Paint the walls yet or not?

14 years ago

We are having our carpeted flooring changed to natural bamboo wood in living room, family room & foyer. Walls are mess with scribbles & art work by my toddler boys. Appreciate any suggestion on whether to paint before or after the flooring is done? Also any suggestion on choosing the paint color for walls. Thank you all!

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User

14 years ago

Definitely paint the walls first with a easily washed eggshell - more easily washed than flat. If there is crayon on the wall, you might want to prime those areas first so they wont "bleed" through. Kilz can be used to prime the walls and cover up the scribbles. If your toddlers don't have an easel yet for art work, you might want to consider one made by Step 2. If has 2 sides and great for the creativeness. You can buy them at children's stores but they also have a website, Step2.com. I bought one for my grandsons and they shipped it to their home. I had the easel "pinned" on my pinterest board so I was able to look up the brand for you. Have a great day.

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Comments (10)

charleee
14 years ago
My opinion - paint before the new floor is laid. If you drip or spill paint, do you want it to land on the old carpet, or the new floor?

As for wall color, I think we need to see the room layout inlcuding windows, and your furniture, accessories, etc. to give you an accurate answer on that one.
feeny
14 years ago
last modified: 14 years ago
I always do walls last as they can get dinged so easily from the installation of other construction and it is easier to judge paint colors once everything else in the room is in place. Also, if you are painting the trim in the room as well, the baseboards may have to be taken off and reinstalled to get the flooring in place. But you have to completely cover the floors while painting if you do it in that order.
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PRO
Dytecture
14 years ago
I agree with painting the walls first so you are not spending time protecting the newly installed carpets.
feeny
14 years ago
Hmm. Interesting. Our two contractors (for two different jobs) both insisted on painting the walls last, but we were doing both a new floor installation in an addition and a kitchen renovation, so the issues in our case weren't limited to flooring and painting.
Caroline Streak
14 years ago
QUICK!, do it now, especially if you are doing it yourself. You can always do quick touch ups if the wall gets marked while getting the floor in. If, on the other hand you are hiring someone else to paint for you, you can rest easy knowing that they will take extra caution not to damage your new floor.
PRO
Carolyn Albert-Kincl, ASID
14 years ago
If you want to select your paint color before flooring installation, I would borrow a big sample of the flooring from the supplier. Then, sitting in the room where the flooring will be, gather a cushion from each piece of upholstered furniture in the room. Think about what color you might want to have on your walls. Maybe you want one color on 3 walls, with the fourth wall being an accent wall.

Now, get your camera and photograph the flooring sample with the fabrics, plus a couple more photos of the room and post them as a comment to your question here. Also tell us what you are thinking, color wise. We'll deluge you with suggestions.
beebuzzee
Original Author
14 years ago
Thank you all for wonderful suggestions! I like the idea of accent wall, that's what I was thinking. I was thinking of accent wall with some shade of orange or maybe lemon green. The flooring wood will be here soon & they said it'll need to prime & conditioned to indoor climate before it can be installed. So I'll have the flooring color then... I'll attach images then :)
PRO
Vikrant Sharma Homez
14 years ago
Painting it before the floor is laid is always a good option , in case of a tile or stone , its another issue , but in your case Painting it before floor is laid will be better , as it would hurt me if I see a spattering of paint on my lovely Bamboo floor ! Agree ?
beebuzzee
Original Author
14 years ago
We are painting the walls this weekend & the flooring will get installed during the next week... We decided to paint the walls with neutral off white shade, nothing fancy for now...