The Order of Improvements
Gravity causes things to fall down, and it is the chief arbiter of the order in which you make improvements to a room, if you have any kind of choice at all.
Begin with the ceiling. There’s nothing like a fresh coat of ceiling paint to dress a room up. And if the floor is something you plan to replace, you can paint your ceiling without worrying about drop cloths underneath your ladder. A new coat of paint makes even an ancient textured ceiling look a lot better.
Next, then, would be the walls, starting at the top and moving down, if you are painting. Do the fine work such as the top of the wall next to the ceiling and around all the woodwork and trim. Then paint the large surfaces. If you are trying to cover up someone else’s paint job, you may want to prime the walls first with the type of primer that covers really well. You may also need more than one coat of paint in order to get good coverage, especially if you bought inexpensive paint.
Instead of painting the walls, you may want to use wall paper. If that is the case, deal with your trim and woodwork—paint it, stain it, strip it, whatever—before you put up wall paper. By the way, the hardest kind of wall paper to put up is the kind with stripes or plaid design, with lots of straight lines. The older your house is, the more difficult this will be. Choose a wall paper that has a more random look to the pattern and you will spend less time trying to make lines look vertical when your walls aren’t.
Finally, it is time to do the floors, after everything else is done and you are not running the risk of spilling a gallon of ceiling white on your new carpet.
If you can do things in the order that keeps gravity from messing up your day, you will have a greater chance of enjoying the process and the finished product of your home improvement work.