Painting a 3 bedroom house as quickly as possible!

[WeAreGoingOnABearHunt]

Hi all, was wondering if I could get some advice on painting our house. It's a 3 bedroom house over 2 floors so ground floor -kitchen, living room, conservatory, 1st floor -2bedrooms & a family bath, 2nd floor -master bedroom, dressing area and ensuite shower room.

Generally the paintwork is in good state but there are some holes & patching up of nails in walls in perhaps 3 rooms altogether that would need filling and tidying. We are redecorating as giving the kids their own room and having lived here for 7years now, we haven't had to paint it (bought new).

I'm all for painting everything - ceiling, walls and woodwork so skirting & doors & doorframes and architrave. Dh doesn't think any of the woodwork is needed to be painted (despite the fact that some areas look abit tired).

We have asked some decorators to come out to see and give quotes - ranging from £5K -£9K !! Materials provided & this is with woodwork painted. also it seems to take up to 4 weeks to be done.

Is this normal for such a quote ? We will be living in the house while work is being done so not ideal...

Also, if we didn't paint any woodwork and just ceiling and walls (no skirting, or doors etc etc), would it be horribly obvious? I should mention we are maintaining the same colours boring magnolia walls and white ceilings. But dh is keen to get it done as cheaply as possible

I wish I could change the colours but if not, I've comforted myself with the fact that I could do wall decals and some other simple DIY decor. If anyone's got ideas, please feel free to chime in. :)

Oh and I've got my parents visiting in 2 weeks (who are staying for almost a month), and thus, we have to start work almost immediately so it's at least half way done. And try to finish before the cold weather sets in.

Thoughts? :)

If you are just re-painting with exactly the same colour you may get away with one coat on the walls and ceilings and it will be relatively quick as it's not quite the same as cutting in with a different colour. If you are going to pay a professional I would have them do the woodwork too as that's the bit that's time consuming and fiddly which they should be good at.

Fours weeks sounds reasonable for the whole house - how many decorators? Do you really need/want to do the whole place at once? The most affordable way is probably a room at a time over a longer period.

The later it gets in the year, the worse the light is and the more likely that bits may get missed because they don't show up the same.

Why can't you change the colours?
I never knew it cost that much for a bit of decorating I do it all myself.

I do it all myself as well. I often think I'm in the wrong job

Start at the to and work your way down if you're just painting in the same colours. You will need to do woodwork but if it's just a freshen up you may get away with one coat. Depends on when the ceilings were last done.

Do your ceilings really need painting? 7 years is not that long, unless you have food flinging toddlers or had tea cup disasters hitting the ceiling.
Our whole house has been painted 3.5 years ago (by me) and the ceilings look immaculate.
Walls not so much, especially kitchen and living room.

Woodwork is fiddly, but again, it is a big job, does it really need doing everywhere? Downstairs maybe, but not for bedroom doors?

And lastly, I wouldn't have it done while I had guests. That would do my head in.

and change your mind about magnolia, there are tons of lovely colours out there!

£9k and 4 weeks? either your house needs a lot more work than you are letting on or the painters saw you coming!

My dad has a decorating company, we had our entire 3 bed house painted in 4 days (2 men)

We had hall landing and stairs plus sitting room with all woodwork and ceilings done for under £750 inc materials ( one colour was a special mix). I think you are being given very high quotes

We were quoted just under 1k for hall and stairs / landings. The main expense was the gloss paint for the banister due to all the spindles. Our house sounds like yours - 3 storey so lots of banister. 3rd bedroom was £100 and one guy who did 2 coats in one day. Hall and kitchen took 3 days and I painted the stairs (1st set) and conservatory.

We paid £2000 for two bedrooms, hall and stairs, lounge and kitchen and all woodwork. Took about two weeks with two men working in it.

Thanks for sharing thoughts! :)

We've settled for the cheapest (hopefully we won't regret it ;-) quote - £1400 labour alone for 2 men to do the whole house (no woodwork, just walls and ceilings). They will take 3-5 days. We would buy the paint.

Mellifera - I'd love not having magnolia but if we were to choose another colour, then that means more work and more moolah. I wondered if we could get away with a slightly lighter/darker shade than magnolia, but will ask the decorators this. Otherwise magnolia it is (and lots of wall decals), hah!

Oh and would love to do the painting ourselves (I painted my bedroom and my siblings bedroom as a teenager and enjoyed it, but not done anything since). But we have got 2 little tyrants under 4years and my husband's a fraidy cat when it comes to DIY - he'd much rather leave it to professionals. Lol

I think you'll find that once everywhere else is painted the woodwork will look like it needs painting tbh.