How to Prepare Your Toorak Home Before the Interior Painters Arrive
Once the quote is accepted and the colours are chosen, the question every client asks is some version of the same thing: what do we need to do before you arrive? The honest answer is less than you might think, because a professional crew moves furniture, masks and protects as part of the job. But there are things only the owner can do, and doing them in the week before makes the job quicker, protects the things you care about and means you are not making decisions at seven in the morning with three painters standing in the hall.
This is what we ask our clients across Toorak, South Yarra, Armadale and Kooyong to do before an interior repaint, and what you can leave to us.
Decide how you will live during the job
The first decision is whether you stay in the house. Most families do, and a well-run repaint is planned around that: the crew works room by room or zone by zone, so bedrooms are painted while you use the living areas and vice versa, and at least one bathroom and the kitchen are usable at all times. If the whole house is being done at once, including kitchen and bathrooms, and the family has somewhere else to go for a week, the job is faster and everyone is happier. Tell us at the start which it is, because the sequencing is built around it.
If you are staying, agree the order of rooms and which rooms are off limits on which days. Our article on how long a full house repaint takes gives a sense of the timing.
Clear the small things; leave the big things
Painters move furniture. What painters cannot safely do is pack your belongings. Before we arrive, clear the surfaces in each room being painted: ornaments, books, lamps, photographs, everything on shelves, mantels, windowsills and bedside tables. Empty the tops of wardrobes and cabinets. Take down curtains and blinds if you are able, or leave them for us and say so. Remove anything from walls that is not screwed in, and tell us about anything that is.
Large furniture can stay. It is moved to the centre of the room and covered, or moved out into a room that is not being painted that day. What helps enormously is a clear path: hallway floors free of rugs and clutter, and a room or the garage where boxes can be stacked.
Art, antiques and the things that matter
Toorak homes carry a lot of value on the walls and in the rooms, and it is the owner's job to identify what needs special care. Valuable paintings, mirrors and framed works should be taken down by you, or by an art handler if they are large or heavy, and stored somewhere out of the work area rather than leaned against a wall in the hallway. Antique furniture that cannot be moved, a piano, a grandfather clock, a large sideboard, is covered with clean drop sheets and, where there is any risk from dust or ladder work, boarded around. Tell us about anything fragile or irreplaceable before the crew starts, and show us rather than assuming it is obvious.
Walls, fixtures and the practical bits
Take down or tell us about anything mounted on the walls: TVs, brackets, heated towel rails, hooks, picture rails you want kept and ones you want removed. Note the holes and marks you want filled and the ones you want kept, because a painter will fill every hole on a wall unless told otherwise and you may want the picture hooks back where they were.
Light fittings, switch plates and power point covers are removed or masked by us; it helps if you know where the switchboard is. Downlights and smoke alarms are covered. If the house has an alarm with sensors in painted rooms, tell us and tell your alarm company.
Period detail and the things you want preserved
On the Victorian and Edwardian homes of Toorak and Armadale, the cornices, ceiling roses, arches, skirtings and joinery are where the value is, and a repaint is the moment to say what you want done with them. Should the cornice be picked out in a different tone from the ceiling? Are the skirtings staying in gloss? Is that patch of original stencilling in the hall to be preserved? Our article on getting a period home repaint right covers the decisions; the point here is to make them before, not during.
Pets and children
Fresh paint, open tins, ladders and drop sheets are hazardous to small children and irresistible to dogs and cats. Keep pets out of the work area for the duration, including overnight while paint cures, and decide where they will be. Nurseries and children's bedrooms are usually painted first, so they are dry and aired well before they are used again.
Ventilation, access and parking
Rooms being painted need to be ventilated, so expect windows open and, in winter, a cooler house for a few days. Modern low-odour paints have made this far less of an issue than it once was, but it is still true. Give the crew a way in and out that does not involve walking through rooms that are finished, and, on Toorak's narrow streets, let us know about parking so materials and equipment are not carried half a block.
Colours: final answers, on the wall
The week before is when colours must be final. If you have not tested them on the actual walls in the actual light, do it now, with sample pots on a large patch, looked at in the morning and the evening. Changing a colour after the first coat is on costs a day and a lot of paint. Our article on choosing colours for grand period homes has more on the process.
What we take care of
Moving and covering furniture, protecting floors, masking joinery and fittings, filling and sanding, dust control, daily clean-up so the rooms in use are usable, and putting everything back at the end. The house is left ready to live in, not ready for you to clean.
If you have an interior repaint booked, or are thinking about one, and want a simple checklist for the week before, ask when you enquire and we will send one with the quote. Our interior painting page covers what the job itself involves.