Do you paint your house yourself

[spanieleyes22]

Just following on from another thread where I was disappointed in my painting skills! Just wondering if people paint their own houses or pay someone to do it. Tbh if I had the money I would pay someone! They would have to be good though. When I moved into this house someone had done a really terrible job on the painting. The paint on the bannisters was literally peeling off when you touched it as they obvs hadn't prepped - they'd just painted over old peeling paint. It's v expensive to get someone to do it though. Are you any good at painting. I'm better than I was but am not amazing

I’ve just had my hall, stairs and landing done for £750!

I do my own, room by room, painstakingly, about 1 room a year 😁

Im too tight to paybthe 1000s of punds decorators want round here (to do a more slapdash job as well from many ive seen ...)

Years ago we had our only paid decorator in because it was being paid for by insurance- dry rot 😱.
We chose a lovely mustard yellow, got home to discover he’d taken the sample and had it “matched “, my walls were a kind of nasty acidic yellow !
He did a couple of other things which would be too outing to mention, some absolutely horrible suggestions he’d made . Maybe he was just a crap decorator , but he was well known locally and is still around! Never again, I do it myself!

I do 90% of the decorating in our house. The only parts I don't do are external painting (last decorated whilst we had scaffolding up) and the higher parts of the stairs and landing. I usually decorate 2-3 rooms each year so most rooms are painted every 5 years or so. DH does all the downstairs ceilings as they are too high for me.

Wow, I’m impressed by you all! Honestly wouldn’t even occur to me to try doing it myself, I wouldn’t know where to start.

Have in the past but have been using a decorator recently and he does a great job and I feel its value for money. Around £300 for a room to be painted.

DH and I have never done any decorating or DIY of any significance.

We work on the basis that providing we earn at a higher rate than the people we’re hiring it makes no sense for us to do it ourselves.

If someone offered me additional work at a rate lower than I normally earn I would turn it down so why would I effectively do the same by undertaking decorating jobs unless I really enjoyed it which I don’t.

We always get someone in
Same guy for the last 25 years

That’s a sound principle, provided you have the extra cash available to pay someone. For years we just didn’t have the money in our budget, and didn’t work in industries with paid overtime, so it was either do it ourselves or it didn’t get done. I never enjoyed it 😁. Now we have spare money, we pay someone else.

Yes. And I am excellent at it. I have to point out to DH sometimes how much money I have saved us. Only exception has been doing up the stairs (although I managed it with our current stairwell).

My mum had been taught properly by her dad, and she did it as part of her job for a while. though I think it was my sister who showed me all the more sneaky tips (like using tape, my mum was always freehand). i also had a book which explained how to decorate properly (in the days before YouTube).

Always did it ourselves. I just painted our loos. Wallpapering with a tricky pattern I leave to the professionals though.

I was quoted £2k for my hallway which apparently would take 2 of them a whole week... The ceiling is quite high so I can't do it alone, it's a semi detached Victorian.

Out of my price range unfortunately.

We built our house ourself, I'll be damned if I'm gonna pay someone to slap a bit of paint on the walls. Is it perfect? No. Is anybody gonna come in your house and notice the imperfections? No.

We have always decorated ourselves, until the last few years. I don’t like dh going up ladders for the outside now we are getting on. We moved from a 1930s house, which needed replastering when the wallpaper came off, to a 1999 house, that was all emulsioned. Decided to stick with emulsion throughout as it is easier to repaint. We did pay to have the hall, stairs and landing painted, as it is a pain, and we had the conservatory reroofed and plastered, so paid to have that done, as it was new plaster and took lots of coats- the professional was surprised as it took more than he expected. In future, we will probably paint the smaller rooms ourselves, but may pay for the kitchen and definitely the hall. It is expensive, but needs a good job in those rooms. We are both 70 now, pretty fit but, finding going up ladders a bit more challenging than it used to be.

We've just paid someone to do our huge living room. Mainly because I just can't be bothered and I'm too busy! Definitely worth the money paying someone to do it if you can afford it!

We paint ours and I absolutely hate it. I’m too tight to pay someone to do it so I just suck it up. Needless to say it doesn’t get painted as often as I’d like.

If it’s white walls I’m doing I do it myself but for darker feature walls I get someone in to do it as I’m not very neat

My Dad taught me painting and paper hanging from around 12, have always done all myself and do as well as any professional.

Mind you I've been doing it now for over 50 years so have had plenty of practice!

Now I'm getting on I find using a radiator roller very helpful - not so tiring as the full sized ones, and no slower for me after all the cutting in.

Don't ever, ever, buy really cheap paint.

Experiment with different brushes for cutting in and when you find the one that suits you mark the handle.

When cutting in wall to ceiling start about an inch below and sweep up and across. Don't overload the brush.

@spanieleyes22 I did all the papering and painting all our married life and yes, even the stairs, dangerously, by balancing the ladder on a pile of books on the stairs!!! outside banisters by grinding off all the paint and prime and paint with decent paint. do not scrimp on the paint or buy cheap paint. buy good brushes and rollers. also find that it is better to do walls before the skirting so you dont get splashes of wall paint on skirtings but this is only possible if you have mastered properly the art of glossing straight lines. use masking tape if necessary and remove it immediately you have finished painting. also taught myself to do wall and floor tiling!!! even the plumber commented on how good the tiling was when he came to put the bathroom fittings in! I am now 70 yo female so have been doing it a long time.

@spanieleyes22 all the power tools in our garage belong to me, the 70 year old wife!! hubby would not know how to switch them on!

I do it all, but we have normal ceilings and a fairly safe staircase arrangement (no bends or banisters with drops) so it's all fairly easy. I would be gutted to spend £££ on a decorator and find the cutting in not 100% perfect - my standards are less high when I've done it myself!

Saying that, having decorated a house with Victorian ceilings before I don't think I'd be doing that again, there were some hairy moments!

I do most of it, DP does the high bits over the stairs, and sometimes my friend comes over and we have a painting party.

Having said that- my banisters are in a sorry state and I keep putting off doing it, because it's so fiddly. Plus I really need a few days when neither of my sons are here to minimise damage.

I have adhd and autism, so have always found getting a tradesman in far more stressful than diy. I do all the painting, wallpapering, tiling, basic electrics, carpentry. Outside I’ve laid turf and built a brick path. The next thing I need to teach myself is brickwork, to repair the front garden wall. I enjoy it, it’s mindfulness and excercise in one, and it gives an amazing sense of satisfaction.

Yes. I've just repainted my entire house in around 6 weeks whilst working full time, including all internal doors and woodwork. I am really good though, have a very steady hand and don't even use tape etc. I was completely knackered after though! Not in a rush to do it again.

Had a decorator in to do hall stairs and landing. He did no rubbing down at all and now all the gloss paint is flaking off on banister rail. Getting someone does not always mean getting a better finish.