Victorian Coving/cornice help

[Walshy07]

Hi there,

I have recently moved into a Victorian house and currently doing up the lounge. I have very little DIY experience so please be nice! We are currently looking at decorating the lounge and just had a plasterer do the walls and ceilings. We are now at the stage where we are going to begin sanding and painting the coving/cornice. I wanted some advice really on the best way to go about this. The coving looks to be made of plaster and I’m unsure whether a paint stripper would be used or even if it’s worth completely stripping the paint. There are a few areas where the paint has been chipped. Would it be better to just target these areas rather than stripping the whole lot? If so, what is the best way to go about this? Would we need to use a filler for the chipped paint areas? Would we need a specific primer?

I have attached a couple of photos showing the current state of the coving, one of the pics showing the chipped paint.

Any advice would be much appreciated with any product tips/methods most welcome.

thanks for your time

 

[daggermark]

In the pictures it looks like the coving is quite well painted, e.g. no big lumps / drips. Is this the case throughout?

Some tests you can do on a small area
- Give it a gentle scrape with a filling knife or even your finger nail, does the paint peel? We need to ensure the existing paint is sound.
- Give it a wipe with a damp cloth, does paint come off on the cloth? If so, its very likely painted with emulsion. Do you have anything specific in mind for the finish? I always paint coving with the same emulsion as the ceiling.

Assuming its largely sound and already emulsion, I'd do the following:
- Use a filling knife or sandpaper to get a sharper line where coving meets fresh plaster (inevitably there will be a few drips, I can see one at the top on the first pic)
- Sand around chipped areas to give a bit of a key, and use powder filler (e.g. easifill) to fill them. Sand flush once dry. Probably use something like 180 grit alu paper for this, don't go mad, you don't want to remove all the existing paint if its sound
- Clean everything with a damp cloth to remove dust, then a final dust down with a dry microfibre cloth
- Mist coat your ceilings and walls first, and spot-prime sanded/filled areas with same (search forum if you aren't sure what/why/how on mist coat)
- Paint the coving at the same time as the ceiling with matt emulsion