To want one room decorated in a less than a 6 month timescale?

[EmeraldSkies]

So annoyed. Every house I see on Instagram uncluttered, wallpapered perfection. How do these women motivate or get their partners on board because I doubt they are doing it themselves, what with childcare and careers! I asked my partner to start on our living room back at beginning of October. The wallpaper was removed and then progress stopped. In the build up to Xmas I waited and waited and nothing happened with the living room out of action. I had to move the furniture back into place on 23rd December and quickly rustle up a Christmas tree in a bare walled room as it was obvious it was not going to be completed. The room has stayed like that until last weekend, some 6 months after the project begun, when I put my foot down and said it's got to be done. Cue, furniture removed again. Had picked out a Farrow & Ball colour months ago, further moaning that it was a 'difficult paint to work with' and he wasn't going to use it (more excuses). Gave up and allowed a colour match with Johnstone's. Ceiling finally painted this weekend after saying it would be completed on the 2nd weekend dedicated to it (started at about 3pm today (Sunday)).

What I need to ask is: how do you motivate the other half to bother? And if you have a 'insta-perfect' house, how do you get buy-in from your other half to do the work? My DH just doesn't seem to care if he lives in a cluttered pit and any kind of home improvement is a massive drag and effort on my part to motivate and move him forward.

Why does your DH have to do it?

Why can’t you do some?

Can’t you paint a wall?

Why can’t you both do it together.

I'd either do it myself or get someone in. Your partner is obviously not going to do it so just take it in to your own hands and get it done.

Do it together? We've always earmarked a weekend and then both done it!

I think you are wrong, the partner that wants it looking insta-perfect is almost certainly the one getting stuck in painting and decorating.

Also some people just pay. Plenty of these instagrammers have high incomes from other sources (employment etc) and will simply have paid a decorator.

I do it. DH can't cut in.

But he can look after a child, cook, clean and do everything else while I decorate.

My mum's the same and taught me.

I do all the painting in our house or it wouldn't get done, and I have kids and a career...

Looking forward to a day when I can pay someone to do it instead!

I moved last year. Painted my entire house . Put up all shelves, curtain poles etc. made curtains, cushions, loose covers for chairs.
yep, exhausted…
but to not attempt to paint a room yourself you are being unreasonable- 2 weekends work at most including prep day and cleanup day, including ceiling walls and woodwork.
get the right kit. Watch some YouTube videos on stuff like cutting in. Get on with it yourself - or better still both muck in and get job done quicker by you taking control and rolling sleeves up

Start doing it myself. I usually find he'll want to mansplain so I tell him to show me how it's done properly.

Does he not work and look after his kids as well?

I usually print myself. DH pitches in but im neater. He does other stuff while I do. We tend to play to our strengths. Papering I pay someone neither of us are good at it.

Why are you waiting passively for someone else to do it?

Are you joking? Why can’t you do it?!

I do it myself,1room takes me no more than a weekend to redecorate.

Why would i wait and ask my DH to do it? Or why don't you do it together?

What an odd post OP

I'm much better at painting than DH! Especially cutting in and fiddly bits. I painted our whole spare room last summer whilst listening to an online 2 day work conference, moved furniture into the middle on the Sunday, glossing on Monday, I did get DH to do the ceiling Monday evening, he's tall and it's easier for him, then I did all the cutting in and wall painting on the Tuesday.
Or pay someone.

yep, do it yourself. make your husband take the kids out for an afternoon if that's an issue.

OP if he really isn't motivated at all (to be fair DIY isn't everyone's thing) you either do it together, do it on your own or pay someone else to do it.

Just because he's the bloke doesn't mean he's the automatic DIY expert - any more than you should be default cook and childcarer just because you're a woman.

My DH absolutely hates any kind of DIY, even putting a picture up stresses him out. We are both limited in terms of time with working, running the house, sorting DC etc. So we go for the 'pay someone else to do it' option. Otherwise nothing would get done.

I would imagine that a LOT of those instagrammers will have paid expensive interior designers and decorators to get their homes looking just so.

If you can afford farrow and ball, you can afford to get people in to do it.

We can't (won't?) afford farrow and ball, but we got a pair of guys in to paint the dulux for us. Probably spent the same as you, but it got done in a week and I bet looks similar.

(They also redid the bathrooms and floors but I just meant spent the same on the walls as you did!)

Just crack on with it yourself OP. You don't need a penis to daub the paint into the walls. He's done the ceiling which is the most strenuous and boring bit.

If you have kids and usually do the cooking and cleaning just tell him those are his jobs now until you finish painting, as you shut the door firmly.

I'm not the best diy-er but I can do a room in 2 days including moving out all furniture/contents, prep, cleaning, sanding, sugar soaping, filling and painting, then moving furniture/contents back in.

Sorry, have to agree with most OPs. Do it yourself. Having a pair of tits doesn't disqualify you from decorating!

I recently spent 3 whole months decorating 1 room - fixed a dodgy ceiling, built a whole 3-sided shelving unit in a cupboard, wallpapered, painted, laid the underlay, installed blinds, curtains, did everything else bar laying the carpet...

Admittedly, most decorating takes nowhere near that long! 😬

Insta perfect houses are just that .. perfect for instagram only

I'm a woman so I've always been told I 'won't do it right'. But, yes, I am tempted to take over and risk messing it up just to have it done. The most upsetting is the lies that it will be done on time. My partner had chosen not to work for 2 years up until January. So the expectation was on him to make himself useful whilst I paid all the bills. So the original job that was promised by him to be done is still outstanding. Going forward I certainly will be paying someone - lesson learned.

Exactly this. Sometimes I get DP to do the ceiling because my tiny T-Rex arms get tired even with the pole. But mostly it’s all me and DP gets on with the food shop, meal plan, garden, toddler wrangling, etc.

He doesn’t give a shit what the house looks like and is happy to let me decide but the price of me deciding, and caring, is I do the work.

Why on earth did you keep your sitting room out of action for months when you could have just opened a paint tin and sorted it?

WTF??? Seriously?? You can't do that yourself?

Call me crazy, but I have a career, am a mum of two under fives and I make the time to strip wallpaper, level floors and paint myself! DH is both unmotivated and truth be told I think he'd rush it. Pick up the brush OP!

Because it was argued that it was more than just painting. It was prepping of the walls and priming and sanding. Not sure if all of you are in new builds (?) but those of us who have purchased 100 year old houses have a bit more work to do than just 'opening a tin of paint'!