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Original poster

I messed up painting a room for the first time ... now I feel rubbish

19 replies

Arsenal123 · 30/08/2021 15:24

Hi all

I painted my bedroom yesterday and it I'm quite disappointed with the results. It was a lot of work and I made a bit of a mess on the carpets which do need replacing. I feel so down about it because I tried really hard and had high hopes. For some reason I hold DIY in high regard despite being relatively inexperienced and not great at it.

Does anyone else have such feelings when things don't go their way?

OP posts:
AnnieBanannie1 · 30/08/2021 15:27

What's happened to it?
Many coats did you do?
It'll be fixable!

AfternoonToffee · 30/08/2021 15:30

Oh yes, I haven't decorated since a very poor attempt 19 years ago. I just conclude that I have no skills in that area.

What is it that you feel hasn't gone well?

Runaround50 · 30/08/2021 15:30

Seriously, you can always re- paint the room!

I made a hash of a room in April
( brush instead of roller!) and it needs repainting.

You live and learn with these things I’m afraid.

What went wrong?

TiddleTaddleTat · 30/08/2021 15:30

I'm sure we can help suggest how it can be fixed. It's all a learning curve !

GillBiggeloesHair · 30/08/2021 15:31

I buggered up our hallway a few years back, it was awful. It was mixed paint too so expensive.
I just got more paint mixed and re did it. It was a bummer though.

insancerre · 30/08/2021 15:33

Just paint over it
What went wrong?
Maybe we can help
I’ve decorated many a room

pinksquash13 · 30/08/2021 15:33

I hear where you're coming from. DIY is hard work. It definitely improves with experience so just have another go and learn from your mistakes. I watch a lot of YouTube videos to help me.

legoriakelne · 30/08/2021 15:34

If you're inexperienced, this is how you learn and improve. Nobody starts off amazing at things they've never done before. The medal winners at the Olympics and Paralympics aren't doing their sport for the first time at the games, you know. Wink

When you are experienced you will get different results - moments like this are how you build the experience.

Neverrains · 30/08/2021 15:34

I do a lot of decorating and am good at it, but I’ve just done a really shit job of our bathroom and am disappointed with it and myself! Gearing up to redo it.
It’s all fixable OP.

legoriakelne · 30/08/2021 15:36

Basically, you have to invest in failure to build success in anything.

TooBigForMyBoots · 30/08/2021 15:39

Oh @Arsenal123, I feel for you.Flowers

You are being really hard on yourself here. It was your first time. Like reading, driving and anything else in life, you get better at it the more you do it. So have a Brew, woman up, work out where you went wrong and fix it.

It's no good crying over spilt paint.Wink

ODFOx · 30/08/2021 15:52

The one thing that I have noticed over the years, through DIY and good professionals and bad ones, is that the difference between a good job and a bad one/an absolute amateur and a consummate professional is not that things don't go wrong, but that the amateur becomes demoralised but the professional just takes a breath and fixes it.
So your first attempt has gone a bit wrong. Give it 24 hours to cure and clean the carpet if you can, then make it better. It will be fine, or at worst unnoticeable to anyone but you.

ChequerBoard · 30/08/2021 15:58

I don't do my own decorating anymore. I'm older now and prefer to pay a professional but when I was younger and we had our first house I went into painting my first room all guns blazing and soon realised it was harder than it looked.

I learned over the years that the secret to a good finish is all in the preparation. Prepping the walls by washing down with sugar soaping, filling any holes and blemishes and then sanding down the filler to a smooth surface all takes time and effort. As does applying masking tape on skirts and architraves an putting down dust sheets to protect the floors. The painting itself is probably the quickest bit of the whole process.

Have another go, you will get there.

thecapitalsunited · 30/08/2021 16:05

Don’t be ashamed that you messed up on the first go. My house has loads of bits where we’ve messed up painting and such luck but that’s how you learn. Big drips down the wall that we didn’t notice, spots we missed, globs of paint where we didn’t roller the ceiling properly, most of the woodwork has brush marks in it. No one has ever commented so it might just be that we see it because we know it’s there.

My biggest tips are to spend ages doing the prep work because it really makes a difference and to take your time. However long you think it will take, double it. Rushing because you want to finish a job in one weekend makes you make mistakes.

Don’t be hard on yourself and keep practicing!

Timeforabiscuit · 30/08/2021 16:10

I was taught decorating by my mum, who was taught by my grandad, as trade's were non existent after the war he was entirely taught.

Her first memory is of my grandad tiling the bathroom (his first effort after reading a DIY book), and as he was just finishing the final wall, a freight train passed by the house, shaking all the freshly laid tiles off the wall in a monumental crash.

Apparently he swore a fair bit at that one! But he became a dab hand eventually.

Sacreblue · 30/08/2021 16:14

Agree with planning, prep, practice, patience & perspective.

Often planning steps out means you realise the prep needed, once the prep is done you’ll find each attempt improves, patience (the deep breath PP mentioned!) if things seem to take ages or go wrong.

I am not as handy as I would like to be and having decorated 4rooms & a hall in current house - I can see more mistakes in the room I started in than the last room.

But that’s ok, I learned more by making those mistakes & didn’t repeat them in the next rooms (I made new ones Hmm Grin )

And despite my own criticisms of my own work - it is objectively a good enough job for an enthusiastic amateur.

You’ve probably not done as bad as you think OP, or even if you have massively cocked up, you’ll have learned lots and can use that knowledge to rectify and level up to a decent job.

Good luck!

Bluntness100 · 30/08/2021 16:19

Can you come back and explain how you’ve made a mess? I’m sure there’s a fix. Painting isn’t difficult. So I’m sure there’s a solution.

Aprilinspringtimeshower · 30/08/2021 16:52

@ChequerBoard

I don't do my own decorating anymore. I'm older now and prefer to pay a professional but when I was younger and we had our first house I went into painting my first room all guns blazing and soon realised it was harder than it looked.

I learned over the years that the secret to a good finish is all in the preparation. Prepping the walls by washing down with sugar soaping, filling any holes and blemishes and then sanding down the filler to a smooth surface all takes time and effort. As does applying masking tape on skirts and architraves an putting down dust sheets to protect the floors. The painting itself is probably the quickest bit of the whole process.

Have another go, you will get there.

This. I’m on my 4th room in my new home. I reckon it takes me a day to do proper preparation and it’s the worst job. Tape, carpet covering, filling, sanding, cleaning etc Then once you start painting the walls the time is taken with “cutting in”- carefully doing all the edges with a brush. This can take longer than the rollering. There are some great YouTube videos on cutting in . How to load your brush and hold at the right angle to get steady line Then trick with woodwork (gloss etc) is a good undercoat and a cloth for dust removal of each small section just before you apply Get the right tools and equipment for the job. It makes life easier and quicker Seriously, it isn’t easy or instinctive, and you’ll learn a lot on how to get a great finish by watching some YouTube first. I’ve learnt the hard way. Cleaning up a messy and poorly prepared room takes longer than a day of prep up front.
Sorbustree123 · 30/08/2021 18:17

@ChequerBoard

I don't do my own decorating anymore. I'm older now and prefer to pay a professional but when I was younger and we had our first house I went into painting my first room all guns blazing and soon realised it was harder than it looked.

I learned over the years that the secret to a good finish is all in the preparation. Prepping the walls by washing down with sugar soaping, filling any holes and blemishes and then sanding down the filler to a smooth surface all takes time and effort. As does applying masking tape on skirts and architraves an putting down dust sheets to protect the floors. The painting itself is probably the quickest bit of the whole process.

Have another go, you will get there.

I'm in the (slow) process of repainting the whole house room-by-room, following rewiring so lots of holes to fill, sand, etc.

Could not agree more with @ChequerBoard summary that it's all in the preparation. I'd say this takes up 75% of the time spent "painting" a room, if not more!

Also don't drink and DIY... two generous glasses of wine... 20 minutes slapping paint on having forgotten to wash with sugar soap first... wall of cracking and peeling paint left in my wake... live and learn!

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