Do you paint your house yourself

We always get someone in
Same guy for the last 25 years

DH and I have never done any decorating or DIY of any significance.

We work on the basis that providing we earn at a higher rate than the people we’re hiring it makes no sense for us to do it ourselves.

If someone offered me additional work at a rate lower than I normally earn I would turn it down so why would I effectively do the same by undertaking decorating jobs unless I really enjoyed it which I don’t.

Have in the past but have been using a decorator recently and he does a great job and I feel its value for money. Around £300 for a room to be painted.

Wow, I’m impressed by you all! Honestly wouldn’t even occur to me to try doing it myself, I wouldn’t know where to start.

I do 90% of the decorating in our house. The only parts I don't do are external painting (last decorated whilst we had scaffolding up) and the higher parts of the stairs and landing. I usually decorate 2-3 rooms each year so most rooms are painted every 5 years or so. DH does all the downstairs ceilings as they are too high for me.

Years ago we had our only paid decorator in because it was being paid for by insurance- dry rot 😱.
We chose a lovely mustard yellow, got home to discover he’d taken the sample and had it “matched “, my walls were a kind of nasty acidic yellow !
He did a couple of other things which would be too outing to mention, some absolutely horrible suggestions he’d made . Maybe he was just a crap decorator , but he was well known locally and is still around! Never again, I do it myself!

I do my own, room by room, painstakingly, about 1 room a year 😁

Im too tight to paybthe 1000s of punds decorators want round here (to do a more slapdash job as well from many ive seen ...)

I’ve just had my hall, stairs and landing done for £750!

In Germany, when you leave a rental, you (almost always) need to paint everything. Walls, sometimes window-frames, doors... We were too cheap to pay professionals, so we did it ourselves, carefully and painstakingly. We did a good job, after 11 rooms of practice, and it has come in handy renovating our old house.

I don't think painting is difficult. Just fiddly and requires patience.

I have in the past and it looked shite so this time we paid someone to do it and he did a great job.

We painted the outside of our house ourselves when we had scaffolding up for some roof work. We just harnessed ourselves in and gave it a go. To be honest, it looks quite shite too but it took hours so we're just going to live with it

I always pay someone!! My finish wouldn't be good enough and life is too short to spend weekends doing something so tedious.

I used to love DIY and would always do everything myself but as I’ve got older and developed lupus (joint issues) I don’t feel safe on a ladder anymore. Very frustrating!

It’s so expensive now. I’ve used decorators in the past but rates have skyrocketed. I was quoted 4k for hall, stairs and landing! I do it myself now.

I don't do ladders but can do a sturdy stepladder. I was rubbish to start with but pretty good now, I've had 50 years practice though. My best bits of advice would be to have good paintbrushes and really look after them, have really cheap rollers and bin them and treat yourself to a palm sander for prep

Would always do it myself unless it was hard/ dangerous to get to so I probably wouldn't attempt stairs.

I actually think most decorators do a worse job than I could! Probably because they don’t care as much. I used to be nervous about cutting in but just gave it a go and am pretty good now. Woodwork is all in the prep and quality of the brush to not leave marks.

not really sure how anyone can go wrong painting a wall!

I’ve always decorated my own places. I’m competent at the basics like tiling, wallpapering and painting (although I loathe painting ceilings and so skimp there a bit).

I think of it as like housework: not necessarily fun, but the results are nice.

Always used to do it myself but the difference a proffesional makes in the finish is astounding, so decorators for me from now on.

I'd disagree with this. I can achieve just as good a finish doing it properly myself, as the various professionals I've had in to paint. I simply lack the time

Painting isn't difficult when you know the handful of things you need to do - how to prime bare walls, masking taping edges etc.

DH is our painter. He's very good. Poor man had to do 6 coats on the lounge when I changed my mind on a new colour. He repaints each room every couple of years!

He doesn't do complicated wiring or plumbing though. Basic stuff, yes, but not big stuff.

We got a painter in last time. Highly recommended.

All it did was save me time. I can do just as good a job myself but I'm time poor, i resented how much it cost.

Yes, good skills and based on a DF in the building trade letting me help him as a child and him not being afraid to let us loose on basic tasks and then moving on to having a go when needed! Me and DH have renovated 4 homes and have got to the stage where the results are very good, whether decorating, tiling, electrics and plumbing, installing bathrooms and kitchens and we do as much as possible and only bring in 'professionals' when we need to carry out something that requires a qualified operative or certification for the final install. We put in a new shower pump yesterday, costing just the part and us fiddling with connection for a short time, saving a fortune in getting someone in to do it!

Start small, say a loo or bathroom wall and woodwork, get advice on the prep / tools and materials (Youtube can be great here) and give it a go. There's not much decorating wise you can't fix and once you've got the technique with a paintbrush / roller, there'll be no stopping you. The other way is learn what should be done, so you know what you should be getting if you pay for someone to do the decorating, will save a great deal of grief.

Always used to do it myself but the difference a proffesional makes in the finish is astounding, so decorators for me from now on.

We have fitted 3 kitchens, 2 bathroom and decorating our 3rd house currently.

There's a YouTube video for everything! There's a nifty trick for getting crisp lines with cutting in where you seal the tape with the colour you are butting on to. Let that dry and then paint the colour you are cutting in with. Any bleed through is with the other colour so don't show

We have paid someone to plaster over a textured ceiling in one of the bathrooms and to replace a roof otherwise we have done everything ourselves

I'm very bad at it and would prefer to get someone in to do it but the reality is we live in a badly painted flat

I have done it in the past and would do it again if I couldn't afford a decorator. But generally I'd rather spend the money to have someone else do it better and quicker. Finding the time to do the painting and the hassle of working out how much paint I need and going to get it is also a pain I'm happy to pay the decorator to handle.