Homeowners are learning the hard way that cutting corners and taking the wrong renovation tips from social media can be a costly exercise. And the mistakes often involve white paint.
Although many reality TV shows and TikTok influencers suggest DIY painting as the most cost-effective way to minimise makeover bills, professional tradespeople are seeing an uptick in homegrown mishaps, renovation regrets and divided online opinions.
One trend is Millennial homeowners, inspired by social media, painting every aspect of their homes white.
The widespread trend of home makeover TikTokers whitewashing homes has also divided followers with a range of online commentators lamenting the millennial homeowner obsession with painting houses white, attracting millions of comments about painting fails.
Millennial renovators have been slammed for renovating with too much white.
Nick Ellery, vice president of marketing at tradie portal Hipages, said a recent survey unearthed some home truths about renovating.
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“We discovered that 69 per cent of Australians surveyed did admit to increasingly turning to DIY to try and save money at the moment, and they’re getting themselves into a bit of trouble,” he said.
“A further 61 per cent of those people agreed it’s a false economy. It actually turns out to be more expensive in the long run because of DIY disasters.”.
The survey also ranked renovation jobs that went sour, placing painting at the top of the list.
Critics say too much white removes the character from homes.
“A lot of us have had a paintbrush in our hands since we were two years old so I think we’ve lulled ourselves into this false sense of confidence,” Mr Ellery said.
“The average person who’s relatively handy can do a satisfactory job of painting their house, but if you want a job that’s going to look brilliant, it’s a good idea to bring in the professionals.”
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In some states and territories, painting now requires a licence or certificate for jobs over a certain size which can be verified via the local office of fair-trading or equivalent.
“Number two on the list is landscaping and gardening, number three was plumbing-related jobs, fourth was people trying their hand at cabinetry and rounding out the top five was tiling jobs, which I think is incredibly brave.”
The move to DIY has been a response to increased labour costs.
After four decades in the business, CEO of Prime Painting Group Eric Gordon said he’d seen plenty of DIY disasters.
“It’s a combination of mistakes, some people are just bypassing the preparation stages, or don’t know the correct way to prepare so paint can actually stick and look good.
“A lot of people aren’t sanding properly or using undercoats, especially now that it’s very trendy to paint everything white. Homeowners just try to paint over a dark wall with two coats of white and can’t understand why the dark still bleeds through,” he explained.
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He warned against blindly following online tutorials, but rather suggested researching the scope and magnitude of the job at hand from trusted sources.
Hipages VP of marketing Nick Ellery.
“It might look fast and easy to do, but with a camera you can make anything look good,” he said, adding that with the right advice homeowners painting can succeed at saving money but do their own paint jobs.
“If you want to do it yourself just do the right research and get your information from actual professional painters, not influencers.
“Most of us tradies, we’re happy to give advice and help people out because we know everyone is going through a hard time at the moment. What you don’t want is to have to pay for the job to be done again.”
TikToker Oh Hey It’s Gabe vented his frustrations with the trend in a recent video, amassing more than 6.5 million views.
TikToker Oh Hey It’s Gabe has released a viral video complaining about the overuse of white paint in renovated homes.
“Do you guys remember when people used to say that Millennials would never be able to buy houses? I’m starting to think that maybe that was for the best,” the TikToker said.
“Cause tell me why at least once a week I see some video made by a millennial, talking about how they ‘renovated’ their historic house, and they’re like ‘we have these ugly wooden beams, we had this ugly wooden floor, we had this ugly staircase, this ugly piece of character in this historic house, and so we gutted the whole thing to make it look like a HGTV house. Yeah we painted everything white. We took out every single thing in this house that made it unique and beautiful’.
“Like, the amount of beautiful staircases I’ve seen removed, the amount of white paint I’ve endured, I’m starting to think that you should have to take a psychological evaluation before you can buy a bucket of white paint, because the things that these people do to these houses with a bucket of white paint is honestly criminal.”
English (US) · 