What small decorating decision are you really pleased you made?

[SarahAndQuack]

I have been redecorating our house this past year. Limited budget, because it's rented (we could not leave it untouched - think masses of peeling wallpaper, crumbling plaster around sockets, rotting window frames etc. - but it was also really nice to get a LL who was happy for us to do it). I am no DIY expert and did most of it with my toddler in tow, and there are things I definitely wouldn't choose again, and also things that are a bit boring.

But, we got two tins of Farrow and Ball Breakfast Room Green, much reduced, in a Homebase closing down sale, and bought them pretty much on spec hoping it wasn't a giant mistake. I'm sitting in my bedroom now and it's making me so happy. Lovely soft green, quite dark, and I really it as a background for hanging pictures.

What about you? Doesn't have to be a huge thing, just something like a paint colour or a decision about furnishing that still keeps making you feel good.

(And bonus points if you can inspire me about bathrooms, because that's next on the list!)

I love that colour. Never used it myself as never afforded it.

That sounds lovely.

Changed the skirting boards from the small square ones to the larger ones with the fancy shape at the top (I’m crap with terminology) but it really did make the rooms feel a bit nicer and pulled together.

Buying a couple of rolls of really expensive wallpaper that I love for the alcoves in our living room. It’s fabulous and makes me feel happy whenever I look at it.

sparrow, it really is lovely! I will admit, I am not sure it was 'worth' full price and I did wonder if I'd wasted money right up until we painted it. And then had a massive panic realising it's actually quite hard to paint with, before I got the knack! But it is pretty.

raven - ooh, interesting! My skirting boards are currently the very elegant 'shitloads of polyfilla and bad paint jobs' shape at the top. I can't see myself bothering to scrape it all back given we're renting, but do have new-found respect for a nice crisp edge to help things look good.

Painting the insides of my disgusting yellowed upvc window frames with graphite Annie Sloan chalk paint. They look just like wooden windows and have totally changed the room.

Go on, what's the wallpaper something?

I do look at fancy wallpaper in homes magazines and some of it is so lovely. I'd really like one of the Morris ones - just a little, not loads over a big area.

Buying a mustard velvet sofa. I love it so much and it feels so soft

Getting rid of the old handrail on the stairs that had eleventy billion layers of paint on and replacing with a simple walnut plain wood one.
Changing the crappy gold colour door handles with sharp edges for nice rounded brushed silver ones.

Bought proper lighting not just shades. Annoying that i couldn't fit them myself but makes it look more finished.

Our utility room had dark wood, old-fashioned cupboards with dated fancy knobs (donated by ILs when they had a new kitchen fitted). It was hideous but served a purpose. Some years later DP made new doors from MDF which I painted a light coffee colour and added modern brushed chrome knobs and the change was immense!

So if you have an awful kitchen a simple change of cupboard door fronts can make a big difference

liliths, I would love a velvet sofa. Sadly, with a toddler capable of awe-inspiring emissions, it is not going to happen!

imsorry - that's the sort of thing that makes a weirdly big difference, isn't it?

I painted my bathroom with black chalkboard paint. It's amazing dd writes her spellings on the walls.

Oh, that sounds such a great idea! Sadly, I can't see the lettings agency allowing anything that dramatic, but I'd definitely consider it if we owned.

Bought lovely navy wallpaper,with silver in it.It looks so good on the walls.Really warming.And i bought a really lovely silver mirror.Its changed the whole hallway,really welcoming now.

The whole house is painted in the same pale colour. It makes the place seem so much more spacious than when it was different colours.

Bought a velvet cocktail chair for my bedroom (Dunelm - not expensive) but it's a little bit of luxury even if all I do is use it to store yesterday's clothes.

Buying a mustard velvet sofa.

Ohh we were going to get one but opted for fabric mustard instead as we were worried about the velvet wearing away. How is yours holding up?

@SarahandQuack

It’s this one - just picking out the alcoves. Big expanses of it might be a bit oppressive.

www.libertylondon.com/uk/shand-voyage-forest-wallpaper-433068.html#

Oh, and getting our hideous poo-brown wood-effect UPVC window frames professionally painted white.
I wasn’t sure whether it would be possible, but the decorator did a great job and you wouldn’t know they weren’t originally white.

Raven it's only been a few months so holding up well so far but I can already see it's going to mark easily (eg with zips or buttons on clothing). I spend a lot of time telling DS not to throw himself down on it and directing him to our other, old sofa instead

Oh, wow! YY, can see how a bit of that would be a lovely effect, something.

@MumUnderTheMoon

I did that to our old crappy fridge, made it look much better.
I switched our old cream marble fire surround to a hand made wooden one, looks so much better and chance the electric fire to a fake wood burner. I know it sounds a bit naff but I love it, and I done up my bedroom recently, changed the bed to a much cheaper one than we had but it looks 10x better. Buying plants for inside the house, I love them.

I love the Liberty wallpaper. I can see how it would look fab in alcoves.

Getting F&B stiffkey blue colour matched using another paint brand for our bedroom! We have found that F&B is not very hardwearing and that using a lovely green (not the same as yours but another pretty green colour!) to do our hall, stairs and landing needs a lot of repainting! Not much of a problem in a bedroom though as it’s not such a high traffic area.
And this smokey copperish round mirror in the (green!) hallway which I love and makes me happy every time I walk in my front door!

We want to redo our kitchen. Nothing massively wrong with it, just used and tired. DH has just done some painting to give it a semi facelift and it looks great. Best decision was painting the tiles. They were green and a bit dated and now they're grey. Works brilliantly. Whole thing cost about £50.