Finishing your spindles—sanding, painting and varnishing
Adding a lick of paint or varnish to your spindles can instantly transform your balustrade. It’s no quick fix though, as painting or varnishing spindles can be messy and time-consuming, especially if you have to remove the existing paint.
On this page you can find out more about:
How to prime a spindle
While we offer some pre-finished stair parts, the majority of our stair parts are unfinished, so you’ll need to apply a finish to protect the wood and to match your colour scheme. You might simply want to seal and protect the wood with a hardwax oil, but the following tips should make a DIY painting job easier:
- Plain unfinished spindles will need an application of good-quality wood primer—this will ensure better adhesion of paint to the surface. If your spindles are pine, we would advise using a knotting solution on any knots before applying a primer. However, with our White Primed range, you won’t need to apply any primer, as the name suggests.
- Once your primer is completely dry, you’re ready to paint with your chosen colour or stain. If the spindles are already in place on the balustrade, work your way down from the top of the staircase, working your brush into the grain of the wood.
- Leave to dry for 6–8 hours before applying a second coat.
If you’re in need of some design inspiration, see the Interior Design Tips section of our Advice Centre for stair ideas to suit any taste.
Sanding, painting and varnishing spindles
Below we take a look at the best way to approach finishing spindles, including help from some experts.
How to sand spindles
Hand-sanding spindles can be labour-intensive but sanding machines aren’t suited to the intricate curves and designs of most spindles.
Instead of a sanding machine, cut sheets of sandpaper into long strips and pull these back and forth around the curved part of each spindle.
In some cases, it might be cheaper and easier to replace the spindles rather than sanding and removing many layers of paint and primer, especially when you factor in the time it will take to do it yourself.
You can read detailed advice on how to sand spindles with eHow’s How to Sand a Stair Spindle guide.
Preparing the wood for painting
Often, getting spindles ready for painting can take longer than the painting and varnishing itself. Most experts would recommend asking a professional to take on the work, rather than resorting to DIY.
Mark Finney of Finney’s Wood Finishes explains how much work is involved in stripping existing spindles.
“It takes time and patience to strip away old paint and varnish, especially from fiddly spindles and newels. More powerful paint removers are available but these are restricted to professional users only and so generally DIY-ers have to make do with more standard formulas.
“Some paints can be removed easily, but others may be very stubborn and require a number of treatments. Professional fitters and finishers will use the stronger mixes, of course, but even so, getting into very tight corners and recesses can take time—and time costs money.”
Carpenter Scott Else from Scott Else Woodworks recommends calling in the professionals:
“It would take a very long time and I wouldn't recommend any DIY-er take it on. In terms of using an experienced tradesperson, the timescale will be determined by how big the staircase is and what type of balustrade it has, i.e. spindles or panels.”
You can read more advice from Scott and Mark in our piece Renovating a run-down staircase—top tips from the trade.
You can also shop our popular oak spindles and pine spindles ranges here.
Top tips for painting spindles
If you’re using paint to finish spindles that have been installed, make sure you cover any surfaces that you don’t want painted with newspaper, dust sheets and masking tape for smaller areas.
Mark explains how the right paint can prevent chipping further down the line:
“Painting is a common solution (for finishing stairs), but remember that this type of surface coating may chip or flake. If this is likely to be a problem, and you would still like a painted look, try applying an emulsion or chalk paint and then finish off with a lower colour change clear finish such as acrylic varnish in either a matt or satin. You can also wax this using clear finishing wax for a smoother, more natural-looking appearance.”
Scott recommends painting rather than varnishing if the wood in different parts of your balustrade doesn’t match:
“If you are looking to see the wood in all its natural beauty, oils would be your best bet, but you really need to make sure you remove all the original paint from those hard-to-reach areas. If the staircase and balustrading are made of different types of wood and have damaged areas that have been filled over the years, painting is probably the best option.”
What’s the best way to apply paint to spindles?
Spraying spindles is a much quicker option than using a roller or a brush. However, using a sprayer in your home may make you feel nervous if you haven’t done it before.
Using a roller or a brush takes much longer but these techniques are much better suited to a DIY-er. You can read more tips for painting staircases spindles here.
If you want to replace your spindles you can choose from a huge range of spindle styles here.
To find out more about staircase spindles, visit the page Your guide to spindles—types, materials, styles, fitting and maintenance.