To ask how long you'd expect someone to take to decorate one room?

[seasidefishwife]

Small double room. One wall to be papered, two walls white. One dark grey. One hole to fix. Plus skirting boards.

I ask as DH had all last week, and he's still not halfway through. WTF is taking him so long???

My OH would say 3-5 days, but he is adamant that prepping is the key, so would spend a lot of time sanding, filling holes and undercoat. This would take 1-2 days.

But, it's easy to get side tracked or lazy when decorating and I suspect your DH has one or the other.

i do all the decorating here, i tend to fill / sand etc in the evenings. start early on a sat morn then i can get both coats of paint done in a day (drying time in between). took me 3 days to do the living room but it has built in furniture which i paint, and that needed 2 coats too.

sounds like he's faffing....i'd be swapping roles next time!

would leave 2 days for filler to dry

2 days?! What kind of filler are you using?

It would probably take me 2-3 days - painting walls is quick and easy, but if you're using two colours then they really need to dry to avoid the edges going weird, same with wall papering.

Assuming that the clearing is done, I'd do filling and sanding first, then wallpapering and paint the opposite wall (assuming that's the grey one) on the first day - paint, wallpaper, second coat of paint.

Second day would be two coats on the other walls and starting on the woodwork not near the wet paint.

Third day would be the skirting boards - I'm impressed with those who would do woodwork first as I always go for the 'top to bottom' approach to limit how much gravity screws me over!

To do a proper job, 2-3 days.

Decorating wouldn't take much time at all. But the prep takes me a long time: Emptying the room, carpet up, sanding down, undercoat, filling holes, removing wallpaper (that is the worse), etc. It really depends what he's starting from.

If it was emulsion on the walls and gloss on the woodwork with everything in reasonable shape it would take me 5 days from starting to sand/fill to completion.

Took me 2 days to do 3 rooms, did one whilst the other was drying etc.
Included one large wall of wallpaper.

I could paint three walls of a small double room in about a day if starting reasonably early. Haven't wallpapered in many years, but if only one wall I'd probably do it in a day, even taking into account a few mistakes or having to look things up. Painting skirting boards - if they're in not great condition probably another day.

This is why I do the decorating in our house. Shouldn't be taking him that long.

My BIL would take months, LITERALLY months, one of his DC was sleeping on the sofa for 3 months awaiting his room, standard bedroom, modern house to be redecorated. In our house we would get a man in, we both work FT so have had years to develop skills. My Dad would do it himself, probs finish in a week

We had a nightmare room done by a professional. 4 days.

All the walls had to be stripped and then filled, rubbed down and 3 coats of paint (dark paint), ceiling was covered in artex and had to be stripped and filled as well as repainted, and acres of woodwork..

It's amazing how much faster you can be when you are being paid!

I've found I can prepare and paint a lot better and quicker than DH, so I'd give up on him doing it and do it yourself in the evenings. Having said that I find decorating boring, so am only up for it a couple of hours am and pm.

I know everyone will say no but has anyone done a room in sections while still living in it ? My sitting room is small and full. Not cluttered but full. I can’t really empty it easily. I keep thinking I could do two walls skirting etc with everything shoved over and covered. Then the other. Ceiling will take some thinking about.
Is it possible ?? I’m usually meticulous so this feels all wrong but only practical solution I’m thinking.

My OH so far 11ft by 14 ft front room stripping paper filling in holes poncing about with tiny tiny deiials and no paper or skirting board painting done yet 3.5 weeks

@TheCanyon

My dh is a painter and decorator so I'd say roughly 6 years and 10 months and counting

Seriously though, filling, woodwork and first coat day one. Second coat and paper day two.

The answer is, he's obviously fannying about.

🤣🤣🤦‍♀️🤣🤣🤣

@HeronLanyon

I know everyone will say no but has anyone done a room in sections while still living in it ? My sitting room is small and full. Not cluttered but full. I can’t really empty it easily. I keep thinking I could do two walls skirting etc with everything shoved over and covered. Then the other. Ceiling will take some thinking about. Is it possible ?? I’m usually meticulous so this feels all wrong but only practical solution I’m thinking.

Yep, I’m the queen of half arsed decorating

Ceilings are a bit of a pain because you have to cover absolutely everything or... use a brush, which is horrendous.

But for walls, just pull things back from the walk you’re doing, stick a dust sheet over it and then push it all back when you’re done.

I painted our kitchen in a day - that included walls and all the cupboards. The living room took two days total as it's got lots of nooks and crannies and we used two colours of paint.

For a job with two colours of paint plus wallpaper I'd say three days max.

Depends on the state of the walls before (did it need plaster work, wallpaper removal, priming etc) I painted my bedroom in a day but nothing intricate, just a light colour across all walls. Wallpapering one wall would probably be another half day though

it would take either me or DH about 3 months of dithering before he takes a day to just slaps dark purple paint over everything and i'm horrified by the result for the next 5 years.

Tabulahrasa - great name bye and describes me pretty well at the mo.
Thank you although the ‘halfarsed’ comment confirms my pedantic fears

My could probably do that in 2/3 days but he's fairly handy. It'd probably take me about 4 because I would be guaranteed to fuck something up at some point and have to fix it before carrying on. It certainly wouldn't take me a week though

@HeronLanyon

Tabulahrasa - great name bye and describes me pretty well at the mo. Thank you although the ‘halfarsed’ comment confirms my pedantic fears

Ah if you’re a perfectionist then... yeah, it doesn’t pay off, I’m more of a - hey it’s good enough person.

I once did a living room over about 3 weeks, only using toddler nap time, lol

Depending on the state of the room at the outset / how long since it’s been done/ how much stuff to move.

3 days to 1 week

Wash down and fill walls one day. Sand down, paint ceiling twice and skirting/ door frames once next day. Following day paint skirting and door frames again and cut in colour to ceiling and woodwork the next day. Day 4 cut in again and do walls or wallpaper. Day 5 the walls or wallpaper you didn't do previous day. Day 6 admire you're beautiful room.

A professional decorator friend said about 2 days per room painting everything.

Depends if you just want it done or done neatly.

The problem often comes when the person not doing it wants it neat but expects it to be done in sloppy job time.

Often the person not doing it fails to account for prep time. Stripping, clean up, wash down, inspect for problems, fill, wait to dry, sand, clean again, fill the holes you missed/didn't spot, wait to dry, sand, clean again, sand the woodwork, clean again, clean the stuff you already cleaned more than once, check, sand bits you missed again, clean it all again, size, take hsndles and fixtures off or protect them, ttmasking tape stuff you don't want paint speckles all over, cover the flooring and/or take it up, check your supplies, find you forgot the brushes/wrong size brushes, go to the shop, put down dust sheets or you'll be finding specks on stuff for years, clean again or you'll be picking bits out of your paint with every stroke, apply size and wait to dry, measure the walls, work out your wallpaper's repeat, cut paper, realise you measured it wrong, cut more paper/go to the shops to buy more paper. There's a few more bits but I am bored now.

After all that, your sick of FUCKING DECORATING now, wish you had never started, it looks like you have done fuck all. Then your other half comes in, starts making comments about how long it's taken so far and when you gonna be bloody finished you lazy git.

Then you have to resist the urge to tell your other half to fuck off and do it themselves if they think it's such a quick and easy job.