To ask how you go about painting the interior of your house?

[Pinesinthedunes]

I have no idea - how often do normal people do this? Do you get people in? DIY?

If it's shiny paper I'd strip it - texture will show through as well, so if you want to keep the texture that's fine, if not strip it. If the walls are reasonable you can just paint (you might need to fill holes etc. first) or you can put up lining paper to paint. I've never sanded walls, but then I've always lined them anyway.

Thank you!

When it comes to white looking 'grubby' - why paint it white? I've got the darkest living room in history (it's like being a Hobbit), but I don't paint it white (it's about to go 'Peignoir'). And 'grubby' is only relative - it won't look grubby to other people, because they don't have anything to compare it to, all the walls look the same, it only looks grubby to you. Plus, you can wash most marks off most paint.

Signed someone with the world's grubbiest dog in a house where every room is a different colour.

I've never had people in to decorate. I paint everything myself. It's so easy and really satisfying. Prep is key - fill holes, sand, sugar soap. Then tape off anything you don't want to get paint on and off you go. The painting itself takes barely any time.

Painting annually? Blimey.

Did the lounge 5 years ago and thinking about doing it again but only because I want it a bit darker. It's a duck egg blue and I fancy something bolder now. Hallway is only 2 years old and yes it's pretty scuffed and grubby it will be again about a month after painting it so no point doing it too often!

Buy an angled cutting in brush - they’re readily available at B&Q (other stores are available). It makes the job so much easier. Be aware when using masking tape; it’s not foolproof, will bleed and can pull off existing paint surfaces when you remove it. It’s best to cut in correctly rather than rely on masking tape. And a damp cloth to hand is your best friend! I hope that this helps a little, and good luck 🤞

Always done it ourselves, including hanging wallpaper.

I do sometimes dream about paying someone else to do it, but they would have to be amazingly good at it to justify the expense. We are both very good at diy stuff and I've seen some dodgy "professional" results in my time.

Same. Sometimes I think we will leave it until we sell, which will likely be in about 30 years!

Previously wallpapered walls are the devil. It's almost impossible to get the wallpaper off without damaging the walls. I personally hate painted over wallpaper.

Back when almost every house had wallpaper, we would move in, get rid of the inevitable wallpaper, make the walls good, paint them and NEVER use wallpaper again.

One of the main selling points of the house we live in now was no wallpaper and no artex. Just nice smooth painted surfaces. Still haven't decorated some of the rooms and we've been here 15 years now. 😀

I do it myself.

You need dust sheets, a step ladder, sand paper, brushes, roller, wide masking tape (for edges of floors), white spirit, sugar soap, paint. Old clothes.

I'm doing my bedroom at the moment. Bank holiday weekend, I washed down the walls, ran sandpaper lightly over all the woodwork, emulsioned the ceiling (one coat white silk), and started on the walls.

I'm just about to do the remaining walls. Don't rush, it takes as long as it takes.
But not difficult. I find it quite therapeutic. 🙂

We have a 4 bed house and decorate ourselves. We have young kids and both work but get time in the evenings when the kids are in bed or we divide and conquer so one of us cracks on whilst the other takes care of the kids. We intend to do up our bedroom. I will strip the current paper, then dh will paint the ceiling. I will paint the rest of the room over the course of a few days and we are putting some wallpaper up. laying down dust sheets and putting up masking tape is important. I'd say take your time, prepare well, have a read about different types of paints etc.

Actually where I live you can't get a decorator in for love nor money. I have neighbours who gave up, decorator gave a quote and 6 months later still couldn't give a start date. She did it herself because she was sick and tired of having no living room carpet, having removed it for the decorator to proceed.

My dad was very much in this camp for masking tape, but a friend recommended Frog Tape (there's one for delicate surfaces, though it is still risky with very freshly painted surfaces) and it's a total game changer in terms of paint bleeding etc.

I paid somebody, expensive yes but it meant that it was all done in a week whereas it would have dragged on for several months (because I struggle to find time to get stuck in).
It also looked much better than I could have managed.
This is the first time in 20 years I've got somebody in to do it and it was well worth it!

I used to do it myself but find it impossible now I live in a cluttered family house. I now "batch up" painting jobs, clear the areas and get a painter to come while we go away for a few days. Ime it's the emptying and refilling the room(s) that's the time consuming bit, then the charity shop/Freecycle/ebay bit to deal with all the excess stuff that reveals itself. Plus the dust, omg the dust. And spiders. Also if you use a bright colour be aware in future you will need many many coats to return it to something neutral.

Painting is the easy part! (I only ever use pastels though as I can't do straight lines where a bright colour meets a white ceiling...)

Gloss is harder to do well if you're an amateur plus very hard if cat or dog hair is about.

I got the whole interior done about 6 years ago while we were away for a few weeks and ended up paying a removal company to box the stuff and take it away...I would definitely recommend doing decorating at obvious points like house moves.

I've always had 10 years in my head as roughly the amount of time to expect paint to last. We had our house painted throughout before we moved in. About 12 years was when I started noticing some places that needed redoing (mainly because I get reminded of the colours we covered with white :) ). But we too have a problem with storage/organisation that makes it all feel a bit too hard. The baby we moved in with is currently sitting his A levels...

If I can ever get to the point of stuff being more organised so we can clear rooms enough to paint them, I'm firmly in the camp of wash walls (sugar soap), fill and sand any cracks and holes, brush down (with a broom, get rid of loose sanding dust), paint 1st coat, sand lightly (and brush again), 2nd coat.

A builder does ours. He's not really a decorator but he's a) better at it than me and b) has all the equipment. This only works if you regularly pay someone for building jobs of course.

Be super nice to your builder and pay them very promptly!

I think it's worth doing high traffic areas like hall landing stairs more frequently. Kitchens and bathrooms you use every day and they get a lot of wear. With neutral shades you can get away with doing areas like bedrooms and lounges much less often. We had to do all the ceilings this year as the hot weather last year caused cracks.

It's a lot lot easier to change soft furnishings than walls unless you are minimalist.

So glad this has been asked, I am reading all the replies for info.

We moved into a new build 2.5 years ago and every room is still white as we are completely clueless on decorating! I just have no idea how to even think about what colours to use, feature walls, what to do with the ceiling etc. I’ve just about mastered hanging pictures up 😂 feel like a fake adult sometimes.

This stuff is a game changer.

https://www.toolstation.com/zinsser-3-in-1-wallpaper-cover-up-paint/p25972

I did a lot of research about this when we bought a completely wallpapered property not at all to our taste. I've covered the entire house so using this. It's not cheap, doesn't go nearly as far per can as emulsion, but seals the wallpaper and covers up all stains and patterns, even shiny stuff. Still a lot cheaper and less effort than removing paper and repairing plaster. The only thing I don't think would work is covering any raised patterns. I used polyfilla and sanded any holes and tears and washed down with sugar soap then did a coat of this as primer. Regular Dulux emulsion on top. You would never know the paper was there. Walls look perfect. Only warning is not to try to do too much at once. It's a thick oil based paint and is much harder work to apply than regular paint. And make sure you have white spirit and a cloth handy as not water based so very messy.

Can anyone tell me about painting radiators? I’ve painted one in our cloakroom and it really lifts the room - but does it reduce the efficiency of the radiator? Want to paint more of them but don’t want to make a cold house even colder

Because I like white. I dislike coloured walls.
I have five giant breed dogs, hence it gets grubby.

Painting them doesn't reduce their efficiency.
I use car spray paint on mine, it saves time and you don't get brush marks.

My usual technique is -

Decide the place looks tired.

Look up different designs online.

Look at different paint companies.

Start planning how to clear rooms, clean surfaces, fill and sand bits, think how lovely it'll look when it's all done and how my life will be so much better.

Look up different designs online.

Plan the whole process again.

Look at DP who would have to do the most physical parts, as he's sleeping sat upright on the sofa after work, vaguely reminding me of my Granddad in 1979.

Think about the changes in soft furnishings. Get distracted by the pictures of magnificent plants in giant, beautifully lit rooms and spend the next 3 hours looking at SM indoor gardens.

Remember the time I had to get paint off the cat, which I only discovered was an issue after following the trail of pawprints across the carpet in a completely different room. And the mess when another cat decided the larger plant on the shelf had to be destroyed.

Think 'Oh, it'll be different this time'.

Realise that this time, I'd need to do high ceilings and a shitload more gloss work as I didn't need to do either when I first moved in because they'd just been done.

Mentally allocate a period when I'm off work to do it.

Find out that DP is working that week. And every other week, as he's used up his leave.

Look up B&Q prices and stock levels.

Add everything to the basket that is actually in stock.

Look at the final price.

Think 'Oh, well, people never used to decorate this frequently, did they?'.

Close the browser window.

@Panda89 what I would do is get a load of paint samples (you can order off the Dulux website and they come with little brushes in the lids), paint a few patches somewhere inconspicuous like behind a door, low down near furniture or fabrics you want to match/tone with and live with them for a while to see what will work best.