So long since i've painted a room - it is woodwork first then walls?

[Ladymuck]

Or is it the other way round? Need to make sure that I plan enough drying time!

I do woodwork first as you can wipe emulsion off gloss but not necessarily the other way round.

OK - my first mistake was to buy satinwood rather than gloss then!

Satinwood is fine if you don't want a glossy look. You should do the woodwork first. Love painting! Can't hang wallpaper though

Oh no, satinwood is fine! The easy-to-wipe-off thing still applies

Dammit, just got back from homebase with gloss, forgot about satin wood.
Ladymuck, am v pleased you started this thread. hope there are lots of handy hints still to come.

No wall paper in sight! But I am going for washable "family friendly" paint this time. I don't know what it is about my children and walls...

i do walls first then wood work not sure why but dh in charge and seems to know what he's doing..
...satin wood is just not as glossy as gloss and i prefer it ..

what colours???

want to do our bedroom soon not sure thinking of green light, white ceiling, cant decide...

Undercoat the woodwork then emulsion the walls and finally gloss/eggshell.You can buy wipes which are soaked in white spirit and they are brilliant for drips xx

Well this is ds1's (age 6) bedroom. He wants a dinosaur motif (could have been Star Wars so I am relieved!). I have someone coming to do a mural on one of his walls at the end of next week (so I now have a deadline!). I've opted for "Putting Green" - warm but not too bright. I've also got some blackboard paint and am trying to track down some magnetic paint as well, so I'll have one section of wall which is both magnetic and blackboard - perhaps he'll keep his artistic tendancies to that area, hmmm?

Do I really need to undercoat? I was just going to wash existing woodwork and paint over? Or is that really sinful?

you only really need to sand the woodwork if it's already painted.

I use fine sandpaper to rub down the woodwork first, otherwise the new paint won't have anything to adhere to. Also remove any masking tape before the paint dries.

OK thanks - sandpaper usually indicates a degree of precision not often present in my work! I did buy some polyfilla for a couple of drilled holes though!

If the woodwork is in good condition you can get 'liquid sander' - some sort of chemical you just wipe on that roughens the surface slightly so the new paint sticks well.

Oh and the magnetic paint we used was pretty useless - we now have a wall covered in lumpy iron filings but not very magnetic - one piece of paper and it falls off.

I had some magnetic blackboard paint but you have to buy really good, very light magnets otherwise they fall off

also only one piece of paper at a time

I recently painted over some skirting boards which I did in red gloss once (seemed a good idea at the time) and sanding was a nightmare - red dust everywhere.

I used liquid sander instead and it took the glaze off perfectly well which is all you need (although if you're going over a darker colour with a lighter colour, undercoat will cover it better)

Preparation is vital if you want a good finish.Lots of filling and sanding makes for a better easier job when you come to actually paint

Oh god, get someone in to do it for you!

But I'm quite looking forward to it! Plus decorators around here charge a fortune! I almost fainted when I was handed a quote for over £4,000 to paint downstairs living area.

Mind you I am outsourcing ds's requested dinosaur mural, complete with blood and exploding volcano!

Thanks for the link -lady- some good advice...this liquid stuff sounds good!! Can i do that and then perhaps paint a few days later? I have a huge room and 8 kids so its gonna take a while to do bits.

So is it...

wood takey off make roung liquid stuff...
undercoat?
satinwood?

or

wood takey....blah blah
and just satinwood???

If it was painted white before I'm not sure why you would need undercoat?

I dunno- just saw the word 'undercoat' and thought i may need to use that too...lol

not very good with woodwork-always avoided it...lol

Undercoat is only necessary on bare wood.

I'm always tempted to pay someone to do all the dull prep and then do the fun bit myself. Luckily, all the woodwork is stripped in this house so there is no prep

Obviously I haven't mastered outsourcing - I always felt that it was a bit cheeky to only outsource the dull bits! But it is an idea.

Hmm, well my plan of managing all of this in 5 hours on Monday and 7 on Wednesday aren't looking quite so hopeful are they?

I need to:

• strip existing junk (stickers, posters etc)off walls, fill and sand
• sand down woodwork
• paint woodwork and let dry
• apply msking tape as necessary
• paint walls and let dry
• 2nd coat on walls.

I guess I need to check the satinwood to see whether I need a second coat there too, but I'm hoping not.