General Chat

My son was hoping to decorate his lounge before Christmas, doing some after work and taking a couple of days off, there is a lot of preparation necessary altho he is a bit skimpy on that despite me saying it's a better result if you do good prep.

He has good heating but I don't think it's going to be easy getting things to dry out properly and well - he has to sugar soap all the walls and doors first and sand down the doors, as well as do the ceiling, as it's so mucky from the previous tenants and they had a dark gaudy colour scheme he wants to cover with a light shade of emulsion so more than one coat necessary. I don't want him to do it and it turn out badly as he will get disheartened.

Would you wait till drier weather or go ahead?

Lizx

Well, if it's as grim as you say, I'd slap a couple of coats of white paint on for the time being, then decide on the 'permanent' colour scheme when the weather's better!
Apart from white giving you an idea of the 'area' of the room, there's another good reason for it.
My sister moved into a darkly decorated Edwardian house many years ago. The previous owners had been heavy smokers.
She painted the whole interior white, and noticed nicotine stains 'bleeding' through the paint.!
This meant she could paint a sealer on before using more expensive paint.

Thanks Maggie for the input, he is planning to sugar soap wash the walls and paintwork. The colour scheme was dark plummy pink and bright turqouise, the turquoise being gloss and the girl had tried some strange paint effects on the heavy fire doors on all the rooms and cupboards.

I am just concerned he will end up spilling paint on his new beige berber type carpet, it will never come out easily altho he is insured so I suppose he could claim for it if he did have a mishap.


Lizx

I would go ahead and do it, there is nothing more depressing than a room you hate. When I moved in a January once the walls were grey and the carpet black it made for an almost suicidal feeling on dull days!

As Maggie says paint it white...don't use the cheapest paint though as when you come to paint over it sometimes 'pulls' the cheap paint off as you do it ( it did here lol) we switched to Dulux quickly and it covered better so worked out about the same cost wise in the end. I'd say go with satinwood for paintwork rather than gloss at least for now, it's easier to get a decent finish quickly. And it dries faster.

Liz we had a liner paper put on the kitchen wall as they are a bit lumpy,(old house) it was a thicker one and now its painted it looks ok.
could certainly be better than those awful walls...

love Jean xx

.....sorry but when I read about doing the preparation in order to get a good result and then on the next message I read about the carpet still being down......I creased myself laughing......but hey thats me.

I would say if the decorations are short term, then white emulsion followed by a colour of choice. Long term I would strip all the walls and start again with some of the gorgeous wallpapers that are back on the market.
For the first time ever in over forty years of decorating I have emulsioned my hallway and staircase rather than wallpaper.It doesn't take anytime and as my mother in law used to say to me.....well its clean- Jle

Thanks folks, I keep trying to tell him to take things slowly, and not get the new carpet down till all is done properly -it's the biggest space to work in too so if he wants to do other stuff for the bathroom kitchen and bedroom he could mess up the new carpet if he uses that room.
Still he's his own man and must decide for himself, he tells me I must leave him to it and let him make his own mistakes but knowing how long it's taken him to save up for the carpet and that he needs a new computer and wants to retake his driving test etc etc, I would have thought it was more sensible to be careful with the carpet.

Bless him, I am going round this week if the snow holds off so will see what he has been up to and pass on the advice/info from here.

Lizx

Son's friend picked up the carpet for him yesterday to save ££39 delivery charge, he's booked the fitting for the 22nd so he has between now and then to do the room but his newly wed friend is at a loose end as his wife is away looking after her poorly Mum so is going to go round several evenings and help him (they work together) and my lad will feed his mate as payment. I told him to get the walls etc washed down, he is already filling holes and sanding and as the place isn't that old the walls aren't in bad nick, just a grotty colour. I told him to let the walls dry, paint the ceiling (old ragged cord carpet still down) and then paint the skirtings as they are dark wood. Suggested he undercoat them and then top coat in a colour (creamy beige) that is similar to his carpet as it will make the floor area look larger. When the paint is really dry, if he can get the undercoat on the walls and doesn't have time to top coat before cpt is laid, he can then tape plastic to the top of the skirting boards to completely protect new carpet and then do the walls, I think he might paper one 'feature wall' and emulsion the rest in a light cream/beige. I picked up some curtains at the charity shop yesterday, four 104" long curtains in cream/beige wide stripe with tab tops for £5.50 the four. They are lightweight so will be fine in summer over his french doors to the balcony and one cut shorter for the small window at the other end - I can make cushion covers from the rest for my sofa that he is using with a cream throw over it so it will all look very light and airy and he has heavier darker cream curtains for now.

He wants to get a new computer table but the one he likes is on ebay and glass, I keep telling him there will be a lot of upkeep to have it looking nice all the time, it will spoil the effect if he leaves it with ring marks from mugs and dust and fingerprints so will need to change his houseworking habits lol

Thanks for the advice folks
will let you know how it turns out.

Lizxx