DIY - Decorating - Order of painting a room

Order of work when painting a room
The order to paint a room is not cast in stone but there are good reasons for doing things in a certain order. Start with preparing all the surfaces(filling and sanding) as shown the section on preparation . When ready for painting the order I use is:


Order of painting a room 1 Ceiling. Remember to make sure you've filled any cracks between the walls and ceiling. It's usual to use white for ceilings. I always over-paint an inch or two onto the walls which helps cover any hairline cracks and imperfections. If the room hasn't been done painted for a long time it may well be especially dirty in some areas like the higher corners so whilst I'm doing the ceiling in white I often use that to quickly under-coat ant dirty areas on the walls.(which can help avoid having to do multiple extra coats on the walls.) It may need several coats if dirty.

2 Under-coat all the woodwork, doors windows, skirting etc. Again I tend to over paint slightly around doors frames etc. onto the walls. After doing this you can easily spot then fill any any cracks or gaps you missed when preparing the surfaces.
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3 Paint walls, cutting in inaccurately around ceiling and woodwork. You may need several coats depending on how dirty the walls are or if you are having a strong colour change.
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4 Top-coat on woodwork. (give it a final light sand with a fine grade sandpaper first)