A little prep work on your end makes a real difference. The more ready your home is when we show up, the faster we get moving and the cleaner the whole job runs.
Here’s exactly what to do before painters arrive, based on years of working in homes across Centralia, Chehalis, and the rest of Lewis County.
Clear the Room (or at Least Make Space)
You don’t need to empty a room completely. But you do need to give us room to work without shuffling around your dining table or stepping over boxes.
For most rooms, pulling furniture toward the center and away from the walls is enough. We can work around a furniture cluster in the middle of the room. What slows everything down is furniture tight against every wall with no space to set up.
Larger or heavier pieces, things like sofas, dressers, and beds, can usually stay. We can move reasonably heavy furniture and often don’t charge for it. But if you can clear out the smaller stuff ahead of time, we can start faster and you’ll have one less thing to coordinate on the day we arrive.
Lamps, end tables, decorative chairs, and anything fragile or irreplaceable should be moved out of the room entirely before we arrive. We’ll handle the big heavy pieces, but we’re painters, not movers. The smaller items are quicker for you to deal with in advance than for us to work around on the clock.
If we’re painting multiple rooms, think about the flow. Hallways, staircases, and connecting spaces fill up fast when furniture is being moved around. A little planning before the job starts prevents a traffic jam in your own home.
Wall Hangings, Artwork, and the Stuff on Shelves
This is the one area where homeowners can do the most to speed up the job. Take down everything on the walls: framed photos, mirrors, clocks, artwork, and any decorative hardware.
You have two options for the nails and hangers themselves. If you want your artwork rehung in the same spots after we’re done, leave the hangers in place. We’ll paint around them and put everything back where it was. If you’d rather start fresh, pull the hangers and we’ll fill the holes, sand them smooth, and give you a clean wall. Just tell us which way you want to go before we start.
The stuff on shelves matters too, especially if we’re painting built-ins or the walls directly behind open shelving. Books, plants, and knick-knacks on open shelving can get dusty or spattered. Box them up or move them to another room. It takes ten minutes and saves a headache.
Pets and Kids: Plan Ahead
Paint fumes, open cans, drop cloths, and crew members moving through your home aren’t a great combination with pets or small children. We’re not asking you to board your dog or send your kids to grandma’s for a week, but having a plan matters.
Dogs and cats tend to get into things. A curious dog can walk through a paint tray, bolt through a freshly painted doorframe, or just get underfoot in a way that slows the work down. If your pet is crate-trained, that’s your easiest move. Otherwise, containing them to a room we’re not working in for the day is a reasonable solution.
For kids, especially younger ones, the main concern is safety. We use professional-grade products that are low in VOCs where appropriate, but freshly painted rooms still need time to off-gas and dry. Keep kids out of active work areas and let finished rooms air out before they’re back in them.
Even with low-VOC products, freshly painted rooms benefit from airflow. Plan to open windows in completed rooms when weather allows. In Lewis County, that’s often easy during the warmer months. In wetter, cooler stretches, we’ll talk through what makes sense for your home specifically.
Temperature and Ventilation
Interior painting doesn’t have the same weather sensitivity as exterior work, but temperature and airflow still matter for how paint cures and how the finished product holds up.
Keep your home at a reasonable temperature on the day we arrive. Most interior paints cure best somewhere in the 60 to 80 degree range. If your house is unusually cold, the paint takes longer to dry between coats and the final finish can be affected. This is rarely a problem in summer, but in a drafty older home in Toledo or Winlock during a cold stretch, it can matter.
Good ventilation speeds up dry times and clears fumes. If the weather cooperates, cracking windows in the rooms being painted helps. We’ll handle the setup, but if you have ceiling fans or box fans, letting us know they’re available is useful. We can run them to move air without blowing dust onto fresh paint.
Communicate Before the Day Of
The most valuable thing you can do before we arrive isn’t physical prep. It’s making sure we’re on the same page about the scope.
If you’ve changed your mind about a color, tell us before we show up. If there’s a wall you want added or a closet you decided to skip, say so ahead of time. Day-of scope changes slow everything down and sometimes mean we’ve already ordered materials we can’t return.
The same goes for any specific concerns about your walls. Moisture stains, cracks, soft spots, or texture differences you’ve noticed are worth mentioning before we start. We handle minor drywall repairs, nail holes, and light texture work as part of the job. But if there’s something significant hiding behind a piece of furniture we haven’t seen yet, it’s better to know about it early.
We do our own prep, including sanding, priming, and filling holes. That’s built into how we work. What you’re doing when you communicate ahead of time is helping us sequence the job efficiently so nothing gets missed.
What You Don’t Need to Do
Homeowners sometimes over-prepare in ways that actually complicate things. A few things you can skip:
- Don’t tape anything yourself. We’ll handle masking. DIY taping done ahead of time often has to come down because the product or placement isn’t right for the specific surfaces involved.
- Don’t try to patch walls before we arrive. Wall prep is part of our process. A patch job done with the wrong compound or technique can create more work. Let us assess the walls fresh.
- Don’t move heavy furniture alone. We’d rather move a heavy dresser ourselves than have you injure yourself trying to clear a path. Tell us what’s staying and we’ll work around it or move it with you.
- Don’t stress about the floors. We use drop cloths and take precautions. Your hardwood isn’t going to get ruined because you didn’t lay down plastic yourself.
The goal isn’t a perfectly staged home. The goal is a clear working space and a crew that knows what you want.
The Day the Crew Arrives
When we show up, we’ll do a walkthrough before anything starts. This is the moment to point out anything you want us to pay special attention to, confirm colors and finishes, and ask any last questions. It doesn’t take long, but it matters.
After that, we get to work. You don’t need to hover or supervise. We’ve been doing this in homes across the Centralia area long enough to know what we’re doing. If something comes up mid-job that requires your input, we’ll flag it. Otherwise, let us work and we’ll check in when something actually needs your decision.
Having someone available by phone during the day is helpful, especially if we’re working while you’re out. Not every question can wait, and a quick yes or no from you can keep the job moving instead of us stopping to wait for a callback.
If you’re home during the job, that’s fine too. Just give us space to work. The more uninterrupted time we have, the better the result.
Good prep doesn’t guarantee a perfect paint job on its own. But it removes the friction that slows good work down. Get the room ready, pull the wall hangings, communicate what you want, and let us take it from there. That’s the formula that works.
If you’re planning an interior project in Lewis County and want to talk through what to expect, reach out to Gullard Painting. We work from a running list, so the earlier you connect with us, the better.