Have you painted the entire interior of you house? Please come and tell me how you did it without going mad

[headfairy]

We cannot possibly afford a painter and decorator, but our house looks terrible. The walls are filthy, covered in pen marks and chipped paint. I'm desperate to reprint but it's so daunting. It's not a massive house, typical Victorian three bed, but I work full time (3days a week, 13 hour shifts) and both my children are preschool (though ds starts reception in Sept) so they're around all day.

Is it even possible?

If you can live without doing the ceilings it's not that hard.

Choose a room.
Move furniture from one wall.
Put sheets down.
Cut in the edges
Roller the rest
Put your roller and tray in a carrier bag. Push the bag down and around the roller.
Put your paintbrush in a food bag and wrap it round tightly.
Lift the sheets
Put the furniture nearly back in place.

Repeat every evening when dc are in bed.

I have decorated loads of times doing this method when I've not had the childfree time to do a whole room.

Quick dry gloss is also fab too.

Really? Can you do a room in an evening? Kids are in bed by 7.30' but by e time dinners been cooked and eaten it's 8.30, too ate to start painting. Or do I order a Dominos miss dinner to get a head start. I'm assuming you don't get a room done in an evening if you start at 8.30?

have always done it, it's fun!

i'll do it for you headfairy £10 per hour

Sea.... Can you do the lot in about 6 hours? If so the job's yours

eat at the sam time sa your kids and get a few extra hrs in

I could probably do it if dh wasn't around, I've done a fair bit of spontaneous night time painting in my life. But dh will go in to full on whinge-fest

we desperately need to pain as well
i am so shit at it though
i get bored and end up doing it v badly

Yeah ggirl... Thats an idea.

The hall scares me. It's not actually that big but the ceilings so high, the walls just disappear up there.

Ggirl, me too, I really CBA with all the prep, but I know that's what makes all the difference.

I always paint in the evenings when the kids are in bed, as others have suggested.

I didn't paint my hall though. Very high ceilings and stone stairs, so was far too scared. If the ceilings hadn't been so high I would have attempted it with a roller on a pole.

Hmmm I am going mad trying to get quotes to paint the entire interior. The latest came in at £12,000 (excluding paint) !! You would think I live in a palace. I don't. 3 bed flat in London. I did not know whether to laugh or cry.

Studentpainters.info

I have done loads of decorating starting after the kids are in bed. I tend to pick a night when DH is out so I'm not tempted to join him on the sofa, and just keep going til it's done. It has led to a few 3am finishes when doing a room for the second time because I've changed my mind on the colour big room but you could equally use cling film an finish off the following night instead.

£12k for a 3 bed flat? that is insane

Bloody bonkers. His assistant did not speak a word of English. I thought the Poles were driving down the cost of services. Apparently not. I thought decorators charged a daily rate. This geezer seems to charge by m-sq of walls. As I have 3m high walls, he saw it as an excuse to rip me off.

Noddy - thanks for the tip. Have you used them?

Wish I could paint...

We are slowly doing ours in our spare weekends. Some prep together with children occupied with Cbeebies/dvd. Once children are bouncing off the walls then one of us takes them out & the other carries on with the job.

The prep is the bit that takes the time tbh & you really really shouldn't skimp here I'm afraid. We have a small 3 bed bungalow & it is all done except the spare room & has taken about 4 months.

this is why I married a Painter & Decorator! I pick the colours and wash out the brushes and rollers :)

Same as BuckBuckMcFate, when boys were small I was sahm (still am) so they were under my feet all day I decorated at night or on a weekend.

BuckBuck is suggesting you do one wall a night. It is totally do-able, get dust sheet down and go for it.

In terms of when you start, you need to eat with the children, or batch cook something so make a double portion of chilli/cury/spag bol/cottage pie etc, and save the extra portion for the days you start painting, that way dinner is cooked already.

Doubling up or in my case I make 6 lots of food that will feed 4 so just times the recipe by 6, you can happily have a lot of meals in a few days of effort. My slow cooker is also much loved. Some recipes require no cooking before hand so just put it all in the pot, switch it on.

On a weekend, get DH to have the kids, you start at 7am painting. I have been known to paint 4 coats of paint in a room in a day, cutting in takes the longest as it has to precise. That was 2 coats of white, then 2 coats of colour as I was going much lighter than the original colour.

Thanks for all the top tips everyone, I've requested a quote from those student painters noddy I'd be interested to see how they compare.

fizzylemonade you are is organised!!! Not sure I could be up at the weekends painting by 7am, my shifts at work mean I'm usually not home on Friday evening until 11.30pm having done a 16 hour day. But I could possibly do a 9am start and not feel too cheated of my sleep!

I did a large section of my house recently. It is very hard work but it looks amazing and I'm so pleased I did it. In addition to what everybody else has said I would advise to get on with it and keep going! It's the only way to do it. Oh, and tidy up every night (have a special area for the dust sheets, brushes etc), otherwise the mess will drive you insane.

i do this. i've got three little kids. i start after bedtime - forget dinner & tv etc. - and do a wall at a time. use masking tape - i find it works better than cutting in, which ime takes more time and leaves a wobbly line (disclaimer: i'm sure others have a steadier hand than me). make sure you press the masking tape down properly to prevent bleeding. and off you go.

i get courses on cd and listen to them while i paint. very interesting. or listen to the radio with some good music.

the tip about the cling film is brilliant! i'll be doing that then.

What's the tip about cling film, surely I don't cover the entire room in cling film do I

Definately DIY, It is fun - once you get the prep out of the way. I have decided to paint the entire house - inc ceilings.....yuck! I have an office, 4 bedrooms, hallway, large livingroom, kitchen, porch/utility & 2 bathrooms to do....ALL FRESH PLASTER....that is daunting.

But I have started & after 3 coats on the ceiling it looks lovley! Can't wait to get it over with so I can do the walls.

Obviously if you're living in the house (which I am not yet) do it room by room. I will use beige paint (named egyptian cotton & the likes cos B&Q have BOGOF Offer) so accessorise with accent colours. Even have a feature wall as there are lovely colours to be had now xx