Drive a Screw in Each End to Paint a Board on All Four Sides at Once
The Problem
Painting a long board or trim piece on every side is fiddly. Lay it flat and the bottom face sticks to whatever it's resting on; balance it on painter's pyramids and they leave contact marks and the piece wobbles. The usual fallback — paint one side, wait, flip, repeat — turns a five-minute job into an all-day one.
The Technique
- Drive a screw into the center of each end of the board, leaving the head sticking out.
- Rest the two screw heads on a pair of sawhorses so the board hangs suspended between them, with nothing touching its faces.
- Paint all four long sides in one go, rotating the board on the screws as you work.
- Leave it on the screws to dry — no painted surface contacts anything.
- Back the screws out once it's dry. The only marks left are two small holes in the end grain, which are usually hidden or trimmed off anyway.
Pro tip: Use screws long enough to bite firmly into the end grain but with the head standing proud enough to ride on the sawhorse. Standard wood or drywall screws work fine.
Pro tip: Long or heavy boards can roll on the screw heads mid-coat. Set the heads into a shallow notch or against a stop on the sawhorse so the board can't slide off while you rotate it.