Hi @tonytr,
Many thanks for your question about restoring old door and window frames.
Were you looking to use paint or varnish to restore the window frames?
Paint will give a fresh look that can be adjusted to your specific tastes, whereas clear varnish will bring out the natural beauty of the timber.
If you want to coat them with varnish, I suggest Cabot's 500ml Satin Water Based Cabothane Clear Polyurethane Timber Varnish as an option.
If you want to paint them, I would suggest applying Taubmans 1L White Gloss Easycoat Doors And Trims Paint.
The preparation and application process would be quite similar regardless of which direction you choose to go in.
Start by sanding back the timber using reasonably heavy grit sandpaper such as Flexovit 80 Grit Timber Sandpaper to remove the existing coating, before using a finer grit such as Flexovit 120 Grit Timber Sandpaper to smooth the timber.
You might like to have a look at How To Restore Wooden Furniture for some guidance on this stage of the process.
Once sanded, use a brush to remove any of the leftover sawdust to give yourself a clean surface to work with.
You should then place down a drop sheet and tape off the area using a wide painter's tape such as ScotchBlue 48mm x 55m Original Multi-Surface Painter’s Masking Tape to give you nice clean lines and stop any of your coating getting where you don't want it.
Following the paint or varnish manufacturers' instructions for application will give you the best results.
You might like to have a look at How to paint trims for some guidance on the process of coating your trims.
Let me know if you have any further questions.
Jacob
