Making a room "bearable" whilst waiting to make it "yours"

soontobemrsg

do not strip the walls until your ready, you have no idea what underlying problems you will have...for a quick fix paint over the wallpaper with a cheap emulsion. when we moved 3 of the upstairs rooms and one downstairs room had been papered which we striped , out of which only 1 room didn't need plastering and sods law demanded that it was the smallest room!

As for the carpets...lift them and put some rugs around the place, in your living room you could always buy a cheap plain cord to make do with as a roll end a temporary measure depending on the size this could be done for as little as £30 (I should know recently moved and had to re-floor the whole house and made do with bare concrete and rugs downstairs and cheap cord for upstairs until I could afford what I wanted.

lessonlearned

I_have_spoken wrote: »

If you make it 'bearable', it'll be left like that for at least 5 years

:rotfl::rotfl:

Renovations can easily take 5 years:rotfl::rotfl: unless you are able to just throw money at it and get the trades in. DIY has to be fitted around work and living.

My son has bought a fixer upper and there's no way this is going to take less than 5 years. In the meantime he will be going the cheap and cheerful just paint it white and get some cheap carpets down.

The first property I bought took me 3 years - it was quite depressing at times living in "squalor". Since then I've always gone for the quick fix first before getting down to the nitty gritty.

If it's just one room it shouldn't break the bank.

Sagz_2

I'd (and have in the past) paint over the wallpaper and lift the carpet and paint the floor then ask on Freecycle for large rugs.
Then save like crazy until you can do a proper re- vamp.

lessonlearned

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

LessonLearned

With you on the "warm white" front. Wishes these paint manufacturers would do cheapie large cans of white paint in some shade other than magnolia or brilliant white.

(Now wondering if I could mix in a tester pot or two of some other colour into a large can of magnolia to "warm it up"....thoughts?)

You can easily mix your own paints.

I was once given a tin of bright yellow and turned it into creamy white by mixing with brilliant white. Nowadays you can buy tubes of paint for this very purpose. If you are really keen you can buy the powder pigments.

The golden rule is make sure you mix enough because no two batches will be an exact match.

celyn90

For paint, we found our local scrap store amazing - they let you take it away for a charity donation. We also got wood stain, primers, metal paints and all sorts of things...

I would much rather have an opened tin of something decent than some naff stuff I need four coats to make it look reasonable.

I would paint over the wall paper too if it is just a temporary fix.

Davesnave

:think:Trying hard to think what on earth I could spend £5k on in a sitting room........!

moneyistooshorttomention

Howzabout a new fire and fireplace Dave? Then any skim plastering needed. Then a decorator painting it up properly with a "decent" paint. Then a nice berber type carpet or pale oatmeal/coffee 80/20 carpet with very thick underlay and some decent-quality new curtains (lined one way or another).

I'm guessing that wouldn't be an over-estimate bearing all that in mind....

My tastes are "mid-price range" basically.

Now...about that cord carpet. That's given me food for thought and been getting out the steel rule. Could be Cheap Fix territory for the 2 worst carpets.

Now, bearing in mind that all the carpets are a bit worn-looking, but certainly not threadbare....= would it be possible to lay cord carpet on top of existing carpets on a Quick Fix basis? I'm guessing that, if I did that, then I'd have new look AND feel of thick carpet underfoot at the same time whilst I wait for my nice thick berber carpets/thick underlay set-up. Thoughts?

lessonlearned

Hmmm - how clean are those carpets - personally I wouldn't - who knows what nasties are lurking underneath. They could end up being very smelly. Plus you may find you have issues with opening and closing doors because of the extra height of the floor.

For insulation and extra warmth then lay newspaper first on to the concrete. A foam backed type carpet should be warm enough on top of newspaper. You won't have the softness and luxury of a good underfelt of course.
For that I would just add a nice rug on top of the cheapo cord carpet - bigger the better.

£5k does sound a lot tbh for what you propose to do - I'm sure you can get that down, especially if you do the the painting and decorating bit yourself. I am sure you will do just as good a job yourself - you just need to take your time.

Davesnave

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Howzabout a new fire and fireplace Dave? Then any skim plastering needed. Then a decorator painting it up properly with a "decent" paint. Then a nice berber type carpet or pale oatmeal/coffee 80/20 carpet with very thick underlay and some decent-quality new curtains (lined one way or another).

OK, so worst case scenario.

I agree with LL, you can paint as well as any decorator if you go carefully, and when you have time on your side it's surprising what the local carpet warehouse can come up with.

We bought 4 curtains from Dunelm in a sale. They cost £40, and while they might not pass really close scrutiny, they improved our temporary living room no end.

vivatifosi

When we moved in here, we couldn't afford to do what I wanted to in the lounge. In our case we:

1) painted over the very shiny artex that was a 'feature wall' (no cost, had some leftover brilliant white matt).
2) Cleaned carpet several times - it was disgusting. We bought a carpet cleaner for this but have also used on other dodgy carpets in the house. It also helps to stop the house smelling of the people before. Cost: about £100, and a lot of times doing it.
3) Bought cheap curtains in the Next sale. Cost: £40 and a very early morning, plus some research beforehand in terms of what they had.
4) Took down their disgusting lights and replaced with two contract ceiling roses (the white plastic ones, which were less offensive) and some cheap shades. Total cost: £20.
5) Painted the remaining walls (which were in good order) the bespoke colour that we wanted to start with. It has at least started the theme we are moving towards.

We still don't have the end result lounge but it is way better than it was.