I will be sharing three simple tips for painting small awkward objects. The ideas and principles behind each of these simple techniques can be adapted to many different shapes and sizes of objects that you may be using for your projects. The three items that I will showcase painting techniques for are stair hand railings, wooden plugs and wooden spindles.
How to paint stair hand railings
Painting or staining small objects can be a challenge as they are hard to hold onto difficult to maneuver and because of this can make a pretty big mess. I personally discovered this while doing a recent project in my own home which I replace my standard White railings with a dark ebony color oak railings to update the look.
After applying the ebony stain I decided to spray with a varathane clear coat finish to protect the surface and give it a nice silky smooth feeling to the hand. To achieve this I had to figure out a way to elevate the railings in a makeshift spray booth allowing the varathane to flow on smoothly and uniformly around all the curvatures of the handrail. This was achieved by setting them on the very fine point of some 3-inch screws protruding through two by fours to elevate the railings.
As you can see in the following picture the two screws elevate the workpiece nicely and the fine point on the tip of the screw leaves virtually no mark under the railing. The underside of the railing will not be visible or touched by your hand so a flawless finish will not be as crucial as it is on the top and sides of the railing. The top and sides of the railing must be flawless and the way to achieve this is by elevating them as shown and spraying the final coats of paint or clear coat varathane.
Paint or stain wooden screw plugs the easy way
Wooden screw plugs are great for hiding screw holes but these little guys are hard to hold onto and very tedious as you do one at a time. Imagine trying to hold on to these with one hand and trying to stain and spray varathane with the other hand one at a time very messy and not a pleasant experience.
The answer to this unpleasant problem is simply two-way tape and cardboard. The two-way tape is sticky on both sides and securely holds the small screw plugs in place for painting. The cardboard makes it easy to move and position the small pieces for painting or spraying as needed.
Steps required to paint or stain wooden screw plugs:
- First you lay a enough two-way tape to accommodate all your screw plugs. Make sure to allowing enough spacing to work a paint brush around all sides.
- Peel the backing off the top side of the two-way tape to expose the second sticky tape surface.
- Simply press you’re small screw plugs or similar items into the tape’s top sticky surface. Now you are ready to go.
- Once they are full dry you simply pry the screw plugs off the two-way tape. Install into your screw holes.
The two-way tape and cardboard painting technique is a very efficient and quick way to handle small items. It would also make a great way to paint small figurines and handle arts and crafts project and hobby work. Once it’s completely dry simply peel your project piece away from the two-way tape. The underside will not be finished but when installed in the screw hole it will not be visible.
Spray your stair spindles for a professional look
Small and awkward objects are almost always better sprayed when they need to be painted or top coated and stair spindles are no exception. The only problem is that the over spray can be very messy and is undesirable in a finished home. For this reason I like to do all my staining and painting of the individual pieces in a shop or garage and install in the home after they are full dry.
As with any small pieces destined for painting, you need to identify the part or side of the piece that will be unseen or less prevalent when it is installed. In this case it will be the top or bottom of the spindle as they will be butted into the floor and top railing when installed.
Steps for spraying your stair spindles:
- Start with enough 2 X 4 or 2 X 6 lumber to give you about 9 – 12 inches of spacing for each of your spindles.
- Drive a 3 – 4 inch screw through your piece of lumber until the head of the screw is counter sunk into the lumber at a spacing of 9 to 12 inches apart.
- Find the center on the end of your spindle by drawing a line from corner to corner. The point where they intersect is the center point.
- Press the center point down on the screw tip and rotate spindle until screw is firmly inserted into the end of the spindle.
- Repeat steps 3 and 4 until all spindles are installed onto the lumber holder. You may need to clamp your 2 X 4 lumber to prevent it from tipping over.
Check out my quick video on setting up a railing spindle for spraying in my garage
Conclusion
I hope the ideas and principles behind each of these simple techniques will help you out in your future home projects. Remember these techniques can be adapted to many different shapes and sizes of objects that you may be working on for your projects. Hopefully this post has giving you some ideas for your next home painting project.
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