I hate decorating, but I am doing it anyway. What are your best tips?

[UnGoogled]

I'm painting the lounge on Saturday. I have paint, brushes, and sugar soap. What are your best tips to make this easy and bearable? 😭😭😭

Looking good!

Thanks! I'm knackered!!

Ceiling rose looks brill!

I used a shureline edging tool and it made a really neat job of edging. I hate painting too but I’m lucky enough to be able bodied so I get on with it while listening to R4.

Looks great.

I don’t understand the photos! Have you done the edges with pale paint? Or have you randomly started in the middle with navy and green?

@Hen2018

I don’t understand the photos! Have you done the edges with pale paint? Or have you randomly started in the middle with navy and green?

The colours in the room used to be dark grey and a dusky purple. The previous owner painted the wall cornices and ceiling rose the purple and I've gone over them with the first layer of white. The gap between the two cornices (I'm not sure if that's the right word!) looks grey but it's just a dingey white. I'm going to repaint those bits! And the whole ceiling and ceiling rose, as well, and the bit of the wall that's above the picture rail. The walls below the picture rail have either sage green or a dark blue. I'm finishing off the edges of the colours today. I'm planning on doing the ceiling a different weekend.

There’s a product called coverstain, Toolstation or decorator centres sell it. It’s very good for covering up dark colours in one coat or marks on the walls.

It’s oil based but there’s water based alternatives. It would save you doing repeated coats and losing detail on your cornices etc.

I don’t want to be the voice of doom but you need to do the edges and main wall at the same time whilst the paint is wet. Section at a time. Do edges, then fill in the middle.

Are you doing different colours at the same time?

My advice woudl be that any home maintenance job you take on takes looooooonger than you planned. I started painting a large bathroom (v high ceiling) at the start of lockdown and climbing up and down the step ladder took for ever. Running up that pair of curtains - 3-4 days usually. Touching up the paintwork usually needs 2 days to allow first coat to dry.
So as long as you have got your head round the fact that the job is several days /a week it's not so bad. Rushing at things to 'get it done' doesn't really work.

Unfortunately I am squeezed for time, I am a lone parent and had to do the bulk of prep in the evenings after the dc were in bed, and did most of the painting while they were with their dad yesterday. The gloss wasn't quite dry so I played it safe and left the edges to last. It isn't perfect, and I was sloppy with the gloss and the emulsion slipped a bit because I was painting over gloss on the walls, but on the whole it went well. I used an angled brush for the edging between the two colours and that worked nicely. I was going to use frog tape, but again, lack of time, so I just eyeballed it and went in with a steady hand. I had to finish it off this morning because our lounge is unusable and it's been a nuisance. Once the walls are dry this afternoon I'll be able to get it all back to normal again. Whew.

I also decided to just use a large paintbrush rather than a roller, because I'm terrible at flicking paint everywhere with a roller. I made messes over the floor anyway, but it luckily it will come up OK as they are wooden floorboards.

Here!