How do proper decorators decorate?

[thenewaveragebear1983]

I'm a reasonable amateur decorator, I've done our whole house to a fair standard but I'm a bit sloppy and make mistakes which I then have to correct. I'm also a bit lax with the prep which again, causes me minor problems along the way.

I've just had my kitchen fitted and I'm going to decorate on Friday and Saturday, with Thursday for prep. So I just wondered if I'm missing a trick. I've lightly sanded the woodwork and painted the white coving already, but what order and method would you do the rest? Any tips other than hire a decorator! It's going to be paint only, a dark green.

Oh, and there's some areas which will be new plaster and some areas where the old paint is flaking off (I think because previous owner painted straight onto plaster?) - would you sand that, or scrape it away?

How did it go OP? You've probably done your work now but I'm bumping as I'm after exactly the same kind of tips!