You know that piece of string…? Seriously though, have you ever wondered how long it would take to paint your bedroom, or why it would take that long? As a professional decorator, I seem to spend my life working out just that, whenever I quote for a new job.
There are so many factors to consider, it’s no wonder there are no simple answers to that question. In this blog I’ll try to take you through the factors that determine how long it takes, and why the answer is different for every room.
How Long Does It Take to Paint a Room?
I will need to get into the factors that affect how long it takes to paint a room. But first, I thought I’d give you a very rough guide on the average time it takes me. This is based on the standard amount of preparation, but the rooms being cleared of furniture.
- Small room (bedroom, lounge, kitchen etc.) – 2-3 days.
- Large room (bedroom, lounge, kitchen etc.) – 3-4 days.
- Medium hall, stairs and landing – 6-7 days.
- Large Hall, stairs, and landing – 10 days.
Factors which Determine How Long it takes to Paint a Room
No two rooms are the same, and no two people work at the same rate, or have the same attention to detail. So even if you asked two professional decorators how long it would take to paint your living room, you would get two different answers.
Here are some of the factors which determine how long it takes to paint any given room:
Room size
An open-plan living-dining area measuring 6m by 6m is clearly going to take longer to paint than a small utility room measuring 2m by 1m. There’s more prep to do, more woodwork to paint, and quite simply a huge difference in the surface area that needs to be painted.
Ease of access
Having said that, smaller rooms can take proportionately longer than you would expect, because they are “awkward”. Cloakrooms, kitchens and utility rooms have a lot of fixtures and fittings which need to be protected, and then carefully cut in around, which is time consuming.
Even in larger rooms, if the room has not been cleared of furniture, this can slow things down as the decorator will constantly be squeezing past objects, or having to move them out of the way.
Condition of the Room
Often, it’s not the painting that takes the time, it’s the prep needed to get to the painting stage. It’s not that unusual for me to spend two weeks on a job, and only get round to painting the walls on the final day.
The rest of the time is spent on prep, and on painting the woodwork (more on this in a moment). The amount of prep is going to vary from one room to the next; is there wallpaper to strip off?
Are there lots of cracks, dents and holes in the plasterwork? Are there water stains or mould to treat? Are there layers of old gloss peeling off the woodwork, which all needs to be sanded, filled, sanded again, primed, etc etc.
Not everyone has the same eye for detail when it comes to all this prep work, so some will get it done in half the time that others take.
Amount of woodwork
When it comes to painting woodwork, it usually takes longer per square meter than the walls. The walls and ceiling can be painted with a relatively large roller, which covers a large surface area quickly.
Painting spindles on a staircase can’t be done that way, and so takes much longer. Typically, the Hall, Stairs & Landing is the room that takes the longest to do in most houses, purely because of the number of doors, door frames, spindles, etc that need to be prepped and painted.
Number of coats needed
Sometimes it takes more than two coats to achieve a good finish. If there is a dramatic change of colour (e.g. from dark to light), this may take three, four or even five coats.
Some paints (or sometimes it’s just certain colours in some paint brands) just don’t have as good an opacity as others, so they need an extra coat. Frustratingly, it’s not always possible to know in advance if this will be the case, so it can unexpectedly cause a delay on a job.
Drying times
Not all paints dry at the same speed. Some of the new generation of ceiling paints, for example, specify a minimum of four hours between coats. That means that if the decorator hasn’t planned their day very efficiently, there may be time wasted waiting for paint to dry. Similarly, oil-based paints for woodwork take significantly longer to dry than water-based ones.
Choice of tools
While it might take longer initially to mask everything up, the actual painting of a ceiling (for example) is much quicker if it is done using a sprayer than by traditional brush and roller. While it’s quicker overall, it’s not always practical in smaller rooms, or where there is a lot of furniture and other items which can’t be removed from the room.
Experience level of the decorator
When I look back at some of the jobs I did when I first started out, I’m amazed at how long it took me. With experience I’ve learned to work faster and more efficiently, but without sacrificing quality (quite the opposite – I find I have more time to pay attention to achieving a better finish). Equally, I’m getting on a bit now, and maybe I’m beginning to slow down!
Step-by-Step Breakdown to Illustrate How Long it Takes to Paint a Room
I’m going to use the job I’ve just finished to illustrate how long two different rooms take to paint. Both were in the same house – one is an average-sized bedroom, the other is the Hall, Stairs and Landing (HSL).
In both cases the first step was to strip the existing wallpaper. A plasterer had been booked to skim the ceilings, but once we had removed the wallpaper it was decided that the walls were in such a state it would be best to skim them as well.
This saved me a lot of prep, but meant I needed time for a mist coat on all the new plaster. Here’s the breakdown of how long each room took me. NB: drying times weren’t an issue, because I was able to work on the two rooms at the same time – while one was drying, I was painting in the other.
Bedroom
- Stripping wallpaper – half day
- Prep and paint (primer plus two top coats) woodwork – 6 hours
- Three coats (including mist coat) on the ceiling – one and a half hours
- Three coats (including mist coat) on the walls – 5 hours
- Total: two days
Hall Stairs, and Landing
- Stripping wallpaper – two days
- Prep and paint (as above) woodwork – 5 days
- Paint ceilings (as above) – 4 hours
- Paint walls (as above) – 2 days
- Total: nine and a half days
Fortunately, on this job the customer was really helpful in moving all the furniture etc out of the way, and the plasterer left his plastic sheeting covering the carpets, so that saved me time sheeting up. The above doesn’t include time spent going to buy paint, or cleaning up afterwards, but hopefully it gives you a rough idea of the sort of timescales involved, and why no two rooms are the same.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully by now you can see that’s it’s not possible to give any “one size fits all” answers to the question. Every room is different, as is every decorator. If it’s any help at all, an average sized room in decent condition should take less than a week, often only a couple of days, whereas a HSL with lots of woodwork could take 2-3 weeks or even more in some circumstances.
The best thing to do, if you’re having a decorator in to do the work, is to ask them after they’ve quoted how long they expect it to take. As explained above, things can change, but if a decorator has quoted, they must have an idea of how many man days they think the job will take.
If, on the other hand, you’re a householder planning to do the work yourself, my advice would be to allow more time than you expect for the prep and remember to allow time for things to dry between coats.
FAQs
Can you paint a room in one day?
You can, depending on the room, how much prep there is, and which paints you use. Sometimes one coat on the ceiling is sufficient, there isn’t much prep on the walls, and there isn’t much woodwork, in which case one day is realistic. Check the drying time on your paint too; even some water-based satinwood paints have an extended recoat time. Using products like WRX Satin will speed the process.
Can you paint a house in 3 days?
No, even with minimal prep and a paint sprayer, you won’t be able to paint a house in 3 days to a reasonable standard.
Can I sleep in a room 24 hours after painting?
We recommend waiting 48 hours before sleeping in a freshly painted room.
Do rooms need 2 coats of paint?
Rooms usually take 2 coats of paint on the ceiling, 2 coats on the walls, and 2-3 coats on the woodwork. However, if you’re going for a ‘quick refresh, and you’re using the same colour as you used last time, then 1 coat on each surface may be sufficient.
Why does it take so long to paint a room?
The amount of work involved is the biggest factor in the length of time it takes to paint a room, but drying times, accessibility, etc. can also have an effect.
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