How to plan a repaint while your family is still living at home

This is a collaborative post

The breakfast table is covered in homework, someone can't find their PE kit, and paint is peeling behind the kitchen door. A repaint has to fit around school runs, meals and bedtime, so the useful question is where everyone will be while each room is out of action.

Start with the rooms you can spare

A child's bedroom has to be ready for sleep, while the sitting room may be easy to give up for a day if there is somewhere else to play. Think about where the furniture can go as well. A room isn't really available if its contents are blocking the hallway.

Say you have a spare bedroom full of storage boxes and a busy kitchen that needs repainting. Doing the spare room first gives you somewhere to move the boxes before the kitchen work begins, and you can set up a temporary breakfast spot there while the kitchen is out of use. Keep access to the sink and cupboards if you will still need them.

Avoid starting several rooms at once unless the family has somewhere comfortable to spend the day. Keeping one familiar room untouched makes the disruption easier to live with. Check the family diary before you agree dates, too. A week of late school activities leaves very little energy for shifting furniture or putting a bedroom back together before bed.

Clear the space before the first coat

Move out whatever you can. Put toys and books into labelled boxes so the clear-up doesn't turn into a hunt for school things. If larger furniture has to stay, push it to the middle of the room and agree with the painter who will move it and who will cover it. Clear the window ledges as well.

Ask whether filling holes, sanding rough patches, protecting floors and painting skirting boards are part of the job. If you are painting the room yourself, plan that work before you open a tin.

Imagine a family who leaves the craft cupboard where it is because it is too heavy to move. Everything they need for an afternoon activity is now stuck behind dust sheets. It is better to take out the everyday things first and put them somewhere the children can reach without going into the work area.

Plan for drying and everyday traffic

Open the windows while you paint and follow the instructions on the tin for ventilation, drying and recoating. Leave enough time for the paint to dry before the furniture goes back, rather than promising the family a bedroom by a particular evening.

Keep children and pets out of the room while it is being painted and until it is dry. Think about the routes through the house, too. If the bathroom is beyond the room being painted, change the order of work or arrange access before anyone starts. Move the cat's food and water bowls before you shut the door.

Photo credit Andrew Itaga via Unsplash

Compare quotes against the real disruption

When you ask painters for quotes, show them the rooms and tell them the family will be staying at home. Get a fixed price in writing before work starts and check what it covers. One quote may include surface preparation while another leaves it to you. Ask which rooms will be unusable, whether the same crew will come back for each stage, and what clean-up happens before the furniture returns.

BrushUp Painting is an Australian firm in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs, so it isn't an option for UK households, but its approach is a useful example of what to ask a local painter about. It quotes on site with one fixed price in writing, includes full prep, and uses the same crew from the first coat to the last. It also says furniture is moved back and the site swept afterwards. Those details matter when you are living around the work.

Say you have two quotes for the same bedrooms. The cheaper one leaves out preparation and doesn't say who moves the beds back. Ask for both points in writing before you compare the totals.

Bring each room back into use deliberately

Before the furniture goes back, check the painted surfaces and make sure the agreed clean-up has been done. Follow the tin's instructions before you hang anything on the walls. Keep the boxes for the next room together in one place, and move on only when the family has a usable space again.

A repaint around a family comes down to order: which room goes first, where things wait, and who puts them back. Settle those points before the first coat and the painting itself is much easier to schedule.