The colours and designs we decorate our homes with play one of the most important roles in establishing your household aesthetic and atmosphere. This is why we all want the painting in our homes—both on interior and exterior walls—to be of the highest quality, using the right colours of the highest quality paints, and the right tools, to deliver a truly beautiful finish.
When it comes to planning your next painting project, it’s normal to find yourself stuck between DIY painting vs professional decorating services. Is it really worth hiring a professional painter when you could just as easily pick up a roller and give it a go yourself?
There are merits to both options. Ultimately, only you can know what’s right for you and your home, yet it is not a decision to be made lightly. The end result—which may dominate your home’s aesthetic for many years to come—relies heavily on the skill and expertise of the painter, the products and tools used, and the unique requirements of each painting job.
Follow our short and simple guide to DIY painting vs professional painting and make the best decision for you, today.
5 Key Considerations for Hiring a Painter vs Doing It Yourself
Before diving into the pros and cons of a professional painter vs DIY paint job, it is important to familiarise yourself with these 5 key considerations.
1) Budget
When it comes to home renovation, we all have a budget in mind. This is the amount we’re comfortable spending on, in this case, the painting or repainting of our home. For many of us, surpassing our budget simply isn’t an option. As such, we recommend setting a budget as one of the first things you should do before choosing between hiring a painter and doing it yourself.
Professional painter and decorator day rates can fluctuate dramatically, depending on things like their experience level, your location, local competition, and the paints you’d like them to use. Day rates tend to average around £325 in the UK, for projects requiring anywhere between one day and a week or more.
Depending on your budget, these prices may make up your mind for you—though as you’ll discover it’s still sometimes advisable to wait and save for a professional painter if the paint job is particularly troublesome. If your budget would allow for either hiring a professional or painting your property DIY, read on.
2) Skill level
It is also important to consider your own skill level when it comes to painting. Have you ever painted interior walls before? Have you dealt with tricky paint techniques like cutting-in? Do you know how to mix paint or how to avoid getting it everywhere during the painting process?
Not having any experience or skill in this department should not put you off giving it a go, but depending on the quality you hope from the project—and the difficulty of the project—a lack of experience may result in a finish you’re unhappy with.
3) Difficulty level
And speaking of difficulty… Some home paint jobs are more difficult than others. Painting four perfectly level interior walls which are primed and ready to take on some colour is a fairly straightforward and simple task. On the other hand, painting your home’s exterior walls, or stripping old lead-based paint before painting afresh are difficult and sometimes dangerous tasks which may be better tackled by a pro.
4) Tools available
In line with budgeting for paints, be they deluxe or bargain, you’ll also need to consider the painting tools you have available to you. You’ll need dustsheets, masking tape, rollers, brushes, roller trays and/or mixing pots which, if you don’t already have them, will cost to buy or rent.
Before starting your painting project, ensure your workspace is organized; finding used pallet racking for sale can help keep your tools and materials neatly stored.
5) Risks
Lastly, consider whether there are any risks to your health posed by the painting job in mind. Stripping that lead-based paint we mentioned earlier could pose serious health risks, whilst painting tall walls and ceilings will require a ladder which can be unsafe to use by yourself.
Choosing between a professional painter and going DIY
Now that we’ve discussed the primary considerations we recommend making before choosing between DIY painting and professional services, let’s finish by listing the various common situations in which it’s recommended to hire a pro vs go DIY.
When It’s Recommended to Hire a Professional Painter
- You have high ceilings: Painting walls in rooms with high ceilings can lead to you stretching or extending yourself beyond the safe parameters of what you can reach standing, or with a stepladder. There’s no point putting yourself at risk of falling when professional painters are expertly equipped to paint hard-to-reach areas.
- You want to use a speciality finish like a gloss: Speciality paint finishes like a glossy lacquer tend to require specialised applications, which only professional painters are liable to be familiar with.
- Your walls are already in poor condition: Walls in poor condition—with bulges, mould, water damage or cracks—will need to be repaired and patched before paint is applied if you want the finish to look good. Professional painters will either know how to prep the walls themselves or will have contractor contacts capable of doing it for you.
- Your walls need stripping of old paint: Homes built more than 40 years ago were often painted with dangerous lead-based paints before we knew just how toxic lead could be. Exposed to the air through stripping, lead-based paint particles can get into the lungs and cause serious respiratory issues. We recommend hiring a pro to strip the old paint from your walls safely.
- You have prior commitments which may get in the way of painting: It’s always tempting to want to go DIY when it comes to home renovation, but beware of starting a project you don’t actually have the time to finish. Work, family, and other commitments can quickly get in the way of DIY painting, grinding your renovation to a halt—potentially permanently.
- You need the painting done quickly: Lastly, we recommend hiring professional painters if you need the paintwork completed quickly. Doing it DIY tends to take a lot longer, given our general lack of daily experience with the task. Professional decorators are usually capable of finishing a paint job, to an exacting quality, much faster than you or I could.
When It’s Recommended to Paint Your Home DIY
- You just want a simple colour change: Simple household paint jobs, like changing your living room or bedroom from one colour to another, are the perfect fodder for DIY renovation. There’s little to go wrong, so provided you plan properly and take your time, these simple jobs are the ideal way to earn some serious DIY painting chops.
- You only need to touch up a few small spots: In a similar vein, if all you’re looking to do is patch up and repaint a few rough spots around the home, or redecorate small spaces like a kitchen backsplash, you can save yourself time and money by doing the job by yourself.
- You want to retain full creative control: Professional painters should be able to closely follow your creative vision, but that vision does tend to morph during the act of creating. For full creative control—the ability, for example, to decide on adding some last-minute duotone angles to a feature wall you’ve just thought up—it’s advisable to carry out the home painting by yourself.
- Cost and budget are of high priority and none of the professional painter points apply: If budget is of primary concern—which it is for most folks—then you may feel you have no choice but to paint your home DIY. Provided none of the points raised in the section above, recommending hiring a professional, apply, then we say: Go for it!
Conclusion
Deciding between DIY painting vs professional services doesn’t have to be a tedious or challenging decision. Depending on your skill set, the paints you’re working with, the time you have available and the job in question, either option can be beneficial and result in the paintwork of your dreams!
To make the best-informed decision and go confidently into your next home renovation, reread the advice in this home renovation guide, or browse the rest of our blog for more information.