Does it feel like your white doors and trims are yellowing over time? It's probably not your imagination.

Your beautiful white doors and trims are no longer white, what gives? Their now pale yellow hue is not vibing with the vision you had in mind and you're hoping there's something you can do to reverse it.

But first, why have they yellowed?

These doors are the same colour. The door on the left was painted with alkyd based paint 8 years ago and has yellowed

Traditionally doors and trims were always painted in an oil based enamel, the stinky stuff that takes a long time to dry and has to be washed out of your brushes with a solvent. These finishes were tough and durable, could resist scuffs, scrubbing and high traffic wear while also providing a high gloss level and resistance to moisture. They were the gold standard. Unfortunately, the drawback to this is the now well documented characteristic of yellowing over time, mostly visible in white and pale coloured oil based enamel.

All oil based (also called alkyd) paints can be expected to yellow over time due to the oxidation process that occurs during curing. Some paints will yellow more depending upon the type of vegetable oil blend used in the manufacturing process, but it is an industry wide phenomenon which is not restricted to certain brands.

A heavily yellowed cavity slider

Yellowing will be most pronounced on surfaces in low light areas, particularly sliding cavity doors, behind furniture, inside cupboards or simply in rooms with less natural light. Unfortunately, in our experience the yellowing is irreversible. There are some fixes mentioned online, for example placing yellowed doors outside in direct sunlight to bleach out the yellow chromophores, but they are most likely not permanent and take a lot of effort.

How do I fix yellowing?

The best option to return your doors and trims to their bright white best is to recoat them with a 100% water based acrylic gloss or semi gloss. These products are guaranteed not to yellow over time, and provide a tough durable finish.

A cavity slider with clearly defined yellowing to the internal area of the door when it is in the open position

Painting over your old oil based surface will require preparation to prevent peeling, you cannot paint water based paint directly over oil based.

Sanding and priming with an appropriate undercoat before you apply your new water based top coat is essential. Do not trust a painter who tells you they can paint directly over oil based with water based paint.

So while you cannot effectively reverse the yellowing on the existing coating, you can recoat it and be assured the new coating will not yellow with age.