If you’re planning on repainting your wood shutters, it’s important to do it right. If you’ve ever noticed how some shutters –or even the window frames in some homes- are painted over the old coat, you know how this makes them look. The old paint, especially if it’s done in a more rushed, haphazard way, will coagulate in the corners, so that the more times you paint it, the deeper the piles of dried paint becomes. This will also expand outward, making the shutters appear to be old and poorly maintained.
Then, of course, you need to consider the cracking and chipping that commonly occurs with wood shutters. In most cases, wood shutters will be exposed to the direct sunlight for at least a few hours every day. No matter whether these are indoor or outdoor shutters, it’s going to affect the wood and paint finish.
If you attempt to simply run a coat of paint over these wood shutters, you will still see the cracks and chips that were caused by drying and cracking. New paint might certainly cover up these imperfections, but you will still see the cracks and chipped out areas.
Once the paint dries, the cracked or chipped original paint will continue to chip and crack. This will likely cause the paint to eventually peel away, so you would then not only have the fresh paint flaking off with the old, but you’ll have an uneven finish and surface.
The only way you should ever repaint your wood shutters (and you can repaint them almost as often as you want, which will help to prolong the life of those shutters) is by stripping the old coat of paint from them first. Use a paint stripping chemical, scrape the old paint away, and then lightly sand them to a smooth finish.
Be sure to get into every corner so that once you repaint them, they will look brand new when you secure them back around or over your windows.
