Painting Walls? Have the Wall Checked First

Most walls have something: holes from pictures, a crack above the door, a spot where a sofa stood against it for years. That has to go first. We fill, sand flat and remove grease and dirt from places where hands touch, by switches and along the stairs. Then we tape the edges and the wall paint goes on twice.

Is it one wall you can do yourself? Fine, then you do not need us. But with a whole floor, a high wall along the stairs or a deep colour, having it done saves your weekends, and you get a result without strips and wobbly lines. Between two coats the wall also has to dry, so doing it yourself quickly turns a room upside down for a whole weekend.

Not every wall needs the same. Plaster that is firmly attached is rewarding. Plasterboard sometimes shows joints. Old wallpaper can come loose as soon as it gets wet, and then painting over it becomes a gamble. Stains from grease, felt-tip pen or nicotine come through wall paint if they have not been sealed first. That wallpaper then has to come off first, and underneath the wall is often not as good as you hope.

If the wall is too poor to paint directly, lining paper (renovlies) or glass fibre wallpaper is often the neat solution: it covers small cracks and gives a smooth surface to paint on. At wallpaper and lining paper you see what is possible. We do not do plastering ourselves, and we say so plainly.

White forgives a lot, a dark wall does not. Deep green, warm brown and other full shades show a strip or a touched-up spot sooner, and they often only cover after an extra coat. That is why a colour wall takes more time per square metre than white, even if it seems like less work because it is only one wall.

The best way to choose a colour is in your own light: the same shade looks colder on the north side than on the south. In reviews customers mention that we help think about colours, and at the site visit we gladly do that, in your own light. A sharp line then comes from good taping on a dry coat, and taking the tape off in time. The warm brown wall at our made-to-measure wall cabinet is an example.

In a new-build house the walls are usually delivered ready for wallpaper or ready for sprayed finish, and that is a big difference. Ready for wallpaper means there are still unevenness and joints that show through paint. Then you choose extra filling, or glass fibre wallpaper or lining paper, which hides small cracks. A new wall also has to be dry enough before paint goes on.

A customer had us do glass fibre wallpaper and paintwork on 150 m2 in a new-build apartment. Watch the VAT: for a home younger than two years, 21 percent applies. Read more at preparing walls in new builds.

In a bedroom you can go any way, but in a kitchen, hall or children's room you want a wall that can take a wipe. There we choose a scrubbable wall paint, preferably not too glossy, because gloss shows flaws sooner. In the hallway coats, bags and bikes scrape along the wall, and then such a paint is no luxury. In damp rooms ventilation counts too: mould on a wall is not solved with a new colour.

If there is black mould in a corner, we treat that spot first and look at the cause, such as a poorly ventilated bathroom or a cold outside corner. You get that advice during the site visit, even if it means something else has to happen first.

• The dimensions per room: length, width and height.
• Photos of all the walls, including the spots you find ugly yourself.
• What is on the wall now: paint, wallpaper, glass fibre or bare plasterboard.
• The colour you want, or a photo of an atmosphere you like.
• Whether the ceiling, skirting boards, doors and frames are to be done too.
• The year of construction, for the VAT and possible old paint layers.
• Whether you will stay living in the house during the work.

The more complete your photos, the less we have to guess. After that we come to look, because a photo does not show whether wallpaper is still firmly attached.

What pushes the price up: repairs, removing wallpaper, a colour change, high walls and a full room. A wall with many frames, pipes or corners also needs more cutting in than a flat stretch. At MJA it is fixed on the quote after the site visit. A comparison of items is at what interior painting costs. On homes two years old or more, the VAT on painting work is 9 percent, wallpaper may have a different rate.

You call or WhatsApp Mohamed, and that is who you deal with throughout. We do a site visit, you get a fixed quote, we carry out the work and go through it together at the end. On Google we have 4.8 from 25 reviews, Trustoo named us Top Pro 2025 and we are a recognised training company.

Want a whole floor done or just two walls? Both are welcome. Send the dimensions and photos via the quote request, or call 06 3006 0558. We work across Friesland, with most jobs around De Fryske Marren and Súdwest-Fryslân. Everything about interior work is at interior painting in Friesland.