Living in Your House While It Gets Repainted: What to Expect

Most people who hire a painter for the inside of their house keep living in it. You still have to make breakfast, take calls, let the dog out and get the kids to bed. So the practical question is not only whether the walls will look good. It is what the next few days will be like. Here is a walk through an interior repaint from your side of the room.

Choosing colors you will not regret

Color is where most homeowners feel the most pressure, and it is easier when you slow down. The same paint can look warm in the morning, gray at noon and yellow under a lamp at night. Lighting changes everything. Small sample swatches taped to the wall, looked at over a couple of days and at different hours, will tell you more than any chip in a store.

You do not have to figure it out alone. Our consultation covers color selection, with expert advice and color swatches that help you pinpoint the perfect shade. A few things help: think about the furniture and floors that will stay, look at how much natural light each room gets, and remember that a darker color on one wall changes the feel of the whole room. If you are torn between two colors, put both up and live with them for a few days.

Before the crew arrives

A little preparation on your side saves time for everyone. Clear off shelves, take pictures and mirrors off the walls, and empty the surfaces in the rooms being painted. Small valuables and breakable items are better in another room altogether. Your painters will move and cover the larger furniture, but the less there is to shift, the faster the work goes.

Tell the crew about anything unusual: a pet that slips out of doors, a baby who naps at one o'clock, a home office where you take calls. Good communication up front prevents most of the small frustrations that come with having people working in your space.

Furniture, floors and the rest of the house

Furniture is moved to the center of the room and covered. Floors get protected with drop cloths or paper, and trim, fixtures and anything that stays on the wall is masked or removed. Rooms that are not being painted should stay clean, and a careful crew keeps dust and paint where they belong. Our process commits to respecting and protecting your home and belongings while we work.

The walls come first

What goes on before the paint matters as much as the paint. On interior jobs, we clean, sand and prime the walls so the coverage comes out smooth. If there are dings, nail holes, cracks or other damage, they get repaired first, because a wall painted over a flaw shows it in every kind of light. Drywall repair, wallpaper removal and texture work can all be part of the same project, which saves you from hiring a second contractor.

Then comes the painting itself. Walls usually need more than one coat, and each coat has to dry before the next. If you notice that a room looks a little uneven after the first pass, that is normal and expected. The final coat is what you will live with.

What the days feel like

You will smell fresh paint, and you will hear people moving and working. Open windows and run fans when the weather allows. We use paints that are low in VOCs whenever possible, which helps with the odor, though a freshly painted room still needs a little time to air out. Keep pets and small children away from wet surfaces and from the area where the crew is working.

Painted surfaces feel dry long before they are fully cured. For the first week or so, be gentle: no scrubbing, no taping things to the wall, and keep furniture from banging into fresh trim. It is easy to nick new paint in the early days.

Communication and cleanup

Expect to know what is happening. Our process includes communicating the timeline during the project and being available for any questions or changes you have along the way. Changes do come up. You walk into a room, see the color at last and decide the trim should be a shade lighter. The sooner you say so, the easier it is to adjust.

When the painting is finished, we meticulously clean up and leave your space spotless. Daily tidiness is worth asking any painter about before you hire them. Wet tools, empty cans and loose drop cloths should not be sitting in your kitchen overnight.

The final walk-through

This last step is easy to underrate. When the project is complete, we do a final walk-through with you to make sure you are satisfied. Go room by room, look at the walls from different angles and in different light, and point out anything that bothers you. Touch-ups are easiest while the crew is still there. Every project also comes with a one-year craftsmanship warranty.

If you are thinking about repainting a room or the whole house, see /services/interior-painting or call us at (479) 283-3138. Estimates are free, and we come out to you.