Painting skirting and picture rail

[jellybean30]

I am so very lazy and time-poor, and I have a lot of skirting and picture rail to paint. They're currently cream colour, semi gloss. I want to paint them white (Farrow and Ball Wevet, to be exact), eggshell finish.

My question is, can I just paint them directly, or do I need to sand? I'm not after a perfect finish, I just want something that will look reasonable.

Thank you!

Bump! 👩🏻‍🎨

I'm bone idle when it comes to painting skirting, doors, dado rails etc but I do give them a light sanding using sandpaper and a sanding block, you don't have to go mad, they just need a light sanding, I think its called keying so the paint sticks

You risk the paint not adhering properly if you dont prepare the surface first either by sugar soaping or sanding or a coat of a zinsser product. Peeling paint is a nightmare. It is not worth the risk in my opinion. If you dont want the mess of sanding then use a zinsser product first.

Use sugar soap and a big, green scourer- takes half the time of sanding.

No, you need to rub them down, then undercoat, them eggshell. You reap what you sow, a shit job will look shit.

@Dizzy1234

I'm bone idle when it comes to painting skirting, doors, dado rails etc but I do give them a light sanding using sandpaper and a sanding block, you don't have to go mad, they just need a light sanding, I think its called keying so the paint sticks

^this. You don't need to go mad with it, especially if it's not a high gloss finish, but you will get a much better finish if you lightly sand the paint. 'Key' is indeed the word. If you're using a paint of a thinnish consistency it will be much easier to get an even coat if it is sanded. There is another option, as it's not a high gloss. Undercoat it first. That will give you a 'key'. I've done this on semi-gloss woodwork and it has been fine. But I'd test it on a small section to see if the undercoat will itself stick. If it does stick, an undercoat will give you a better surface even than sanding would. And may mean one topcoat is enough, if you use the right colour undercoat. As a halfway house, if the undercoat doesn't flow well, you may get away with a much lighter sand, just sliding a fine sandpaper over the surface to take of any little specks and take the edge off the paint that's there before undercoating. But test first on a small area.

@SpeakingFranglais

No, you need to rub them down, then undercoat, them eggshell. You reap what you sow, a shit job will look shit.

You can often get away with something like satinwood direct on a semi-gloss coat with no undercoat, if the colour change is negligible, and you can handle a brush properly. I've done that more than once, and it really wasn't a 'shit' job. I have done it more than once, and it looked perfect- as good as adjoining sections done the classical way from scratch on new timber. And I'm genuinely very fussy about paintwork.

@BlueMongoose thank you - it's currently cream and I'll be painting it Wevet by Farrow and Ball. Will a white undercoat work?