Prepping / painting staircase spindles

[Secondsop]

Hello, I normally get someone in to decorate but want to do my staircase spindles myself to save money (plus I can do it all sitting down!). At the moment there are new unpainted pine spindles, but banisters that are wood stained. How should I prep these different areas? I would like to
paint them in satinwood finish. Thank you in advance.

We did the same in our old house and a quick sand and clean down was all the prep they needed. We too used satin wood finish, came up lovely.

I would use a Zinsser primer then paint with a couple of coats of satinwood. You'll then be sure nothing will come through the topcoat.

I discovered mini foam rollers when I painted my stairs. Depends on the shape of them, but for mine it made the job so much easier

Before you do anything you need to seal any knots with knotting solution otherwise the resin will bleed through your beautifully painted stairs.

Zinisser primer (I used water based as oil base sets off my asthma) then Valspar water based gloss. Be warned it is tedious.

Sorry, knotting sealer, then light sand, then Zinisser primer x 2 coats, then top coat x 2.

I am in the process of doing mine at the moment. It is indeed very tedious.
Zinsser primer is very effective but I did find it difficult to work with - very thin.

I needed to use decorators caulk to fill in a fair few gaps as the dark wood showed through. Ours had been previously stained and varnished so I rubbed down with methylated spirit before using the Zinsser.
I’m going to do yet another coat of eggshell today and hopefully they will be finished. They do look much better white.

Thank you everyone. I am now beginning to see why the quote was so much money. I can see that i’d need to prime / knot-seal for the bare wood so I think I can see the way for those. How should I prepare the bits that are currently wood-stained? Do I have to sand all that odd? (Please no).

If you use Zinsser no sanding is necessary. It provides a really good key for the topcoat.