How to paint a room?

[Cottoneyed12]

Building myself up to start painting my kitchen and utility.

Am I right in thinking this is the steps I should take..

1. Cutting in on ceiling
2. Rolling on ceiling
3. Cutting in on walls
4. Rolling on walls.
5. Repeat 3&4
6. Gloss doors and skirting.

Any tips or alternatives?

Maybe do gloss first. For walls I cut in a bit, roller a bit and repeat

I do it your way but one wall at a time unless the room is free from furniture

Personally I do ceiling, then gloss, then walls, but I don’t know what the ‘right’ way is.

Also before anything then prep prep prep. The finish you get is all about the prep. Clean walls with sugar soap to remove dirt/grease (especially in a kitchen), fill any holes and sand filler to smooth once dry.

Do you really want gloss? It's fallen out of favour and I think that is with good reason! Satin wood is easier and faster and gives a lovely finish with less effort! The main good reason for going with gloss is if you already have it - in that case it needs preparing no mater what you are putting over it but the degree of rubbing back is less than if you want to get rid of the gloss entirely.

I also don't rate rollers personally, although I know they're still the mainstay of DIY decorating. We've been using paint pads since we were given a free kit at the Ideal Home Show in the 1990s! They are easier to clean, drip less pain and are much more precise so require less "cutting in".

Anyway, my steps would be:

1. clean - wash everything down, ideally with sugar soap. Particularly important in a kitchen where there will be invisible grease build up on surfaces
2. prepare - rub down any lumps and bumps, fill holes with filler and sand back. Rub down all woodwork (light rubbing down to allow new paint to "key in to surface", but more extensive if you have strong coloured gloss to cover, or want to replace gloss with non-gloss)
3. wash again to get rid of dust from sanding.
4. paint the ceiling (only if it really needs doing!)
5. paint the woodwork, working around the room. Any unfinished/previously unpainted wood needs a coat of primer first though
6. paint one wall at a time. Using pads you often don't need a brush to cut in, but if you do you can do this quickly around the edge of each area and fill in the middle as you go.
7. fine touching up of any obvious missed bits/wonky joins etc

Preparation is the key to a good finish, so definitely worth spending time on. If the woodwork needs 2 coats I'll often do first coat, then first coat on the wall, then second coat on woodwork and then final coat on walls. I do love decorating!

Thank you so much.

That is very helpful.

I say gloss but actually my “gloss” is satinwood. I have no idea what that means (I’m such a novice!) but I was recommended this by my decorator so that’s what I bought.

Pretty much as you’ve said. I’ve just spotted the dreaded Dulux Once! My husband just laughed when I mentioned I was reading this. We once paint d a room and bought the once satinwood (usually use F&B pointing but needed something more hard wearing for a utility) and it took four coats. I will never forget the pain!