Decorating is so much faff!

[BurntSausage]

My god, my respect for painters and decorators has gone through the roof this past week. Been trying to get a room ready to paint. Moving furniture round because there isn’t anywhere to move it out to. Filling, sanding, cleaning, finding more bits to fill, rinse and repeat, priming, undercoating… man alive I’ve had enough and I haven’t even got the colour on yet. I’ve been so meticulous with the prep so far that I don’t want to suddenly now go ‘fuck it’ and just throw some paint on the wall when I’m trying so hard to do it RIGHT.

Wish I could afford to pay someone! This is only the first room of many, too 🤣

Just looking for some solidarity and maybe a kick up the arse too. Anyone else mid-decorating?

Solidarity from me. I spent Sunday sanding and priming our home office after doing filling last weekend, ready to undercoat next weekend. Of course I noticed lots of bits that needed more filling, so half the room is primed and half not...

I don't mind DIY decorating though as it's inordinately satisfying when the final top coat is done and it's all finished.

I totally agree and if I had the money I would have employed a painter. I’ve totally had enough with decorating. My hand hurts today from weeks of holding a sander, paint brush and roller, and my hips from getting up and down a ladder after 4 rooms of decorating are seriously groaning. I’ve just finished the bathroom that was harder than all the others thanks to the odd shape and getting behind the washbasin and toilet.

I’ve only just managed to tidy up the rest of my flat that seems to get totally trashed when I’m decorating a room - I’m not quite sure how I manage it 😐

I still have one huge room to go - I call it the room of doom and I honestly don’t know where to start, it’s such a mess. For now I’m just shutting the door on it!

The thing I hate is is falling into the trap of trying to do too much. I have learnt to only do one room at a time. And finish that room (all bits - yes the woodwork).

The prep work takes the time, but is well worth it for a better finish, You are doing the right thing!

What really pisses me off is when a newly decorated room gets damaged in teh first few weeks. e.g. the last carpet fitter made me cry with the damage caused fitting carpet to a freshly decorated room.

I recently got myself a proper cutting in brush (a thing I hadn't even realised existed) which substantially improved my feelings about decorating. Also frog tape. Mainly it's a job I don't mind too much but it's one that's somehow just depressing when you're doing it on your own, and not too bad with two of you.

Me! It's taken me two months to do my bedroom. I'm pleased that I have done it myself and saved money but I just know that some of the little imperfections are going to bug me. But yeah the whole process was a massive faff and I hated it which is why it took so long, I had to psych myself up for every stage. And I still have the other bedroom and the kitchen to go. After that, the rest of the house can wait!

I’m lazy, I don’t do any prep beyond something really obvious, like a skirting board that needs some caulk in it. Quick wipe of any obvious dirt, masking tape on, paint. Waterbased paint for interior woodwork so no priming needed. It all looks fine to me.

Thanks for the solidarity everyone! I made some decent progress yesterday, including getting a mist coat on a bare plaster ceiling, which had become one of those jobs that I was putting off because I knew it wouldn’t be fun. Now I can paint the fucker properly, before moving onto the walls.

I haven’t helped myself by watching a lot of videos by decorators who make it look easy. Everything takes twice as long as I think it will, but obviously videos don’t show a 3 hour drying time.

@Rollercoaster1920 oh no, what happened with the carpet fitter? It’s things like that - what comes first: painting the skirting so it’s done for the carpet to be fitted, but then risks getting damaged vs painting after and getting paint on the carpet! The decisions make me so nothing at all 😁

@BurntSausage the carpet fitter knocked the skirting off the walls! Whilst it points to the skirting not being as well attached as it should have been, I suspect he was quite rough.

So from 'the last thing' to a setback of more drilling, plugging, sanding, caulking and painting.