Painting Trim Without Destroying Original Finish

[actionplant]

Anybody know how to do this? I'm currently leasing my house (granted I'm considering buying it, but I don't own it yet). The current owner is a good friend of mine and just put several thousand dollars into new woodwork for me.

The problem is that I'm painting the house and installing new crown moulding. He told me I can do whatever I like to the place, as long as I don't paint or ruin the woodwork he just put in.

My baseboard and trim needs to be white to match. Currently it's an oak in a beautiful finish. I can't simply paint it; this would ruin the woodwork.

What I'm trying to figure out is if there is a way to cover it and paint over the covering, so that if I do not buy the house I can still peel the paint off and leave the wood in it's original condition. I considered simply removing and replacing the wood and saving it, but it's a big house and there is a LOT of wood; the expense would be ridiculous.

I considered covering the wood in painters tape and simply painting over that, but the glue on the tape dries after a while and the resulting residue is extremely difficult to remove. I thought about covering the wood in contact paper and painting over that, but don't know if it will leave a residue or not.

Has anyone here done this before? Are there other options?

[chfite]

You might consider covering the wood with wallpaper liner and painting that. The liner would come off the same as when removing wallpaper with its water-soluble glue.

Hope this helps.

[NAVIGATOR]

First, do not make any improvements to a home you do not own. By making improvements you are increasing the value of the home to yourself when you want to buy it.

Second do not try any of the methods you have described to paint over woodwork. Any of these will ruin the wood or at the very least be a nightmare to restore to original condition. Anything with glue on it will leave a residue.
If you have ever removed wallpaper you know you don't want to be trying to scrub paste off woodwork.

If you really want to put up the crown moulding it does not need to match the rest of the wood. Paint it to match the ceiling and you are done.

[JPicasso]

Don't do it.

When/ if you buy the house, it's your to do with whatever you wish. Until then,
ESPECIALLY if this is a good friend of yours, I'd leave the trim alone.

[actionplant]

Thanks for the advice.

My friend had the walls painted and the trim redone right before I moved in; painting was not a problem and he doesn't mind.

The crown moulding will be a free expense either way; he said to provide him with receipts for any improvements I do on my own and he'll be happy to reimburse me.

Otherwise I couldn't come up with a good way to properly color the trim, so I left it as it was and simply altered the paint color to help things blend a little better.