Preparing Your Home Before Decorating
What you need to do before the decorators arrive — and what you can leave to us.
Do You Need to Prepare Your Home?
The short answer is: not very much. A professional decorating team handles the heavy lifting — from dust sheets and masking to surface preparation and cleanup. But there are a few simple things you can do to help the job go smoothly.
Whether you live in a tenement flat in Newington, a villa in Morningside, or a modern apartment, this guide covers the essentials.
Moving Furniture
You don’t need to empty the room before we arrive. Our team moves and covers furniture as part of every interior decorating project. We use heavy-duty dust sheets and protective film to keep floors, carpets and furniture safe.
If there are fragile or valuable items you’d prefer to move yourself — ornaments, artwork, electronics — it’s worth putting those somewhere safe beforehand. But sofas, beds and wardrobes? Leave those to us.
In Edinburgh tenement flats, space can be tight. We’re used to working in compact rooms and plan our workflow to keep disruption to a minimum, working room by room wherever possible.
Cleaning Walls
Clean walls make a real difference to how well paint adheres. If your walls are generally clean and dry, there’s nothing extra you need to do — we check and prep all surfaces as part of the job.
However, if there are areas with grease buildup (kitchens), mould spots (bathrooms), or nicotine staining, let us know in advance. These need specialist treatment — a sugar soap wash, anti-mould treatment, or a stain-blocking primer — and we’ll factor that into the quote.
Access for Decorators
Make sure we can get to the rooms being decorated easily. If you live in a tenement flat, let us know about any stair access restrictions, entry systems or parking limitations. For houses with driveways, keeping space clear for our van helps us unload equipment quickly.
If you won’t be home during the day, arrange key access in advance. Many of our clients provide a spare key or arrange access through a neighbour.
Preparing Older Edinburgh Homes
Older properties often have quirks that affect decorating. In period flats across Stockbridge and Canonmills, we sometimes find layers of old paint or distemper that need careful removal before new paint will bond properly.
Victorian and Edwardian homes may have hairline cracks around cornicing, uneven plaster, or original woodwork that needs sensitive preparation. This is all part of the work we carry out — you don’t need to attempt any of it yourself.
If you’re unsure what your walls or woodwork might need, a free home visit is the best starting point. We’ll assess the condition of every surface and explain exactly what preparation is required.
Ready to Get Started?
Every project begins with a free home visit. We’ll look at your property, discuss your plans, and provide a clear written quote. As experienced painters and decorators in Edinburgh, we handle all the preparation — so you don’t have to.
