While talking about office plans last week, several of your comments about the blue trim gave us the push we needed. We’d been convincing ourselves we could paint all the trim by hand—baseboards, crown molding, and five windows with 66 individual panes—but it was getting ridiculous. So we decided to break out the paint sprayer, tape everything off, hope we didn’t get bleed-through on the wood floors, and say goodbye to the blue trim for good.
We’d sprayed the upstairs trim before we moved in and before the new floors went down, which was easy since there was nothing to worry about damaging. For the downstairs rooms we’d tackled (kitchen and foyer) we painted by hand because those spaces needed to stay functional and we didn’t want to cover them in paper and tape while a cloud of spray drifted through. The office, however, was mostly empty and could be quarantined for a few days, so we took the leap and sprayed.
Last Thursday morning we emptied the room, leaving only the heavy file cabinet which we covered. We basically took over the dining room and foyer with the displaced items. It was chaotic, but we’re used to that by now.
We were excited to try a new method, but curious whether spraying would actually save time overall since the prep is more intensive. Some prep—wiping down surfaces and taping the floor—would have been necessary either way, but taping and protecting the room for spraying takes longer.
We rolled out rosin paper across the entire floor because paint mist from our sprayer gets everywhere. We taped the edges first to secure them against the hardwoods, then taped each sheet of paper down row by row. It meant using more painter’s tape than strictly necessary, but the extra protection felt worth it for a first-time spray job.
With the floors covered, Clara thought it was the coolest thing and drew on the paper while we moved on to prepping the windows.
I debated using liquid masking film on the windows, since it’s supposed to peel off after spraying, but message boards warned it often requires multiple coats and can be more trouble than it’s worth. So Sherry had the simpler idea of cutting rosin paper squares and taping them to the center of each pane. We didn’t meticulously seal every edge, but expected this to limit how much scraping we’d need to do later. I left one pane uncovered as a test—big mistake. That pane was a nightmare to clean.
With furniture covered and windows protected, our final prep step was sealing the office off from the rest of the house. We taped a tarp across the doorway and installed a zippered tarp doorway we picked up at Home Depot. That resealable opening was the best $10 we spent on the project. It was effectively airtight and kept primer and paint dust from escaping while still allowing me to come and go between coats.
Sherry sent me off with a salute as I loaded in the sprayer, an extension cord, and a can of Kilz Premium primer. I suited up in a painter’s coverall and booties and prepared for the worst. I was oddly nervous.
The project got off to a rocky start. The sprayer clogged immediately, covering my hands in primer and sputtering everywhere. After about 30 minutes of troubleshooting I finally started spraying. It was late afternoon by then, and with clouds outside and the windows covered, the room was darker than expected. I realized I needed a work light, so I ran to Home Depot after finishing the primer coat and bought a couple of lights and the trim paint I planned to use: Benjamin Moore Simply White in semi-gloss.
The lights revealed that the primer wasn’t perfect but would do. After cleaning the sprayer overnight, I got up early the next morning for the first paint coat. The mist was obvious—paint fog hung in the air as I worked.
I let the coat dry while we were out that afternoon. By Saturday morning we realized one coat wasn’t enough to reach all the nooks and crannies; spraying makes it hard to cover every angle in one pass without causing drips, and you can’t immediately re-spray the missed spots from a different angle. So I did a second coat to aim for better coverage.
By day three the exterior of the office looked pretty messy. We let the second coat dry all day Saturday and began cleanup on Sunday. Our DIY window coverings weren’t perfect—peeling them off left bits of rosin paper stuck to the glass. Scraping 66 panes was a slog and took most of the day.
Sherry and I took turns scraping. The primer plus two coats of paint left thick coverage that required effort to remove. We found straight razors worked best for the main surfaces, and an X-Acto blade or small scraper worked for corners. A putty knife helped in some places but was harder to control. The uncovered test pane proved our rosin squares were worthwhile: it was far more difficult to clean than the covered panes.
By early afternoon we’d finished scraping and enjoyed a celebratory lunch. The office was bright again and free of blue trim. We considered leaving the floor paper down for the next steps, but worried there might be seepage, so we pulled it up—and the hardwoods underneath were immaculate. That was a huge relief.
The room still looked a bit messy from overspray on the walls and ceiling, but there was no blue left. We plan to paint the walls and ceiling next while the furniture is out. We also need to sand a few spots where the second coat dripped and do some touch-up by hand, and apply caulk where the moldings meet the walls—painting made those imperfections much more visible.
We’re also reconsidering the wall color since the current paint reads a bit yellow in the now-brighter room. We’re leaning toward a light hue with a touch of color rather than a stark white, and we’re taping off spots where built-ins might go to help visualize the layout.
As for the verdict on spraying versus painting by hand: spraying is dramatically faster for the actual application—about 30 minutes per coat versus four-plus hours by brush and roller for one coat—but prep and cleanup are more intensive. We still need to refine our spraying process to avoid clogs, drips, and heavy overspray on windows. When we tackle the dining room—another space that can be quarantined—we’ll apply what we’ve learned and share which adjustments worked best.
If you have tips from your own paint-spraying experience, we’d love to hear them. We’ll be testing this method again and want to work out the kinks before the next room. And yes—this office was our last room with blue trim, so finishing it felt like a real milestone.