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First home and decorating
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
My partner and son and I have just moved into our first home. We have a bedroom for us and one for my son, and a living room, kitchen and bathroom. We need to decorate for as little as possible, including painting and carpets. And we need to get at least the basics done in 4 weeks.
Help?
Help?
0
Comments
Why do you need to decorate everything in 4 weeks?
Carpets you can look at offcuts etc. Or for things like bathroom & kitchen you could get cheap lino or tiles to fit yourself, assuming the floors are levelish.
With decorating paint will likely be cheapest assuming walls are ok quality. You can get own brand stuff in many shops, although some times that can be a false economy as it can be less effective at covering than the better brands.
Maybe you could look at strategic accessorising rather than full redecoration.
Do you work? If so 4 weeks is not a lot of time for a whole-house refit.
Don't know if they will!
As Mist said remanents are best bet if you're loking for cheap carpet and foam or felt back carpets that require no underlay will be the cheapest. Carpet tiles are good because you can easilly fit them yourself. Laminate flooring not too hard to fit either and can look really nice.
Vinyl's not that easy to fit properly and you really need a smooth flat surface to fit it too - so that often invloves screeding the floor before fitting.
I would suggest this if you can - we moved in to our house in december and got loads of people to come round and help in the dull period between christmas and new year and got loads done.
Go with the painting things either white or off white (though magnolia is a little sickly) - if you have a wicks near you i think they have a range of "professional" paints which are basically giant tubs of whiteish paint and which work out cheaper. You can then change the colour scheme if each room really cheaply by just using different cushions and curtains and even table cloths and the like.
You can lay carpets yourself if you have a square room but otherwise its quite hard if you don't know what your doing and often a false economy to do it yourself. You could possibly strip down floorboards and by some cheap rugs in the mean time (Ikea do loads).
I would work out exactly what you have to do to start with and make a list of all that you need and only by stuff on that list. Also ask friends and reliatives if they have things they can donate - the curtins in my living room are from my in laws and date from the 1970's but are chocolate brown and have come back into fashion.
buy contractor grade paint it is the cheapest. As for flooring, why do you need to replace it? is it worn out, dirty or just ugly...if it's just ugly i would suggest rethinking this one and waiting until you saved enough money for flooring you actually like, and will last...as flooring usually stays with a person for a while. Why do you have to have it decorated in 4 weeks? If you want impact tint your paint a color that will complement accessories. If you want to worry about the long term forget about the 4 week plan, and if your that lost hire a decorator, they will help you find your way and help you find deals to make your decorating cheaper.