I have painted for more than 25 years and love painting on wood services. The wood you purchase at Michael's sounds like a very lightweight balsa wood. It is very difficult to get it entirely smooth. As a painter I learned many years ago to use brown paper bag to sand. Try sanding and tacking prior to painting. If using acrylic, try mixing your basecoat with sealer first (Jo Sonja has a great all purpose sealer). Then use a piece of brown paper bag to sand. It does work.

We got a kick out of Tim's post (above). Call me immature --- I'm the daughter and sister of interior designers/textile weavers and they are knocked out by my glossy floors. I initially had some doubts but now I'm so glad we went with the high gloss. The light in the room is amazing with the glossy reflection of the honey oak floors. We have gotten no less than 3 requests for the name of our floor contractor because they look so gorgeous. Most people don't know why they look different --- it's because high gloss is not trendy and hasn't been for some time. Most people go with the matte or satin finish. I had concerns about the glossy floors showing dirt but it's the opposite. My floors were less glossy before we had them refinished and there really is no difference. We are still in the middle of our remodel and have had workers coming and going --- the floors are frankly filthy but you wouldn't know it until you drag a wet rag across the floor. This might be a problem with darker floors but not with the oak. I also think the high gloss has an elegant, more formal look while the matte finish is more casual/earthy. To each her or his own!

The smoothness of a paint coverage depends almost as much on the applicator as the paint. Adding Floetrol will help greatly in getting a smooth finish. Using a $25 paint brush that is designed for the type of paint being used will also go a long way in getting a smooth finish. Technique is also a factor, getting too much or too little paint on the brush and subsequently on the surface causes runs/drips/brush marks. However, even the most accomplished brush paint job will not look as smooth as a sprayed on finish. The gotcha with sprayers is they take more expensive equipment/technique than brushing. I have a friend who just had a new house built---and the builder had his sprayers do the woodwork. They spent a week and a half-----on just the door/base/crown molding. And did that before the walls were painted. It is the best trim paint job I have ever seen----I hate to ask what the cost was----the house was around 500K.

For what it's worth, we've had regular (not "High Gloss Trim & Door") Glidden paint on most of the interior and all of the exterior of our home for over 11 years and it's held up very nicely. We used the semi-gloss finish on our upstairs trim and doors. Most of it was sprayed on (not brushed) by our builder's contractors, though we've brushed the semi-gloss onto crown moulding and bead board we added about 8 years ago and painted walls/ceilings ourselves with eggshell/flat. I don't see a quality difference between the walls we've painted ourselves with Glidden vs. those we've painted with Sherwin Williams or Ben Moore's Aura and Regal paints. I don't have an allegiance to one brand of paint and am VERY picky about color, so choose brand depending on which color I like best for a space. I happen to like a lot of Glidden's colors which is why I have a lot of experience with their paints. I think all high-gloss paints are difficult to roll on and get a perfect finish, so wouldn't necessarily blame it on the brand... My husband stained and finished all of our downstairs wood work and doors and originally tried to use a high-gloss clear coat over the stain (I don't remember the brand-- not Glidden though), but decided to switch to a satin clear coat because it was so much easier to apply and get an even finish. The areas where he first applied the high-gloss clear coat (and then went over them later with the satin) don't look as nice as those with just the satin clear coat. He did remove all the doors to finish them horizontally (not the trim work and built-ins).