Decorating the spare room. What order to do things

[mskitty]

So it's been a while since I've decorated. We usually get someone in as I've never made a great job of it in the past. However I've set myself a half term challenge to get the spare room looking fresh.

So, what order do you do the following?

Paint ceiling
Paint walls
Paint woodwork / radiator

I am also papering a feature wall but I know I'll do that last.

Any other tips for a nice finish?

[Vanillapod]

This may well be the wrong order for woodwork but I alway paint the ceiling and coving then do all the cutting in on the walls, then the walls themselves and then when all that’s fully dry I do the woodwork. I used to do the woodwork first but masking tape can mark it up if it’s not quite cured so now I do it last

[tspill]

We do ceilings first. Then woodwork. Then walls.

The reason is that if you do wood work before walls and you get some paint on the walls, it can be a struggle to get the colour emulsion to "stick" to it.
Also, I prefer for the wall colour to come a fraction of a millimetre into the wood as I think it looks much better. Once the wood os done I use frog tape to mask the woodwork to get a perfect and even edge.
I also use frog tape on the ceiling when doing the walls - again to get a perfect edge.

Never use masking tape as its a disaster. Yellow frog tape is the way to go.

[parisdisneyfan]

We have got decorators in at the moment and they are doing all the prep work, walls and wood followed by ceilings, then walls first coat. Then undercoat for wood followed by 2nd coat ceilings and walls then final wood. Only thing I’ve noticed is the roller is huge and very shaggy and paint brushes seem to be angled. Very pleased with the job they are doing bringing our wreck of a house back to life😁

Good luck.

BTW, I should have got Dh to drill the holes for the new curtain poles and blinds first as now dreading him getting it wrong🥴

[TGT]

I must be lazy (I am)

But I just painted 2 rental houses (so admittedly my standards may not be quite as high as doing my own, however...)

Ceilings (if I really have to)
Undercoat woodwork/radiators
Cut in walls
Roll walls
Cut in walls again
Roll walls again
Cut in walls again if I really have to (& I mean paint round the edges as using the same colour so not really cutting in)
[If I didn't get around to it, undercoat woodwork now]
Gloss woodwork/radiators [I recommend radiator covers for laziness]

I do the paintwork this way as it doesn't matter (to me) if I get emulsion over the undercoat then I get a nice edge onto the gloss

I do mask carpets when doing skirting boards (usually) but I certainly don't around the ceiling/woodwork (takes twice as long as painting and who really cares? Probably a lot of you...not me]

However this time I found the neat "trick" of painting the walls and ceiling white and all my cutting in around the ceiling problems went away.

I am definitely too lazy for you to follow my advice. Good luck!

[MrsBC]

We've just done our bedroom (wallpapered though) in this order - wall prep, ceiling, woodwork and radiator, wallpaper.

[Mr Tom Morrow]

OP. Nothing more to add to the other posts other than the Rads.

I always had to paint ours as they were installed back in 1986 when rads didn't have such a nice gloss finish when purchased.

I have just changed the entire house for new ones and couldn't believe how cheap even top of the range ones were so no more painting them. Worth a thought.

[Talland 2016]

I’d painted the ceiling and sanded down the window seat. Decided to try and take off the existing lining paper and most of the plaster came off with it.
Had to wait a while for a plasterer, as a shortage of plaster and then they had to take the walls back to the brickwork
Today have been applying the mist coats, am debating whether to keep the room white and just have a feature wall papered ( I’ve already got that)

[mskitty]

Thank you all for your advice so far. I shall keep you posted on the results.

[mskitty]

Thank you all for your advice, but mainly for the recommendation to use frog tap. What a game changer. I'm really proud of the results and actually enjoyed doing it for a change. The photo is the almost complete room. There was just the ceiling airer to put up. This is now up but full of clothes and so ruins the look!