First time wall painter- help me be realistic!

[PlumpkinPete]

DH and I are buying a house and wondering if we should paint some rooms before we move in and how long it might take.

There's a biggish box room and a double bedroom that we're thinking of painting. DH has done some painting before for other people but not for years. I've never done it.

The current paint is quite dark so would need base coat and two (more??) coats but we think the walls are in reasonable repair- the house is 11 years old and looked fine when we viewed but obviously we will have a better idea once we get the keys and can look at it more closely and without any of the previous owners' furniture in.

We know we will need to clean and sugar soap the walls and cover the carpets but we're hoping there aren't loads of holes to fill and uneven patches etc. and the advantage of doing it before we move is there won't be anything else to move or cover

We just want to paint the walls, we would be happy in principle to leave the woodwork and ceiling alone (they're just white) unless they will look dingy and rubbish next to freshly coated walls?

Our current removal dates give us two and a half days to do it, with a possible extra half day while the removal people pack up our old house, (they're packing on the first day and moving us the next) but a) I'd rather not leave it that late and b) I'd like to be a bit more available while they're packing. They don't want us in the house all day but I was planning on just going into town. Is that me being paranoid?? New house is an hour's drive away.

We could also try and move our removal dates but obviously not guaranteed...

I think it's possible but are we likely to run ourselves ragged trying to get it done and then be exhausted on moving day and unpacking boxes afterwards?

We don't need to paint anything, it's all liveable with but there's an area in both rooms where the previous owner took down fitted units and there's a patch of different coloured wall. We could just live with it for a while or even paint it on the weekends after we've moved. They filled the holes that were left from moving the units but I guess we'd need to sand those

Any advice?

Honestly, I think it would be tight, given allowing for drying times. I'd also be a bit nervous about moving furniture into a room with fresh paint.

Are they rooms you'll be using immediately? If not, I'd leave the unpacking in those rooms for a weekend or two and paint around the boxes!

Don't do it. Decorator's sod's law will dictate that if you have a strict deadline you won't make it. Also agree with above posted about furniture near new paint. Not worth the risk.

Just go for it, its not difficult but it can be time consuming. You need to properly prep the walls (sand them even if they look in good condition). If you ventilate the rooms, the paint will dry quite quickly. Start with the box room, if you've not finished, get the removals people to put the box room furniture in the double room. Then when you've finished, move as much of the furniture out of the double room into the box room whilst you do that room.

Could you paint 1 room? And then see how you get on, if time you could then start another. I would paint the ceiling too , we recently painted a room and i wish we had done the ceiling as it looks a bit grubby in comparison

I'd leave it til after you've moved. No need to add to the stress, and it's pretty simple to paint a room with furniture in - just move everything into the centre and cover with a sheet. Also I've found light scrapes on walls tend to happen quite often with moves, which would be frustrating if you've just painted!

Place all the stuff for the room in the middle of the room packed up, fire a dust sheet over it all and do the painting, id be tempted to do the walls, ceiling and woodwork otherwise as others have said you will poss need to go back and do the ceiling and woodwork at a later date, when all done and dried you can unpack the items and place them where you want.

Thanks all, we've gone with the majority advice here and decided to leave it until after we've moved and avoid the extra stress!

Not on that timescale

We did this when we were first-time buyers but we had been living somewhere with a peppercorn rent temporarily while we saved our mortgage deposit and we were able to arrange a month of overlap. I spent 3 weekends and several evenings after work during that month and I got 2 rooms redecorated.

My recommendation would be to put up lining wallpaper rather than trusting the condition of the existing walls. Thicker lining paper will smooth over any imperfections and give you a great surface to paint on. You definitely need more than one coat (but you don't need a primer on lining paper,) and to allow plenty of drying time between each coat.

With only a 2 day crossover you'd be bonkers to attempt a project like this in its entirety. You could certainly put up the lining paper in that time, but then do the move and settle in and do the painting at a later date. If you don't let things get too cluttered you don't have to empty a room to paint it. One of the rooms I didn't do during the above project was our main bedroom and it was easy enough over several weekends to upend the bed and clear one half of the room and work on that, then the next weekend upended the bed in the opposite direction to work on the other half.

Depending on the quality of the paint job you want to do (obviously I have very low standards compared to most people on here!) you don't need to sugar soap and sand the walls! nd if the house is only 11 years old then the walls should be sound anyway. I fill in any holes with polyfilla type material, sand that (learned the hard way to let it fully dry!) and use a primer over that area.

To cover existing dark paint I would slap a coat (or two) of basic white emulsion on it before putting colour on. It cheaper and easier than doing several colour coats.

Decorating should be fun! Half the fun is pushing the furniture into the middle of the room and trying to paint the walls whilst balanced against it. Likewise moving old sheets and duvet covers around furniture and carpets as you go to protect where you're currently painting as you haven't got quite enough to cover the whole room in one go. .

I would also wait and do a proper job. Focus on one room at a time and keep boxes in the other.

I think the only thing I would be tempted to do is either you or your dh go and paint both ceilings whilst the house is empty. Even if they look white now, after 11 years they will probably need freshening up and it genuinely makes such a difference to the overall look. One of you should be able to get both ceilings done in a day, once you have cut in it is quite a quick job.

Then don't forget to give the wood work a quick going over after you have done the walls. Again this make such a huge difference, more than you would think before you do it

I meant to say that painting ceilings is a quickish job when the rooms are empty. Less so when you are also trying to climb over furniture/ boxes!

Ceilings will definitely look dingy next to freshly painted walls, even if they look fine now. It is much easier to paint when you have nothing to move around and climb over

Thanks everyone for continuing advice.

As an update, we got the keys today and it definitely needs more than a quick lick of paint now the furniture is out and we're really glad we've decided to leave it rather than rush it. Nothing awful but woodwork and ceiling have the odd mark or chip and need repainting and there's a chunk of skirting that needs replacing.

Buying houses is a lot of work it turns out