the bench is running·on the bench Paint a room in a weekend·stage 2 of 5 — Cut in·strand: Painting and decorating
Our Gaff identity markOur Gaffhome improvement, room by room

ROOM DIRECTORY

Guides by room

Every guide on the bench, filed to the room the work actually happens in.

Rooms are a more useful index than categories when the question is what to do this weekend. A kitchen job and a bathroom job share almost nothing beyond a screwdriver, while two jobs in the same room usually share a surface, a mess and an afternoon.

Kitchen worktop with cupboards below and a splashback above

Kitchen

1 guide

Splashbacks, worktop junctions and the surfaces that carry a film of cooking before they carry paint.

Bath tub with a sealed rim and a tap above it

Bathroom

1 guide

Wet joints, movement between materials, and the jobs that must be left alone overnight.

Living room wall with a large framed panel above the skirting

Living room

2 guides

The largest wall areas in the house, where preparation shows and shortcuts show more.

Flight of stairs rising from left to right

Hallway and stairs

2 guides

Traffic, scuffs, awkward heights and floors that announce every footstep.

Garden frame standing on a paved area

Garden and outdoors

1 guide

Work that runs on the weather rather than the calendar, and on water having somewhere to go.

All guides on the bench

Flat wall part painted, with a roller resting below it

Paint a room in a weekend

PAINTING AND DECORATING — LIVING ROOM

Two days, one room, and the order that makes it possible.

Wall with two filled repairs above a sanding block

Fill and sand before painting

PAINTING AND DECORATING — LIVING ROOM

The stage that decides the finish, done properly.

Nine square tiles set out in three rows above a worktop line

Tile a kitchen splashback

TILING AND SPLASHBACKS — KITCHEN

Set out from the centre, and the far ends look deliberate.

Loaded shelf carried on two angled brackets

Hang a shelf that holds

STORAGE AND SHELVING — HALLWAY AND STAIRS

The wall decides the fixing. Everything else follows.

Five floorboards with two fixing points marked on the centre board

Quiet a squeaking floorboard

FLOORING — HALLWAY AND STAIRS

Find which two parts are rubbing before you reach for a screw.

Bath rim meeting a tiled wall along a single sealed joint

Seal a bath neatly

TILING AND SPLASHBACKS — BATHROOM

One bead, applied to a dry joint, tooled once.

Timber fence boards on two rails above a gravel board

Treat a timber fence panel

GARDEN AND OUTDOORS — GARDEN AND OUTDOORS

A dry week, a clean panel, and a finish that soaks in rather than sits on top.