A person of the smartest means to incorporate tasteful decor and depth to a room, crown molding is a refined option to many of the in excess of-the-top adornments some folks fill their houses with. For several years, molding has been practically exclusively built from wooden, which effects in a procedure that involves hyper-comprehensive calculations, high-priced resources, and woodworking talent. Foam on the other hand, signifies a more recent, simpler, and more price-successful substitute that can give you the exact visual appeal as wooden without all the get the job done.
Light-weight and versatile, foam crown molding needs minor extra than adhesive to install, and is easily slash by hand with a sharp carving knife. Foam’s “squishiness” usually means you can be generous with your cuts, as the foam will compress when match into a restricted place, developing ideal joints and seams though hiding imperfections. Getting a spongy material like foam to glimpse like a a lot more solid merchandise is what can make people today occasionally issue its skill to genuinely swap wooden as a molding material. In fact, the approach of portray foam molding gives an installer the means to make the foam search like any other medium. In this write-up, I will give you a operate-via on how uncomplicated it is to paint polyurethane foam molding and wind up with a stunning new house.
There are two methods for painting foam molding, and it is really up to you to make a decision which is ideal: spray portray or brush portray. Spray painting needs considerably less operate, much less products, and is a lot quicker, but isn’t going to give you most detailing capacity. Brush portray allows you to replicate the design and style or seem of any other molding medium, but is a little far more labor-intensive than spray-painting.
Spray Painting Foam Crown Molding
Just after measuring and slicing your foam molding sections, get ready a workspace in a properly-ventilated location where by accidental overspray would not be an problem. Putting down a large drop fabric or tarp in the garage, basement, or even on the floor exterior on a quiet working day performs properly.
When your area is all set and your molding is spaced out on the tarp, use thin, even coats, using care not to oversaturate the foam. As an absorbent sponge rubber, the molding will acquire more time to dry if you do. Following painting all the pieces to your requirements and letting enough time to dry, your crown molding will be ready to mount.
As beforehand stated, spray portray has an edge above brush painting in terms of speed and ease. Prepping the place, painting the foam, and allowing it to dry are the only methods ahead of mounting. The negatives to spray portray total to small a lot more than own taste. There will be limits to spray painting based mostly on the nature of its software two-toned or intricate types will not likely be functional. Also, foam will retain its spongy physical appearance with the spray strategy. The polyurethane foam most producers use has a mobile composition tiny adequate that it will be indistinguishable from a strong at the length from which it will be found, but it is even now a consideration to choose into account.
Brush Painting Foam Crown Molding
For folks who have an intricate or personalized paint work in intellect, or want to have a good, clean floor on their molding, brush painting is the appropriate option.
As opposed to spray painting, brush portray needs the foam to be coated with thinned drywall joint compound as sealant in advance of portray to generate a easy surface. Also distinctive from spray painting, the molding will want to be mounted prior to sealing and portray. Mounting 1st offers you the benefit of foam’s compressibility to generate clear corners and seams just before you harden the material with sealant and paint.
Immediately after the foam has been mounted, shield the room from paint and joint compound with fall cloths and painter’s tape. When you’ve concluded with the prep function, prepare your drywall compound combine. You can want to thin it down until it’s the regularity of paint.
Once you might be finished mixing, brush a thin coat onto the whole area of the molding. The joint compound should dry rapidly, so in an average-sized home, you will be in a position to commence applying a next coat as shortly as you end the 1st go-about. Only two coats are necessary, but if you desire to insert additional, do so. After you have completed implementing the drywall compound, give the molding a total 24 several hours to totally dry all the way through.
The adhering to working day, the molding will be completely ready for paint. Sanding the dried joint compound really should not be necessary unless of course you spot a flaw. If you need to have to sand the compound down, use the best grit sandpaper probable, and use a respirator or facial area mask. When you might be contented with the coating floor, carry on to paint the molding nevertheless you motivation. As soon as the paint dries, eliminate the drop cloths and tape and you’ll have a recently-transformed room that you upgraded with a fraction of the time, cash, and energy necessary for common crown molding.
Closing Strategies
Last of all, there are a pair recommendations that utilize to both painting technique. Initial, prevent oil-primarily based paints for the foam. There is small cause to use them in any case, given that latex paints are additional cost-effective and you will never need weather resistance inside. Second, the foam by itself may well be brilliant white when you initially purchase it. If you program to have white crown molding, you will nonetheless will need to paint the foam, even if it matches your place. This is because foam will naturally yellow as it ages. This is purely an aesthetic alter and won’t effects top quality, but by portray it, you will make certain it will often be the shade you want.
