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

Money_Bunny

I couldn't agree more with the idea that if you make it bearable it'll just stay like that!

I think I'd add myself to the give it a really good clean camp. I personally can live with any decor as long as I know the room is spotless.

Errata

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?

Lay a carpet on top of an existing carpet, no matter how threadbare, and you'll discover how much the carpet at the bottom likes shifting the top carpet around.

phoebe1989seb

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

You mean I might be getting fashionable again with my paint effects? :rotfl: Who'd a thunk it?:rotfl:

'Course there's always the current fashion for "rustic" looking walls (ie walls that have had wallpaper removed and are VERY obviously in need of replastering, but they've just been painted and left.......). I think this house is too modern though to do such "character" as that somehows...I like the look of Shabby Chic, but don't think I'd do it myself and tend to think its more something for those that haven't ever had shabby shabby they've had to put up with ever iyswim...

........ooh, yes *rough luxe* is something I quite fancy trying - but not in this house, although I did try a similar effect on our reclaimed kitchen doors

I'm with the *paint over what's already there in a neutral (but not magnolia, which I hate with a passion) tone, buy some cheap neutral carpet and perhaps a rug and get a fire screen to disguise the nasty fireplace* brigade If it was me I'd be straight out to Been & Queued or somewhere of that ilk, rip up the carpet and get those walls painted ASAP

Speaking as someone who has tackled plenty of projects, I know how gratifying it can be to get a room feeling like your own space and usually we have done this as a short term *stop gap* type fix, usually by removing carpets and painting/stripping the floorboards - which I appreciate you can't do - and giving the room a splash of more personal colour, then finishing off with a rug and some of our vast collection of pictures and books.

I quite agree though that it's sensible to live with a place before going the whole hog and decorating as the finished article. In the past we've made hasty decisions relating to colour that we later regretted and had to re-do the whole room

At least you're fortunate that you have plastered walls with which to work.......in this house we don't have that luxury so we've found it doubly hard in the two+ years since we moved in to make the rooms feel like ours, especially as due to the level of work required we've had to tackle the major stuff (kitchen extension, boiler re-positioning - so without heating/hot water for 5+ months, re-wiring, reconfiguring the layout and new plumbing/bathrooms) first.

We couldn't even hang pictures on the walls as the exposed stone (revealed by PO trying to create a faux *cottage* look!) was too uneven, so we utilised some of our larger pieces of furniture strategically placed in an attempt to disguise the cave-like impression

We also hung huge curtains to cover more of the stone - can't you tell I detest it, lol! - which was a darned sight better than the scraps of carpet attached to gripper rods in lieu of curtains favoured by the PO!

We also have mainly concrete floors downstairs - all bare, except for some horrid, glued-down Lino in the kitchen when we bought the house - and apart from in the kitchen where we've laid limestone, we are going to be fitting oak flooring, but for now we have a cheapo navy blue carpet in the dining room - actually found still in plastic in the attic - and huge rugs elsewhere, although we do have some quarry tiles in our snug (currently our main sitting room), but these aren't original so we had no qualms covering them with a cosy rug - bought for peanuts on eBay, which is lucky as our new puppy has just christened it

We're now getting to the stage where a few rooms are plastered/wallpapered - yay! - I got so excited today when our bedroom had one wall started, lol! We've a long, long way to go - years possibly - by it's amazing how much difference those tiny things can make. It won't be too long before you're there too.......x

TBagpuss

Is the wallpaper decent quality? When I moved into my current house, I didn't like the old fashioned wallpaper - it was textured so not ideal to paint over, but we found we could easily remove the paper and then paint over the lining paper, without having to strip it.

Melaniep101

Kaz2904 wrote: »

TBH, if I had to decorate it and do massive renovations anyway, then I would just leave it as is for now. Otherwise you're spending money that you don't "need" to in the short term. I just left mine with all of it's horrific non matching patterns as I know that had I painted it white or magnolia, DH would have then left it at that thinking it was OK when it really wasn't!It's taken us 8.5 years mind you, to get to the point where we are almost finished the renovations and I will have carpet throughout the house .

I'm with Kaz here, I would just leave it as it is (but give it the clean of its life) until you have the money to do it properly. Why bother doing it up only to undo it when you want to do it again? Plus, as others have said, you may give it a lick of paint, but then the motivation is gone to do it properly.

And you'll get a better sense of satisfaction when you turn it from an ugly duckling into a swan!

Trig3

I gutted the smallest room first, stripped all the paper off the walls (& ceiling), ripped the picture rails down & filled the holes with poundland filler, papered the walls with wickes lining paper (£7 per 40m roll) painted magnolia, ceilings painted white, all cheapest wickes own brand emulsion.

Washed the carpet with a pressure washer (the previous owner had an incontinent cat :eek:) & hoovered with a wet/dry vac, added a poundstretchers curtain pole for a fiver.

The total cost was about £23.

The rest of the house looks like a building site but I now have one room which I'm not ashamed to show people.

DigForVictory

Short term, plain paint, a rug you like & new bedlinens.
In Less Than 12 Months, do the job properly!

[Deleted User]

You don't need to buy a steamer to remove wallpaper. I have removed five layers of wallpaper with just water, a 'scourer' thing that makes holes in the wall.., and I didn't steam 'blow' any of the plaster and end up with huge holes in the walls.

I am sure it was no slower than using a steamer. I just don't use one anymore.

moneyistooshorttomention

TBagpuss wrote: »

Is the wallpaper decent quality? When I moved into my current house, I didn't like the old fashioned wallpaper - it was textured so not ideal to paint over, but we found we could easily remove the paper and then paint over the lining paper, without having to strip it.

No, 'fraid not. Its very slightly "textured" type look and not in the best condition. Don't think there is any lining paper up. As for "decent quality", this house has basically been done at the very lowest price point on the Mid Price Range spectrum iyswim as regards everything any owner has ever done to it. I personally am very much bang in the middle of the Mid Price Range as regards my personal tastes/what I will get this house to eventually. That is, everything in the house isn't cheap cheap, but its too cheap standard for me. Eg MY carpet (when I come to get Proper Carpet for this place) is, I think, around £28-£33 per square metre and underlay on top (not the £50 or more touch, but not £10 either).

On another tack, I think I'm going to have to tackle the kitchen first (as some tiles are AWFUL and have been damaged by work to date), so I will get that to "done" standard d!cor and floorcovering (whilst leaving the existing kitchen units to replace later when I can afford it). Plan is indeed after that to tackle the smallest room first (it's the one where I spend most of my "awake" time in the place) and leave the main bedroom till later (as I'm asleep most of the time I'm in it, rather than peering at the ceiling and the awful cold colour on the walls). Yikes....most people like "colder" colour schemes than I do. I do "neutral" colour schemes....but with some "warmth" in somewhere or other (like warm "glowy" shades of white for instance - I like my Dulux Jasmine White I do).

tBagpuss_2

I haer you! I could only do it in my living room as that was one room the people I bought from hadn't got to, so it still had the good quality, professionally applied stuff the little old lady before them had had.

The bits they'd done were cheap and very poorly done - their idea of painting was to paint *everything* - light switches, power sockets, walls, skirtings etc with horrible cheap paint and no prep work. And truly terrible taste.