Prioritizing Painting Your Rooms

Prioritizing painting your rooms isn’t something you hear very often, but if you are going to paint your house, it’s something you should think about. Painting your home is one of the least expensive ways to redecorate any room. It is also a job that is time-consuming and interrupts your daily life. You need to move furniture, cover furniture, protect your flooring, and prep the walls for painting. You will be without the rooms and spaces that are used the most and must deal with paint fumes throughout your home.

When you’re planning to paint the whole house, it’s a good idea to be strategic when taking on a project this big. When painting the interior of your home, it’s important to have a game plan in place before you begin. Part of that plan should be a prioritization of the rooms in your home, from the most used and necessary rooms to the least. This strategy can break it down into smaller pieces, allowing you to “live” in the home with the least interruptions.

Painting your house is a big undertaking. You need to move furniture, cover furniture, protect your flooring, prep the walls for painting, and more. When you’re planning to paint the whole house, it’s a good idea to be strategic in the order you work. Remember, you’ll be without important rooms and spaces for a period of time, and you’ll also have paint fumes and smells to contend with. Make it easy to keep living your life with as much normalcy as possible by following these tips.

How to Prioritize Rooms When Painting the Whole House

In most cases, a professional painter will work on painting approximately 90% of the house at once, leaving the final 10% to be completed at the end of the project. By leaving a small portion of the work until the very end, you and your family will have a refuge that you can retreat to until the rest of your home has been painted. The specific rooms that are left until the end—bedroom, bathroom, etc.—will depend on the job, the scope of work, and your family’s unique needs; however, a professional painter will usually work in all areas but will save the most disruptive parts of the work in some areas until the end, making it easier for you and your family to switch between spaces as needed.

Why Are You Painting?

What’s your end goal? Are you remodeling your kitchen or bathroom? Putting it on the market? Just wanting to update and live in a beautiful home you love? Know your purpose before you paint, and that will help you prioritize the order in which you go.

For example, if you’re putting your home on the market, paint the rooms that make the biggest impact first: Your entryway, your living room, the master bedroom, the kitchen, and bathrooms. If you’re gradually updating your home, you’ll want to consider the impact the paint projects will have on your day-to-day living. You can start with guest bathrooms and guest bedrooms, because these are likely out of the way.

Bedroom

Painting your master bedroom and bathroom first is also a great place to start because you’ll quickly be able to settle back into living your normal life. Once you complete the rooms, you’ll have a place to sleep and bathroom facilities to use, so you don’t have to feel like you’re camping in your living room. And you’ll love the way you feel when you go to bed and wake up in your beautiful room.

Kitchen

If you’re painting the whole house at once, the kitchen is also a great place to start, because if the kitchen is inoperable, the rest of your life is put on hold. You won’t be able to eat healthy meals, and you’ll end up spending quite a bit of money on take-out food. Beginning with the kitchen will quickly put that room back into the rotation of your day-to-day living. And just like a fresh bedroom can motivate you to keep moving through the house, a beautiful, fresh kitchen can inspire you to finish the home.

It’s a good idea to plan on not using the kitchen at all while it’s being painted. This will expedite the process. Ideas for your family during this time may include:

• Select a day to eat all meals out.
• Stock up on ready to serve meals like cereals and sandwiches.
• If possible, have a microwave and refrigerator in another area of the house.
• Eat meals in the dining room or on trays in the family or living room.

Living Room

The living room will probably take you a long time, so be prepared. It’s typically a large room, and you have to move furniture into other rooms of the house — like the kitchen. So painting this room can be disruptive. Tackling it at the end of your house painting project is a good idea. The living room is typically a large room that requires furniture and other items to be removed. It would not be wise to start with this room because it will take some time to paint. Painting this room towards the end of the project is the best solution. There is no need to rush painting the living room because you should have the rest of the house completed already.

Laundry Room

The laundry room is a good room to leave for last. It is normally smaller and can be done quickly, but isn’t a high-priority room, so it’s okay to leave it to the end. Store your clothing outside the laundry room on the day of painting, as well as a few days later, so they don’t absorb the smells of paint.

Things to Consider When Prioritizing Rooms for Painting

When prioritizing rooms for painting, it is important to consider things that could cause extra work. For example, painting common areas first, such as hallways, is usually a bad idea because those areas are more likely to get scuffed as people move through the space, which means that they will have to be redone. A professional painting company will prioritize the areas in the home that are least likely to get scuffed or damaged by the painters during the course of the job and by anyone living in the house while it is undergoing painting.

In most cases, the entire house will be painted basically at once with the exception of a bathroom and a bedroom that you can retreat to and use. Once the rest of the house has been painted, those rooms will then be prioritized at the end of the job.

If you’d like to avoid the hassle of painting your home yourself, let ColourDrive Painting in Grover Beach and surrounding areas handle the process for you — from beginning to end. Contact us for a free estimate.