Interior Painting

Interior painting is judged at arm's length under household light, which makes it craft work: walls that read flat and even, cut lines that hold straight at every ceiling and corner, trim with clean edges, and color choices that behave in the room's actual light rather than on the sample card.

The prep story inside is surface repair — nail pops, settling cracks, old patch ghosts, and the wall texture that decades leave — plus the era's specifics: plaster in older homes moves seasonally and rewards patient repair; wallpaper, where it survives, is a removal decision that changes scope more than any other single factor. Ceilings, closets, and the inside of built-ins round out honest whole-room work.

List the rooms with heights flagged where they exceed standard — stairwells and two-story foyers stage differently — and describe the surfaces: drywall or plaster, condition, any paper or paneling still in place. Color decisions can arrive with the request or develop in the conversation; naming rooms that share sightlines helps the scheme hold together. Occupied-home sequencing is normal practice — say how the household lives and the room order respects it.

How many coats does a color change take?

Depends on the jump — like-to-like refreshes differ from dark-to-light conversions, and primer earns its keep on the big changes. The estimate answers it per room honestly.

Paint over wallpaper — ever right?

Rarely — removal is almost always the honest path, and its difficulty depends on how the paper was hung. Flag every papered room; it is the scope's biggest variable.

Can painting happen with furniture in place?

Rooms need working space — furniture centered and covered is standard, full clearing is better. The plan accounts for what each room allows.