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?

@NeverDropYourMooncup 😂

I bought Frog tape. Total disaster. It was proper branded stuff and very expensive, but I thought, worth it. Used in my bedroom to mask off skirting board and a wall I wasn't painting. I followed the instructions but it still pulled paint off the masked wall, and a little off the newly painted one, which I then had to touch up, and went over the edges, so I needn't have bothered at all!

A steady hand is all I use now, and a really good brush with a point.

I used to use masking tape, but it's time-consuming to apply, and sometimes it pulls the paint off. For windows I'd trim the excess with a razor tool, but then found I was scratching the windows, oops! I learnt to cut in, with an angled brush as a PP said, and I'm now a pro at it - it's a strangely satisfying job.

In families I know if one member, usually the male, is a decorator, plumber, electrician etc their homes are the last to be done. When plumbing in a washing machine was more difficult than it is today I was asked round by a friend whose OH was a plumber. She said she was fed up of asking him to plumb in the washer, she turned off the water and cut the pipe under the sink, He'll have to do it now!
My electrician brother was known to poke bare wires into sockets rather than put a plug on something.

But did you have the dreaded woodchip? It took us five days and a couple of bottles of washing up liquid to strip a small room then it was weeks before my hands didn't feel slimy and sticky.

Do it in summer if possible. You will get much better results working in natural light and the long days give you more time. I've sometimes pushed ahead to try to get finished in the waning light of a winter evening and the results aren't good. Also of course you'll want to have windows open so as not to breathe paint fumes.

If in a hurry, you can use a dehumidifier to make the paint dry faster between coats. If you don't have one, ask around. You may know someone who will lend you one, especially in summer when people don't use them as much.

And you could have just not replied.

Brilliant. I'll give that a go.

Thank you.

@Remotecontrolatmyside , so could you.

Some really helpful tips here, I'm so glad I asked! Thanks all! My walls are white throughout but it's an awkward clutered busy house. I feel well armed to start tackling some of it

But did you have the dreaded woodchip

Something I discovered with wood chip is that you can sand it down. This is far easier than trying to strip it. I bought a cheap electric sander and it saved me so much time.

@EmpressSoleil Ooh, tell me more! Do you then do lining paper on top before painting? Our house is riddled with the stuff, helpfully coated in thick shiny paint, and applied on top of old wallpaper, and underneath is crumbly lath and plaster, so removing it is a bastard then followed by bastard replastering then painting from scratch. A sand and lining paper solution would save us ££££££

The walls I sanded, I was wallpapering anyway. But I can tell you, the wallpaper looks great, perfectly smooth and even. So I see no reason why lining paper wouldn't work. Try it out on one wall and see what you think, it's worth a go. Trying to remove wood chip is one of the most soul destroying activities known to man!