The Top 3 BEST Paints for Skirting Boards

Decorating

25 Sept

Painting a skirting board — The best paints for skirting boards

A vital element of any room where the floors meet the walls, skirting boards are often overlooked when it comes to painting and decorating. If left as a last minute decision, there’s a risk of rushing into a paint purchase that doesn’t stand the test of time, ultimately ending up looking shabby quickly and having to repaint.

Thankfully you’ve found this guide! To keep your trim looking its best and protecting against scuffs and scrapes, you’re going to need a pot or two of the best paint for skirting boards.

Read on for the BEST skirting board paints…

A quick tip about painting skirting boards

Skirting boards help to do the job of protecting your walls against scuffs and scratches at their most vulnerable point.

The skirting boards in high-traffic areas of the house take a lot of punishment, so keeping them looking great takes a bit of planning and some clever techniques.

Like most jobs around the home, more than half the effort is in the preparation. If you’re redecorating an entire room, paint the walls first.

Why?

Little drips, splashes, and brush marks are an inevitable side effect of any paint job, so get the big walls done first before you tackle the skirts. Doing things the other way around is much harder.

Clear as much furniture and other items out from the room you’re painting as possible. A room is much easier to paint when you don’t have a great pile of stuff in front of you all the time.

Tape, tape, and more tape

The decorator’s best friend, masking tape is a shortcut to keeping unwanted paint splashes off things like plug sockets and cream carpets. Decent quality painter’s tape is a great way to create straight lines and crisp borders, so take the time to mask up your room carefully.

In fact, this stage might well take longer than the painting job itself. But when it’s done properly, the results speak for themselves.

Unless you’re an expert painter with an incredibly steady hand, don’t even try and paint the edges of your skirting boards freehand. Wavy edges are almost guaranteed. Use the reliably straight edge of masking tape for crisp and pleasing lines.

Tape on a skirting board before painting — TapE AROUND your skirting boards TO prepare for painting

Flooring Protection

The last thing you want is to colour in your nice new carpets or floors when you’re painting the skirting boards. Keep your floors looking great with flooring or carpet protection.

For hard surface stairways you can use dust sheets, but these can get annoying and a trip hazard if you don’t have extendable stair rods, so definitely check these out.
Alternatively, carpets can be protected with products like Roll ‘n’ Stroll which is a plastic layer that sticks directly onto the carpet, warning here though - they aren’t supposed to be used with wool carpets as it can pull on the fibres.

Do I Need to Prime?

You will always get the best results when you use a primer. Unless you’ve been advised differently, it’s safer to you use the same brand primer as your top coat, and always read the instructions that come with the paint.

The Best Paints for Skirting Boards

Benjamin Moore Scuff-X skirting board paint

1. Benjamin Moore Ultra Spec Scuff-X

US paint company Benjamin Moore has been manufacturing high-performance paints since 1872. Famous for their toughness, you can find Scuff-X paint in challenging environments like school hallways and hospital wards.

Easily one of the best options for specialist skirting paint, this latex-based anti-microbial paint comes in a range of finishes. Matte, eggshell, satin, and semi-gloss finishes mean that you can get the look you want with the same qualities needed for hard-wearing skirts.

Available in more than 3,500 different colours, it’s a tintable paint to suit whatever colour scheme you have planned.

And most importantly for your skirting boards, it’s extremely hard wearing. You can scrub it with soap and water without worrying you’ll damage the finish.

2. Tikkurila Helmi 30

The Finnish paint professionals at Tikkurila create paints for every surface imaginable. If you’re tackling interior wood surfaces and you want a tough semi-matt finish, Helmi 30 is a great choice.

Need coloured skirting boards? You don’t need to stick with plain old brilliant white, because Helmi 30 is available in a huge range of tints, and can be colour-matched as well. A water-based acrylic paint, it boasts ultra-low levels of VOCs that would otherwise spread around your home.

You can apply the paint with a brush, roller, or sprayer, and watch it dry in just over an hour in normal conditions. The paint hardens to a tough finish that is highly scrubbable, making it ideal for high-traffic areas.

Sherwin Williams SnapDry skirting board paint

3. Sherwin Williams SnapDry Door & Trim Paint

Another US paint brand that puts a whole lot of effort into making the best products for repainting skirting boards, the SnapDry paint range is ideal if you really don’t want to watch paint dry.

Available in satin or semi-gloss, the painter’s favourite trim finish, SnapDry will cure in an hour. A latex-based paint designed with toughness in mind, it works on both interior and exterior surfaces like front doors and architraves.

Resistant to scrubbing and UV damage, it’s an impressive paint that will transform coloured skirting boards, especially if you’re looking for a clean and glossy finish.