take a lot of time and effort so if time is not on your side, you can just sand them down lightly – this will give a good surface for the new paint to adhere too.

Preparing New Skirting Boards

If you’ve bought new skirting boards, chances are they’re already good to go. Most suppliers offer a primed finish which should be ready to be painted straight away.

If you’ve bought unprimed skirting boards and they’re made out of MDF, be prepared to prime them before adding your final coat of paint. You may even need to sand them down depending on where you bought them from.

If you’ve bought primed skirting boards, you should be able to paint them straight away. But have some sandpaper to hand, just in case. If they do need sanding, it should only be lightly.

If you’ve gone all out and purchased fully finished skirting boards, you should be OK to stick them straight on the wall! If any of them have been marked during transit, you’ll need to touch them up with the same paint that they’ve been finished in. Some suppliers sell touch up pots for this reason.