A satin finish gives a clean and crisp look to the skirting boards. It's also easy to maintain and clean. Satin is also well known for it's longevity and maintaining the original colour much longer than an oil based gloss.
Gloss - the highest sheen of paint, that provides a high sheen finish that has often been used traditionally for interior trim such as doors & skirting boards thanks to its reflectivity and high durability.
What Kind Of Paint Do You Use On Skirting Boards? You can use any paint that is designed for wood and metal, such as gloss, satin, and eggshell, for the decorative coat. Using a 2 inch brush, cut into the painting with long sweeping movements as you paint across the top.
The old-school choice for painting skirting boards is gloss paint, with its high sheen and reflective properties, which give it that 'shiny' finish. Gloss paint is highly durable, hard wearing, and easy to clean. It's an excellent choice for high traffic areas of the home, and for families with young children.
Most suitable when combined with light matte walls, gloss finish paint is great for traditional skirting board profiles as it creates a glamorous glass-like look. However, if you're repainting your old boards, a high gloss skirting paint will emphasise imperfections.
Tough and durable are the standard for most skirting board paints, but you can choose from choice of finishes, commonly matt, satin, eggshell and gloss. All are wipeable and easy to clean so it is often a matter of preference. But it is worth noting a high sheen gloss is more likely to show up any imperfections.
Painting Skirting Boards With Emulsion
Most of the time, you'll be told that eggshell, satin or gloss paint will be the best paint for skirting boards. However, emulsion is another option. Surprisingly, you can get a hardwearing and attractive finish using emulsion paint even though it's normally the cheaper option.
If you are painting a high traffic room, you should go for the satin paint finish without a second thought, as it is more durable than the eggshell paint. Satin paint is much more resistant to dents, divots, scuffs, scratches, and stains while being more persistent on the whole since it is a higher sheen paint.
Gloss has a higher sheen, also sometimes called lustre, than satin which means that it has a higher reflective level, commonly twice as high as satin. While neither hides imperfections, a gloss surface reflects more light which means it will highlight flaws more than a satin finish.
Water-based paints are quickly becoming a staple paint for skirting boards. These paints are often available in more colours and finishes than oil-based paints. The smell isn't anywhere near as strong with these paints, and clean up is easy too.
Nearly opposite in reflectivity, durability and ease of cleaning, high-gloss paints are not ideally suited to the same areas of the home as eggshell paints. Eggshell paints are a far better choice for walls and low-traffic areas of the home because they are harder to clean effectively.
As you know, the step to painting satin paint over gloss service would be to de-gloss the undercoat finish to make it less slippery and allow the paint to adhere to it properly. You can de-gloss the surface by sanding the paint finish in circular motions using 180-grit sandpaper.
Can You Put Satin Paint Over Gloss? In order to paint satin paint over gloss service, you will need to de-gloss the undercoat finish to prevent it from becoming slippery and to allow the paint to adhere properly to it. Sand the paint finish with 180-grit sandpaper in circular motions to remove the gloss.
The shiny reflective property of a paint's sheen comes from a reflective particles in the paint. The more layers that are put on, the more light gets reflected back to the viewer. It's odd that this has happened with a low sheen; I have seen this with satin and eggshell quite a bit myself.
WHEN TO USE EGGSHELL PAINT: Eggshell is commonly used in living rooms and dining rooms, as it is durable and does not pick up dirt easily. If your walls have bumps or imperfections, an extra coat of eggshell can disguise them more easily than satin or high-gloss finishes.
Sometimes called satin finish, eggshell has slightly more luster than a flat finish, but you won't be left with shiny walls. It also resists stains better than flat and can be wiped with a wet rag. Eggshell finishes are often used in bathrooms, kitchens, kids' rooms, and other high-traffic areas.
You can use leftover wall paint to paint skirting boards but it will leave your skirting boards prone to chips and scratches. For an attractive yet hardwearing finish, we would recommend using satinwood on your skirting boards instead.
You can be really professional and use a mini gloss roller if you fancy. Included in the COAT Large Supplies Kit, the spongy gloss roller will give you a ridiculously smooth finish for flat skirting boards or wood panelling.
As a general rule, your skirting boards should follow the same colour tone as your walls. You'll need to pick a different finish for your woodwork, which requires a more hard-wearing paint type than wall emulsion. For a matt effect, try eggshell, or consider satinwood or gloss for contrast.
If you're painting your whole room it's widely debated which to paint first, skirting boards or walls? We would recommend painting the skirting boards first and allowing them to dry as emulsion will then easily wipe off should you get any on your woodwork!
Satinwood paints come in both water and oil-based finishes. Whilst both are popular, water-based satinwood can leave more visible brush marks, so you will need to be mindful and purchase a very soft-bristled brush.
Most skirting boards need an oil-based or gloss finish because of their hardwearing properties. It's important here to resist the urge to paint them using any kind of flat emulsion or you'll simply find them dirty again pretty quickly.
Although both matte and eggshell paints are durable, eggshell finishes tend to be the more durable of the two.