A Fresh Coat of Paint: How to Paint a Porch Railing – Getting Ready to Party

Have porch railings that have seen better days? Check out this post on how to paint a porch railing!

Last weekend, in addition to yard work, we also painted our front porch. The paint on our railings was starting to peel. And after we power washed the house, there were missing HUGE junks of paint everywhere. So we had to learn how to paint a porch railing!

How to Paint a Porch Railing

Remove the Rails

I woke up early last Saturday morning to Jesse removing the railings on the porch. We knew it would make it way easier to sand and paint without them attached. The rails were way harder to remove than we thought. Based on the condition of the bolts it looked like this was the first time they’d ever been removed.

Some were so rusty they just broke apart when we tried to unscrew them.

Sand and Spackle the Porch

After we took down the railings we sanded down all of the columns. But we were still left with a lot of chipping paint and giant gashes in the wood. Recently, I read a post over at Karah’s blog about using spackle for this kind of project. The spackle smooths the chipping paint and fills in holes or splits in the wood. It worked wonderfully and helped create a smooth service to paint over! So thanks for that Karah! 🙂 

After I spackled everything, Jesse took the sander back to the columns and then it was time for painting!

Paint the Porch Railing Using a Semi-Gloss Finish

We used Olympic Exterior paint with Primer in a semi-gloss finish. It was pretty much impossible to wipe down our columns before we repainted them. So I wanted to make sure the new finish was easy to wipe off if they get dirty. Now the columns are crisp white!

So white that they look almost Photoshopped in some of these pictures! I’m in love! 

Now all the porch needs is a bench and a window box. And a few other potted plants to add some more color to the porch! It’s going to be so cozy when I’m done! Now of course those details aren’t on the list for being done before the party. Hopefully, they can be on the summer to-do list!

What were you guys up to this weekend? Were you as busy as we were? Do you love the fresh coat of paint like we do? 😉