I've never decorated a house. I've no idea what I'm doing. Where can I get ideas.

[AndOutComeTheBoobs]

Same goes for a bathroom and kitchen.

We are buying a doer-upper (fingers crossed it all goes smoothly).

The bathroom and kitchen is a million years old and needs ripping out.
Every room is carpet less and doesnt look as though it's been decorated since 1982.

We have to start from scratch.

I've never decorated a place, I've always rented.
I've no idea what I like, I've no idea if DH and I like the same thing! We need to look at ideas and inspiration and I've no idea where to look.

Can anyone help?

Paint every wall white, then live in it for a year before deciding on colours.
Have a look at Houzz and Pinterest.

Thanks, that's exactly what I suggested.

But we need to put carpets in and DH said we need to paint the walls before we put the carpets down which put a bit of a spanner in the works.

I will look at Houzz now thanks!

I would look at getting an interior designer. We have used one a few times, I think its cheaper as you get it right first time.
We give him a budget and he comes in under it.
Or, get some magazines, Like 25 Beautiful homes or the like, and start getting ideas. Cut out the ones you like. Start finding out what styles/colours etc you like and go from there.

Pinterest is your friend. We have just redecorated the whole upstairs of our house due to building work and most of the ideas came from Pinterest.
That and lots of time spent walking around IKEA

Still paint all the woodwork and walls white (or a light/offwhite neutral for the walls), then put the carpets down. If you stick another colour on the walls in a year or so’s time just cover the carpet up.

Old fashioned way was to go charity shop get house magazines or b&q mag or Ikea etc and cut out anything you like for a room.
Get a a3 size piece of paper for each room and stick the cut outs on eventually you start to see what you like.
Then just have to figure out what fits in your house and where to get it from.

I've just got Pinterest and everything is grey.

Everything is grey. I like grey but it's just too much now.

I will get magazines, and will consider an interior designer. I like that idea but I don't think DH will.

When you start on Pinterest it just shows you random stuff,but the more things you pin it learns your taste and very quickly starts to make better suggestions.
Try different search terms and pin anything that catches your eye - eg colourful bedroom!

Oh I see! That's clever. I will start pinning then, thank you.

I just looked on B&Q website.
So much grey.

Definitely go wander round IKEA.

I love Pinterest- once you begin to pin things you really like, it comes up with more suggestions.

Think about a piece of furniture you like for each room and work around that. So a sofa for living room, table for dining, bed for bedroom. Once you’ve picked your style work backwards from there. Head to Ikea, next home, DFS etc and see what you like. Colours/style etc

That's a good idea because we need a new sofa. And we'd be find choosing one of them.

Does the house have floorboards or concrete floors ? Floorboards = hire a sander ( HSS , Screwfix ) sand the floor and varnish it . Concrete = paint them useing floor paint.
In either case get some large rugs cheap ones will do for now to make it more warm and comfy to walk on this can then be carpeted once you've got all your decorating done .
Go round to friends and neighbours houses too , have a look at what they've done get some inspiration and they will also be able to advise you as to whether the wallpaper was easy or a bugger to hang.
Buy a laser measuring device , this will save you loads of time and effort when it comes to measuring for carpets, how much wallpaper , size of furniture length of cable needed , depth of curtains , allsorts !

Find a style you like on Instagram and follow interior designers. Save the ideas you like on your own mood boards (one for each room).

Go to an independent flooring shop, rather than carpet right, as they will be cheaper and more knowledgeable.

Definitely go to Ikea as it’s packed with modern, clever ideas.

I’ve just done this and all of the decisions were so tiring. What colour grout do you want etc.

I agree with all the suggestions and I'll add having a mooch on rightmove to see what other houses similar to yours or not look like..and taking screen shots

You could join the Facebook group, how to decorate on a budget official and see how others destroy their homes. It’s like changing rooms on crack. Just do the opposite.

Pinterest, rightmove, a few interior magazines. Any friend's houses you particularly like and could take some inspiration from? What about hotels you may have stayed in, or restaurants, where you've liked their colour schemes. What age is the house? Do you tend to like contemporary or older?

Consider an interior designer - they can save you a lot of time and money and depending on the project may pay for themselves.

A whole house is a lot of decisions and a lot of cash. Do you have the time for that? If you give them a budget they can go away and negotiate discounts etc and get you started. They don’t need to choose you every last cushion.

Think about what colours you like, talk about that with DH. Use sample paint pots to paint large patches either directly onto the walls o r onto lining paper which you can pin into the wall.
Think about your existing soft furnishings, you must have chosen them, What colours are they?
You can get books on interior design from your library, these explain decor choices in more detail than magazines.

When you say 'doer upper', in my mind it usually covers a lot more than paint and carpets - these are really the end of the process and the icing on the cake so to speak. More important is the structural state of the house. Is all the plaster sound? Is there any damp? What about the roof, gutters and downpipes? It is far more important to make sure all the basics are in good condition before you start any decorating, otherwise you will just be wasting money.
I would agree, though, in painting through in white initially.
Houzz is also a good resource for pics and ideas.

It is, we will be ripping out the bathroom, downstairs toilet and kitchen and starting again as well as knocking a wall through to making a kitchen/dinning room.

The paint and carpet is further down the line.

Does that sound like a doer-upper? I actually don't know if it does.

The bathroom and kitchen are old. Think avocado bath and sink 🤮

We are getting a full building survey done due to a big crack in a wall though it doesn't show symptoms of being subsidence we are getting the whole place checked for peace of mind.
We are literally looking into a surveyor now.

I'm ten years into my doer-upper (not with constant work though!) My best advice is to start at the top and work down. Muck, dust and damage travels down so for example you want to rip out your bathroom before you do up your hall and take a chunk of plaster out with your old bathtub! Make sure your roof is good before anything else and bear in mind that if it's a period property ceilings and walls will be full of soot. If you need a ceiling dropping definitely pay someone else to do it!

Spend money on permanent things like tiles, cheap paint is a false economy even if you are going to change it in a year or two!

Be realistic about how long it's going to take, we did up our front room temporarily early on just to make it ours so we could shut the door and forget about the rest. It's totally worth it even though you might feel like you should buy shares in b&q!

Thank you.

We are in a rented place now so we can stick here for a few more months while the messy stuff gets done.
I was hoping to get the bathroom out and the wall down and the dust cleared before we moved in (but also want a working bath and toilet!)
Will definitely go for decent tiles.
The house was cheaper because it's been so unloved for so long that we have excess to do this.
It has so much potential. I just hope they don't pull out because I know she hasn't got as much as she wanted and she hasn't found a place herself yet....