How often do you paint?

[mom2d&b]

A friend of my parents ( early 60's) was just mentioning they needed to repaint the inside of their house. They have been in the house 3 years.
I have a DS7 and DD10, and DH. We have been in our house 6 years. We did paint over the builder paint when we moved in. Over the past 6 years we have touch'd up various areas but not repainted any walls.

How often do you repaint?

 

[purpletiger]

Personally, I would only repaint 1.)if it needed it and/or 2.)if I want to change the look or style of the room. We have been in our house 5 years; so when we originally moved in we painted. Then last summer we repainted the kid's rooms as they wanted new decor. The rest of the house is still the same as when we originally painted.

 

[muscarello4]

I like the change that repainting a room brings. It makes me happy and hubby is happy to paint. It is so cheap to paint and it makes the room feel fresh.

Been in our house 2 1/2 years. My daughter's room went from Electric Green when we moved in to a warm brown. Lo and Behold, the kid chose Electric Green again. (We should've just left it alone.) Oh well!

We have tons of color up in our house. When we paint, we go big. I'm not having hubby spend a whole day painting and not even be able to see it.

As long as you have a willing painter and the money for the paint, I'd say go for it.

 

[StephMK]

I don't know how often is normal. My parents just told me they hadn't painted their bedroom but once in the 30 years they've lived there. I'm pretty sure that's much longer than most!

On the other hand, I like to paint & change colors. When we moved here 3 yrs ago, the entire house was white. I have painted every single space except for a small coat closet hall. I want to re-paint my kitchen (not much wall space) and keep looking for other spaces to change. I plan to get to that hall when the kids go back to school.

Oops paint at the big box stores is a really cheap way to change a room. $5 a gallon, I prefer Lowe's paint.

 

[finz2left]

I have 3 kids and paint each room every two to three years. As they grow, their tastes change...my tastes change...I hate scrub marks even on expensive paints. I feel like I have a new house after I paint!

 

[marcyinPA]

I hate painting! We have an old house (100 years old this year!!) with plaster walls, high ceilings, and a LOT of woodwork. When we paint, we try to do it so that we can live with it for a long time! We've been in our house for 10 1/2 years...each room has been painted once since we've moved in (oh, except for my DS14...his was painted twice). My DS10's room is on the list to be painted, but we just haven't mustered up the energy to get it done yet.

 

[akcire]

My parents painted each room every 2-3 years. I have pretty much done the same. Nothing makes a room feel cleaner than new paint.

Like others have said, paint is cheap. I can paint. I try to avoid painting ceilings (maybe every 5 years--or major wall change where they need to be off white instead of white), but walls are done every couple years without fail.

This week we are painting our full finished basement. It is about 1400 square feet, it already feels cleaner and brighter and we are only half done.

 

[dizneechic]

We built our 1st house in 96, it was contractor white and all the rooms stayed that way until we were going to sell in 2006! We built our 2nd house in 2005, had the builder use colors in the rooms (no white - yeah!) and haven't had an inkling to paint what so ever and probably wont for several more years. We also have very high ceilings (18' in several areas) and an open floor plan so painting will be a big undertaking once we want to attempt it.

 

[rubato]

I LOVE to paint! I also love color. So, I paint every 2 or 3 years as my tastes change. We built a log home once with all wood walls. Hubby loved it, but I was so bored! Now, we have a very open floor plan with faulted ceilings. Anywhere you look, you'll see at least 2 or 3 different colors. I love accent walls!

 

[vanyel]

I love changing the paint - I feel like it's almost a new room with little expense (lots of work though). We repaint as we want - some rooms in 2 or 3 years, other like my bedroom is still the same color 5 years later but I still like it.

 

[3boymthr]

We've lived in the house almost 15 years and each room has been painted just once. We are about to paint oldest DS's room again but it needs it and he's ready for a change.

 

[DawnM]

Well, since this is our 5th house in 14 years.....we paint about every 3 years! Only once in each house though.

Dawn

 

[julies]

Hey, Good Idea to repaint your house. Try to use Metallic paint this time. It Looks great and you can have more life.

 

[squirrel]

I have been in my house for almost 5 years. I still have the two bathrooms upstairs to paint, the master bedroom, the spare bedroom and the kitchen. That's about half the house!

My BIL said he would come over and do the bedrooms-end of Feb or March.


The people that owned the house before me did very little to the house, so I have slowly been replacing carpet and painting. 70's olive carpet and then they painted the walls a pale green. I have just about rid the house of green-one toilet left. I have a white one just waiting to get installed-just need to purchase the flooring for the bathroom.

Still need to do the kitchen and bathroom floors and eventually I will get to the spare bedroom and the office (3rd bedroom).

 

[indimom]

and that includes painting. We've been in our current home for seven years. I've repainted the family room and living rooms two times each. I'm considering repainting the living room again. I've wallpapered and painted the dining room. Painted the main bath twice. Did the stairwell and hallway twice (I may NEVER do that again, though), the kids' rooms twice and the master suite and kitchen once. I'm working up to repainting the kitchen, the color is starting to look worn and I hate that...
I've been actively trying to SLOW down my urge to redecorate as it usually includes new curtains and some decor and THAT part of it gets expensive when your are redoing a couple rooms each year.
Oh, and I've made DH replace the light fixtures in every room in the house since we moved in. They weren't bright enough and were UGLY...

 

[kacaju]

only as needed. We moved into the house 14 years ago. At that time we painted every room. In those 14 years every room has been repainted once except my bedroom. That is my next project.

 

[CJMickeyMouse]

We built this house 8 years ago.... all the walls are textured white and we have not painted anything and have no intention to until it is absolutely necessary!

 

[Ephany]

We've had this house the longest, and painted it all at 4 1/2 years b/c it was going on the market. The only rooms we'd painted before then were DD's room and the living room. We'd also meant to change the dark hunter green and weird yellow-green walls, but were doing it room by room slowly. Once we put it for sale, we had painters come in (DH and I HATE to paint) and it was awesome. I picked a nice quiet neutral color and it looks so much better.

My parents had their house for 30 years and the only room that was re-painted was the living room every 5 years because they used a wood stove for heat. Everything else was white, white, white.

 

[kinntj]

We lived here for 4 years and we painted when we moved in from the flat construction paint to a sage green. I'm tired of it now, so I'll start painting this spring to a brown/beige neutral colors.

I think every 4-5 years is pretty normal. Every now and then you need to spruce things up and paint is an inexpensive way to do that.

 

[hinodis]

We paint more often then most I am sure. DH owns a painting company so the expense is minimal. Just finished painting DD's bedroom last week. I work with our customers helping them choose colors. I have changed my dining room 5 times in 9 years!