How to Quickly Paint Your Whole House

After using up 2 cans of builder-provided sample plaint for touch ups after 5 years, we finally pulled the trigger on painting our entire house! The keys to an amazing paint job, are prepping, a special roller, and sampling all your paint.

When we moved in 5 years ago, we had extra paint the builders used on the doors, walls, and trim. Which was white, whiter, and a grey white. For 5 years, we simply kept touching up the paint as we went along. There were traces of ketchup, hot dog grease, dirt, slime, and who knows what, from the kids using the walls as their napkins when they were little.

Somewhere along the line, we decided rather than painting the house an actual color we loved, we decided to ask my neighbor friend for the lid of the sample paint so we could order more, because we ran out… twice. We panicked, and kept using the sample white until those cans had run dry.

We finally chose a color.

Actually, I finally chose a color, after thinking I wanted Agreeable Grey. We painted the dining room and playroom this color almost a year ago, and I liked it at first, but after living with it… it’s a no from me. This grey isn’t as agreeable in this house as I thought it was; it may be perfectly agreeable in your house. I loved it in our old house – which we called ‘the brick house,’ you can see a bit of that color here.

This post contains affiliate links, and is also sponsored by my wonderful friends at HomeRight – I don’t waste my time or yours by working with brands I don’t personally love. I love HomeRight, and have been working with them for years – I will not steer you wrong! See my full disclosure here.

My PSA for Agreeable Grey, and all the paint colors you’ve been marinating on, is to do a sample in every single area first.

We did samples of 6 colors… elegantly sampled on the kitchen wall.

All-in with a 5 gallon bucket, grand plans for the living room, dining room, kitchen, entryway, staircase, and upstairs hallway.

Our winner was Calico Cream! (If you’re here from Facebook – I see you!)

There is no way I could’ve done this whole project in a few days, by myself, with kids underfoot, without the HomeRight PaintStick EZ Twist. We used this in the brick house, and I was done that smaller house in a day (2 bedrooms, staircase, living room, and kitchen). The amount of paint and time that I would’ve wasted using a traditional tray and roller set up, is enough reason to use this paint stick every time – especially when doing multiple rooms in the same color.

Choosing a paint color and committing to paint this house all started when I first started purging stuff, and got rid of the Kallax with custom barn doors in the living room (which is another story for another day), and we decided to build a fireplace. We figured if we were moving furniture, we might as well commit to a color and paint the house.

Painting with the EZ Twist is a piece of cake. The stick holds so much paint, and makes it really easy to get even coverage. When I use a traditional paint roller and tray, I notice I start pushing really hard to get all the paint out, because I was only able to paint a small area. Not with the EZ Twist… this thing, you guys, gets all the praise hands.

My expert profile over at HomeRight has details on exactly how to use the roller, as well as some other HomeRight products we love here. You may also visit HomeRight.com for more specifics!

I only needed 1 coat of this paint, and a few touch ups, through the entire house. The whole project from start to finish took just under 4 days. Which includes a day on a ladder in the 20′ stairwell (the s l o w e s t part).

Prep is SO important, don’t skimp on prep. I took the opportunity to fill and sand holes, wipe and vacuum the trim and carpet, and then taped my trim. That part is what takes me the longest, the actual painting time took maybe half that time!

Day 1: kitchen and living room
Day 2: dining room, front entry, and half the stairwell I didn’t need a ladder for
Day 3: upstairs hallway, and top half of stairwell I didn’t need a ladder to reach
Day 4: touch ups, and upper part of the stairwell I had to use an extension ladder in

The only rooms left to paint, are the master bedroom and bathroom.

I have no idea what colors we’re thinking of (Andrew probably doesn’t even care), but I am positive it’ll be completed in a day with my EZ Twist, and 9 samples on the wall!