Thinking it’s normal to repaint the house every couple of years?

[Cloudyyy]

Help solve a debate for us.

DH thinks once you’ve painted a room, it should be done! No touch-ups or fresh coats necessary. MIL agrees they’ve never needed to repaint unless otherwise redecorating, sometimes going 10+ years between paint jobs (and absolutely never more often than every five years).

I remember my parents always “touching up” with a fresh coat of paint every other spring, alternating doing upstairs and downstairs. DM used to sponge the walls sometimes with warm soapy water if we had scuffed it.

What is the norm???

YABU = we never repaint unless absolutely necessary
YANBU = we retouch the paint jobs from time to time

I should add we have young children, so messy/ sticky fingers on the walls are unavoidable at times!!!

I’ve always lived in rented places so I’ve never painted, nor have I lived anywhere which has been recently painted. I think if I did own my own place (ah! The dream!) I wouldn’t want to do it too often. Surely it’s a big job?

I swear this thread jinxed me.

After posting about not decorating my kitchen, my hand has been forced:
Thanks to Storm Dennis we now have 3 dustbin life sized water spots on the kitchen ceiling where the rain has got in under the hip tiles and pooled.

Well shit. B&Q tomorrow.

Good lord, I'd rather do so many other things than endlessly decorate. We do it when it needs doing - through accident, mishap, or 5-10 years of wear and tear.

It's hard work, costs more than you think to do it well, and I'd rather spend the time and money on fun stuff with the family most of the time.

Saying that, we're doing a kitchen this yeasr. It won't be cheap or easy, but it will be amazing. Eventually.

We repaint every year. It’s a habit I can’t get out of after renting for so long!

I moved here just over 12 years ago, new build so was all painted. Some walls had been touched up with the same paint the builders used. We were forced to paint the largest bedroom at the beginning of last year as there was a huge leak from the apartment above when the hot water cylinder burst.
Lounge has been papered on one wall and rest painted last November as we bought new furniture. That is all we have done here.

No, but I admire your energy.

My parents (working class moved into middle class) decorated every year but a room each time, so it probably took 9-10 years to do the whole house. They always hired a decorator as they were hopeless at DIY.

I had vague ideas about doing this for our house too but we had it all painted ten years ago when we first moved in, then downstairs loo the following year when that was upgraded, then kitchen seven years ago when that was installed. Nothing’s been painted since and some bits are starting to look tired.

We've been in our house 16 years. Painted our bedroom for first time last year. Ds(15) hasn't been done for 5 years, box room still had his nursery colours.

Downstairs had been done 3 times but that's mainly because we had a leak and insurance paid for it once.

If dh wanted pristine I would have no problem with him cracking on with painting and me and ds would get out his way while he did it 🤣

There's no hard and fast rule but you are being a bit over the top.

Every other year is just excessive.

Who cares? Who do you want to impress? If you are doing it for yourself, then enjoy doing it, but no one else cares. If your friends remark on something like that, get new friends!!

We should do every couple of years, but due to both of us being busy it seems to end up being redone once every 8 years. I kinda figure it will only get messed up by kids again, so what's another year till it's painted.

When ever needed, depends on wear and tear

We do one room per year usually. Occasionally more but not a full redecorating job just washing down the walls and either touch ups or a fresh coat of paint depending what is needed. Almost all our walls are white to make it easier to keep them fresh and clean without worrying about getting the right colour for touch ups etc.

Every two years? blimey. We last decorated ten years ago and no immediate plans to redecorate.

In my experience, it very much friends upon how hard you are on your house. When my kids were younger, especially when my son was between ages 10 and about 16, the walks and woodwork in my house had a battering very often as well as mud, gooey fingers, large spirts bags banging walls etc. We had to touch up A LOT. Now though, we’re empty nesters and the only wear happening is my cleaners dragging the hoover around corners and marking the walls, marking the wall up the stairs banging things. Otherwise, we would be years without the need for any touch ups.

I decided to redecorate as Xmas was coming up last yr. The hallway walls were looking very tired with lots of handprints and dc bedrooms didn’t look much better. I enjoyed finding the right matchingcolours, Dulux paint cost a fortune so ended up at Wickes. After I finished I couldn’t stop gazing at the super lean shiny walls. It makes so much difference. It was like moving into a new house. I couldn’t do the corners so stuck to the original colours and had a clean cloth ready to wipe any spills.

When we moved in 4 years ago we had the whole house replastered and redecorated. We used the superior Valspar washable paint. Within 3 months every single room had chunks out and marks all over it. Not one mark has wiped off. The paint chips if you sneeze near it. It's the worst paint we've ever used.

If we painted whenever the walls looked marked we'd never stop. We have decided to just let it look shit till the youngest is at school in 18 months and then think about it again.

I've never known anyone do it every 2 years. Maybe every 10 at a push.

We’ve lived in our new build, mainly magnolia house for 13 years. We’ve repainted the halls, kitchen and the main living room but the loos, studies and bedrooms haven’t been redone and still look fresh and clean.

We moved into our house a year ago & couldn’t paint right away (new build)... this week we are getting the whole house painted (and some walls papered).. I’ve bought paint you can scrub & im hoping not to have to do anything other than wash off dirty marks for at least 3 years.. previous houses we did the main rooms about every 4-5 years and the bedrooms about every 7

We do it bit by bit. Last year it was the hall, stairs and landing got painted (4 coats) and new stair carpet. The year before, the outside of the house got painted. This year so far the front downstairs bedroom has been cleared out, repainted and carpeted; but the upstairs bedroom is desperate as well and will get done too.

Our house was built before they invented the plasterboards. They resemble choppy sea so it’s very difficult to have patterned wallpaper -not impossible as we managed it with very skilled decorator who strongly advised against such thing in the future(poor guy probably lost his patience trying to match the pattern).
DH’s job is not clean sometimesand he comes home placing his grubby paw on the light switch, leaving marks around it.
We also have 2 young kids with forever sticky/dirty hands and we used to have a dog that wasn’t cleanest either (he looked clean and was bathed regularly)

Anyway, we bought white patterned wallpaper and on recommendation of my friend who been there and done that, painted it with silk emulsion.
It’s amazing.No bumps on the walls visible from uneven walls, fantastic colour and for whatever reason silk paint is more durable than matt so wipe it as many times you want.
texture of wallpaper masks the shiny effect of silk emulsion.
Would hate to repaint every couple of years. Completely unnecessary and don’t have time or resources to do it so often

Never repaint. We haven't even gone over the settling paint yet and we've lived here 3 years

We do about a room a year so each one comes around about every 8-10 years. Master bedroom and guest room less frequently, kids' rooms probably a bit more often.

This thread is a huge eye opener for me!

I had no idea people repainted so often!

I’ve only ever done it to sell!

Even then it’s a chore. Life’s too short- living in a constant building site is grim. Paint is toxic- wouldnt want my dcs breathing that so often. Maybe spend your free time volunteering at a food bank instead??

You people who are constant decorators: do you have any stuff ? I have walls and walls of books, DVDs, CDs... a piano, heavy furniture etc etc. To move all this (to somewhere) and put it all back would involve hours of effort.

Is there a correlation between enthusiastic decorators and people who live a Marie Kondo lifestyle?