In What Order to Paint Your Room
And when would you put the new floor in?
You’re looking to remodel your room, or in my case, an entire house. Where do you start? Lay the floor first, or paint the walls first? Or paint the ceiling first? What paint would you even use?!
Relax. A simple Google search will provide you with the necessary answer:
- Lay down the new floor.
- Paint the ceiling.
- Paint the walls.
I wish I had done that. Please do not do what I did! I started with the walls… Oh, dear! Instead,
Why I Did What I Did
We were going to sell our house, but it needed some updating. While the misses worked long hours, I would tackle the paintwork and any repairs I could perform. We ordered special rollers for the ceiling, figured out what paint we wanted to use, and I got to work.
Painting The Walls
I can be very impulsive and start on projects without an entirely laid plan. I figured that everything would work out. Besides, everything was going to be one color. It would be easy; I kept reminding myself. So I started painting all the walls in the house, except for the kid’s room.
“Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty…” — Theodore Roosevelt
Boy, was it difficult! There was also pain from repetitive brush strokes. But I put in the effort and time. Everything looked great when I was done, and I was ready for some smooth sailing.
Installing The Floors
Next, we decided to have a guy install the floors for us. We wanted our carpet replaced and new vinyl in the kitchen. Here’s where I got into trouble with my impulsive project management: the baseboards had to be removed! I had not considered that thinking they could stay in place when replacing the carpet, and I even carefully masked them off.
I removed all the baseboards myself to save us some money; Having the floors laid by a flooring expert was the most expensive part of fixing our old house. The feet looked great in the end, but now we had to consider getting a contractor to install new baseboards.
Putting In Baseboards
We contacted a few contractors. I showed them around, and they took measurements and gave a quick quote. It was cheap, but we had to get the baseboards ourselves, and I was confused. It turned out they would only install them, but I was lucky enough that one of them was okay with getting the materials for the job for us. The installation went smoothly and fast! Now we could finally tackle the last part of the renovation.
Painting The Ceiling
By now, we were four months into the project. We were getting impatient and decided to have the ceiling painted by some painters. Luckily, they masked everything off perfectly, and the work was done in two days.
The End Result
Everything looked great in the end. We couldn’t even tell it used to be our house. But it sure was stressful. Was it worth it? Yes and no. The quality was excellent, and it all worked out, but I would not do it like this ever again.
Let this be a warning to everybody: Take renovation one step at a time. Lay down the floor and then paint from top to bottom! And please, learn from my mistakes!
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