Paint, Stain or Varish banister/spindles?

[compact]

Hi
after some advice
Have a terrace house, 100+ years old, slowly doing up.

Have stripped the banister on the stairs and slowly sanding.
Reached a point of thinking should I paint it or varnish it.

Unsure, just want the best looking finish.

I have an idea to paint the spindles and base white (lots of coats of undercoat and good gloss after sanding smooth) and then sanding and varnishing the hand rail (maybe not in that order).

Though was after opinion, know it is hard to tell, but from looking at the linked photo, do you think the wood is good enough to varnish or stain the whole thing?
It is patchy coloured due to un-even sanding and we are reaching a limit on the sanding now...

All advice welcome cheers.

Untitled

• compact
• 17 Jan 2009
• 1

 

[peteftw]

fair play to you compact, you must have the patience of a saint sanding all that down. i would be inclined to paint it as i think it it would give a more solid looking finnish, i am biased though i always prefer paint over stain.

if you go the painting route you could do two coats of acrylic primer/undercoat - which is really easy to apply like painting on emulsion.

then your top coat, you might be better going for satin or eggshell rather than full gloss because the shinier your final coat, the more it will show up any knocks and chips its got over the years.

 

[Robbie uk]

Bit like this i supose ?? View media item 6781

 

[trotter]

Hi
after some advice
Have a terrace house, 100+ years old, slowly doing up.

Have stripped the banister on the stairs and slowly sanding.
Reached a point of thinking should I paint it or varnish it.

Unsure, just want the best looking finish.

I have an idea to paint the spindles and base white (lots of coats of undercoat and good gloss after sanding smooth) and then sanding and varnishing the hand rail (maybe not in that order).

Though was after opinion, know it is hard to tell, but from looking at the linked photo, do you think the wood is good enough to varnish or stain the whole thing?
It is patchy coloured due to un-even sanding and we are reaching a limit on the sanding now...

All advice welcome cheers.

Untitled

• compact
• 17 Jan 2009
• 1

That's uncannily like my place and is a job I'm just doing ! Kudos from me for restoring a place to it's former glory.

I have stripped my stairs and 'stained' (hardwaxoiled)

But the handrail and banister and spindles I'm going to paint

Only my personal opinion, but I think the stairs will have a certain charm with their bumps and bruises - yet the handrails and spindles will simply look a bit rough

I have stripped them anyway and am filling the gouges etc in them ... and then a good undercoating and top paint will hopefully see them come up a treat

Be interested to hear how you get on

 

[compact]

It's coming along well.

All the spindles have been sanded and had 3 undercoats
the spindles on the landing were easy to pop out, which has helped with sanding the hand rail and painting (you can drill holes into a piece wood and pop them in to enable easy painting and drying).

This weekend will be sanding and staining the hand rail (trying to decide how dark to do), then the following one is sanding and painting the steps etc.
I'm going for white steps, wood, spindles etc, with a nice piece of stripey,or circular patterned (paul smith style) carpet up the centre.

Will put up some photos when finished

 

[compact]

This may sound like a silly question but if I am to stain the banister rail, do I have to get out every bit of paint from the nooks and crannies?

Would dark wood stain cover tiny ingrain flecks of blue and white paint?

 

[cumbria1978]

I read another post and was wondering if sanding is really essential and if a circular sander would work/rather than slow manualy doing it?.
Also-Could i just put primar on it then gloss, or would it dry funny?. I dont have much time. Just finishing nursey and really want white banisters before baby coming. To brighten up place. Will have even less time then. email [email protected] thanx

 

[joe-90]

This may sound like a silly question but if I am to stain the banister rail, do I have to get out every bit of paint from the nooks and crannies?

Would dark wood stain cover tiny ingrain flecks of blue and white paint?

In my opinion staining after paint never works very well. As you've noticed there is still paint in the grain and it just never soaks in right. Paint is more popular than stain anyway. Better off with a good paint job.

 

[minuteman]

Personally I would varnish them and have the history and the knocks showing. But I have an affection for old wood. If your painting your interior white and minimal, I also think having the old wood on show helps add minor touches of character. Thats just me though.

 

[dcdec]

My vote goes for painted spindles and stained hand rail. When i've done them i do a coat or two of knotting solution followed by a clear coat of varnish and it looks nice.