Interior Painting in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs

Usually not. We work room by room, finishing one space before moving to the next, so most of the house stays usable. Furniture is moved to the centre of the room and wrapped, floors are covered, and we seal doorways when we are sanding. We clean up at the end of each day so you have your kitchen and bedrooms back in the evening. If you want to be able to sleep in a freshly painted room the same night, ask for a low-VOC, low-odour paint. Families with babies, pets or anyone sensitive to fumes sometimes choose to stay elsewhere for the days we do bedrooms; we plan the order of rooms around you.

A typical three-bedroom home in the Eastern Suburbs takes between five and seven working days for a full interior repaint, covering walls, ceilings, doors and trims. What moves it within that range is ceiling height, the amount of repair work, how many colours you have chosen and whether we are stripping wallpaper. A single room or a feature wall is a day or two. Two-coat systems need drying time between coats, so we sequence rooms to keep moving rather than waiting on one wall. You get a written timeline with your quote, and Trent will tell you if something we find on day one changes it.

Matt hides imperfections best and gives the softest look, which suits ceilings and older walls with a few bumps, but it marks more easily. Low sheen is the everyday choice for living areas, hallways and bedrooms because it can be wiped down without showing every roller stroke. Satin and semi-gloss are harder and more washable, so we use them on doors, skirting, architraves and in wet areas. The rule of thumb is: the more traffic and moisture a surface sees, the higher the sheen. Our guide to <a href="/blog/choose-right-paint-finish/">choosing the right paint finish</a> goes room by room, and we bring sample pots so you can see the sheen on your own wall.

VOCs are the volatile organic compounds that give fresh paint its smell and can irritate eyes, throats and lungs while the paint cures. Low-VOC interior paints are formulated to release far less of them. For example, Dulux describes its <a href="https://www.dulux.com.au/paint/wash-and-wear/wash-and-wear-low-sheen/">Wash&amp;Wear Low Sheen</a> as low odour and low VOC, applied as two coats with a two-hour re-coat time. We recommend low-VOC products for bedrooms, nurseries, apartments where the windows cannot be left wide open, and any home that stays occupied while we paint. The finish and washability are as good as the standard products, and we can supply low-VOC options for walls, ceilings and trims.

In New South Wales, painting the inside of your own lot is classed as cosmetic work. The <a href="https://www.nsw.gov.au/housing-and-construction/strata/living/renovations">NSW Government's strata renovation rules</a> list painting the interior, along with filling minor holes and cracks in internal walls, as cosmetic work that does not need owners corporation approval. Minor renovations such as changes to internal walls do need approval. Two things to check first: your scheme's by-laws, because a scheme can add its own conditions, and whether a surface is common property, such as the outside face of your entry door or a balcony ceiling. We paint apartments across Randwick, Kensington and Bondi Junction, and we also work directly with strata managers through our <a href="/services/strata/">strata painting service</a>.

The main factors are floor area and ceiling height, how many surfaces you are painting (walls only, or walls, ceilings and trims), and the condition of what is there now. Stripping wallpaper, repairing cracked plaster or covering a dark colour with a light one adds preparation and coats. The number of colours, feature walls and the sheen you choose also affect labour, and premium or low-VOC products cost a little more per litre. Empty rooms are quicker than furnished ones. We do not publish set prices because every home is different, but our <a href="/blog/how-much-does-it-cost-to-paint-a-house-in-sydney/">house painting cost guide</a> explains each factor, and every quote we give is written and itemised so you can see exactly what you are paying for.