Idiot's guide to decorating

[treetea]

I am totally clueless - I've never had to do this sort of thing alone before.

I'm a single parent to DS4 and all our walls are white, no photos up etc.

How do I paint the house? What do I need to know? What do I need?

I don't even know how to put a photo up!

Good preparation is half the work done. Wipe down all woodwork so it’s dust free. Fill and sand any cracks. Take your time masking off. A good primer is your friend: it will help the paint stick better and reduce the coats you need. I always use a trade vinyl matt emulsion, it’s more forgiving than satin. Buy decent rollers and brushes - not necessarily hugely expensive ones but not the B&Q value ones, I promise you it makes a difference. Painting isn’t difficult per se, it’s just somewhat tedious and I personally seem to have issues with keeping paint on the roller and the walls rather than on me and the floor - I wish you better luck.

Hanging pictures can be done by YouTube tutorial. The sort of fixing you’ll need will depend on the type of wall you want to hang from, but to keep it simple at first, any small / lightweight picture can be easily hung with a fixing like this:

You tube is your friend. You can find tutorials for literally anything and everything. When you see someone else do it, you can see how easy it is. It's ALL down to preparation and planning, buying the right materials (sanding paper, surface preparation, knowing when to use a brush, when to use a roller, etc., masking tape, cover cloths, right kind of paint, etc). Expect and plan for the preparation to take longer than actually doing the painting - then you'll waste less time doing things wrong, having to spend more time cleaning drips/drops and edges etc.