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Interior painting checklist for painters
Paint each room in the same order: walk through and photograph, move and cover, mask, patch, sand and spot-prime, then ceiling, walls, trim and doors. Pull the tape, clean up, label the leftover paint and walk the room with the customer before the touch-up kit goes back on the truck. Most callbacks start in prep: a patch that was not sanded and spot-primed flashes through two finish coats.
Edit the painting list
Run it room by room in this order. Write each room’s colors and sheens in the notes so nobody guesses at the can.
Interior painting checklist
- Walk through with the customer: rooms, colors, sheens, what gets painted
- Photograph walls, trim, floors and furniture before anything moves
- Move furniture to the middle, cover it and lay drop cloths to the walls
- Remove outlet, switch and vent covers and wall hangings; bag the screws
- Mask trim, floors, windows and fixtures that are not being painted
- Fill nail holes and dents, patch cracks, sand smooth and wipe the dust
- Caulk open joints in trim; spot-prime patches, stains and bare wood
- Ceiling: cut in along the edges and roll it before touching the walls
- Walls: cut in at ceiling, trim and corners, roll while the edge is wet
- Second coat after the recoat time on the can; look for thin spots
- Trim: baseboards, casings and sills, sanded lightly and painted
- Doors: both faces and the edges, hardware off or masked
- Pull tape before the paint cures, slowly and at a sharp angle
- Covers back on, furniture back where it stood, rugs down
- Clean up: drops folded, floors vacuumed, paint specks off glass
- Label leftover paint with the room, color and sheen for touch-ups
- Final walk-through with the customer in daylight and room light
- Touch up what the walk-through finds; after photos of each room
What order do you paint a room in?
Top down: ceiling, walls, then trim and doors. Ceiling spatter and drips land on walls you have not painted yet, and trim done last covers any wall paint that crept onto it. Within each surface, cut in first and roll while the brushed band is still wet, or the cut line shows as a frame around the wall, which painters call picture framing.
Some painters swap the last two steps and do trim before walls, mostly on new work: the trim gets sprayed or brushed first, then taped, and the walls are cut against it. That is faster with a sprayer and slower by hand. Either order works as long as it is the same in every room, so a second painter knows what is wet and what is finished.
How long should paint dry between coats?
As long as the can says to wait before recoating, which is longer than dry to the touch. Latex can feel dry quickly and still drag or lift under the roller on the second coat, and cool rooms, humid days and deep colors stretch the wait. Plan the day around it: prep the next room while the first one dries, so nobody stands around holding a wet roller.
What do you check at the final walk-through?
Walk each room with the customer in daylight and with the lights on, and look along the walls from the corners as well as straight on. Low, raking light shows thin spots, roller marks and patches that flashed. Check cut lines at the ceiling and trim, door edges on the hinge side and plates put back straight. Touch up then and there from the labeled leftover paint.
Frequently asked questions
Do you need to prime the whole room?
Not on most repaints in a similar color: spot-prime the patches, stains and bare spots and go straight to finish coats. Prime the whole room for new drywall, a big color change, glossy or oil-painted surfaces getting latex, and water or smoke stains, which bleed through finish paint however many coats go on.
What if the customer changes a color partway through?
Stop before you open a new can and write it down: the room, the new color and what it adds. A strong color over a finished coat often needs tinted primer or an extra coat, which is labor and paint. Get a yes on the new price, then carry on, and note the change on the list for the walk-through.
How soon can the customer hang pictures or wash the walls?
After the paint cures, which takes far longer than drying, and the can gives both times. Until then, picture hooks, tape and a scrub can mark or lift the new finish. Say the cure time at the walk-through and leave the label on the leftover can, so the customer knows when a wipe-down is safe.