To give up on "perfect" for my Victorian house?

[WickedWitchoftheNorthWest]

After living in fairly new houses all my life, my DH and I fell in love with and purchased a Victorian semi. It's in good shape structurally but the interior is kind of a shambles. Lime green paint, smelly stained carpet, ten layers of old paint over everything, tacky wallpaper etc are just some of the monstrosities I'm dealing with.

We're getting rid of the worst of it and trying to figure out how much of the rest we can live with. Lime green actually looks kind of okay toned down with the right accessories, for example.

The question is what kind of finish to go for with the parts of the house we do fix up and how much to leave of the rest. Do we really want to be putting all our spare money into this house for the next several years? It's a big house so removing all the old layers of paint from cornices and skirting boards would probably cost £10k alone. Then there is lining paper on the walls. Do we leave it and paint over cheaply or do we strip it off, reskim, and get a great finish? But that would be pointless unless the skirting boards and cornices are done right. It almost feels like an all or nothing proposition.

So AIBU to just make things look okayish by slapping more paint over everything and accept the house has battle scars and will never (and should never) look like a Barrett home? Or do I painstakingly and lovingly make everything perfect and go broke in the process?

If you are going to rewire won't you have to fully replaster and redecorate anyway?

Cor !

I love the ceiling with the stars!

Gah I like it! I love the starry ceiling!

Oh, wow, thanks for the compliments! It does look quite decent in the photos but the finish is much poorer than it looks. In the photos you can't tell there is a massive buildup of paint on things and that there is lining paper peeling away, etc.

Also my taste just doesn't run to purple bedrooms and bright green walls with striped carpets, etc. I do think the green kitchen which I used to hate can actually be lived with now my stuff is in. For the rest I think I will take all the good advice of going slowly and doing things bit by bit. After the rewiring I think there will be damage but it won't be drastic as the electricians say they can rewire without needing redecoration after nowadays but I could be wrong.

The stars on the ceilings are just stickers and you can buy them cheaply. They glow in the dark, too! They were here when we moved in but we'll be keeping them.

the only question you have to ask is what can you live with and what do you want the house to look like? and indeed what do you want to spend your time doing?

if it is sound and dry- bung another coat of paint on. Replace skirtings- it may be victorian but it is not unique or precious. we spent a chunk of our lives in the 90s stripping skirting boards in an edwardian house. we could have just bought replicas and varnished them and they would have looked exactly the same.

Oh I thought the stars were painted on...with a stencil or something!

Perfect is nigh on impossible. I would however do the painting and removing wallpaper yourself - it really isn't hard and would save a fortune. Don't bother with skimming the walls. Usually you can either patch them up yourself with filler, or find some nice wallpaper to put over them.

How much detail has been lost on the cornice through painting? I would be tempted to get one of those peel off paint strippers and strip as much as I could if it were bad and leave it if the detail is OK.

I think I would make the most effort for "perfection" in the hall and main living room but I wouldn't want it to be pristine as I think you then worry too much about it getting scuffed.

Bedrooms I would just tart up as, generally speaking, only you see them.

I wouldn't replace the skirting boards with characterless replicas unless they were rotten or damaged beyond repair.

IMO it's old, its not meant to be out-of-the-box perfect :)

Owl, most of the detail is lost to paint except in just one room. In the room without the layers of paint they're gorgeous but with the layers they just look like a mess. I've been watching YouTube videos about peelaway and will try that I think. We will also need a taller ladder and some bravery, though, as many bits are quite high up.

I won't replace the skirting boards as even if they looked the same I would know they were replicas and that would bother me. I am probably weird, though!

We recently bought a victorian house too. Ours has been updated quite extensively by the previous owners in many areas ie plastering, skirting boards, fire places, cornice and ceiling rose's etc. But the windows need replacing everywhere so are going back to wooden sash.

Every room needs decorating and furnishing sympathetically, the garden needs landscaping and the drive needs ( well it doesn't need but it would look fab ) cobbles. The boiler is about to die. I would like to knock through from one room to the kitchen to make a huge living area/kitchen. The flat roof over the kitchen and boot room needs attention.

We can't do everything all at once but we want to do it to a high standard so will do bits at a time. We won't be moving again so I want it to be perfect.

It does mean expensive holidays will be on hold for a few years and we will have to cut back on other spending but it's worth it.

When we moved in to our current home one bedroom was navy blue & one was barbie day glo pink.

We went to Brewers & they advised us to use an undercoat that was called Obliterating paint (as I remember). One coat of that covered up both colours and then we did a coat of colour of our choice.

I don't have any connection with Brewers but they are a fantastic place to go to for both their products & advice.

I've watched too many restoration programmes so I think I would have to strip the cornices - the transformation on TV (which is obviously effort free) is amazing. There's no need to do it all at once though.

I guess I've watched too many restoration shows and read too many blogs, too, which make it seem like the only thing to do is go for perfection.

Here are some stars www.glow.co.uk/glow-in-the-dark-stars.html

I think it looks lovely in your photos. If there are any strong colours you simply cannot live with on the walls, for the interim just paint over them with a matte paint of your choice, you may need a few coats, I've used cheap white matte emulsion as an undercoat rather than using lots of a more expensive light coloured paint.

Also, a matte finish paint will show loads less lumps and bumps than a silk or satin finish. I was astounded at the difference it made in our Ancient Being.

Thanks runesigil, and I think your suggestion to paint strong colours with a cheap white paint is a very good one. It will take the urgency out of redecorating and so I'll be able to do things right in time. I think that's the best solution.

the original woodwork will be pitch pine not the pine that the replica is made off I would sand down some wood was meant to be seen some wood was meant to be painted from the start, if meant to be painted it will never look good stripped

no period house should have gloss on woodwork the finish should be matt also would never have been pure white either, cornices would have been chalky white like plaster

also as someone above mentioned once a matt finish the flaws will be less obvious and second using matt white to blot out strong colours, an old house will never be perfect but it will be much better built than a modern house

sorry re grammar

I meant sand down skirtings and other woodwork so surface is even rather than completely stripping and repainting

Sand and repaint gloss, unless it's really bad.

My friend stripped and restarted and hers chipped way before mine.

I would also paint repaint walls and ceilings unless there is a bad texture.

However absolutely wait until you have rewired. Because otherwise you will do it twice. However you could sand and gloss now.

I honestly thinks this comes down to what kind of person you are.

I need everything to be ok-ish asap. I remember the carpet in our first house was so vile that after 2 weeks I broke down and we got new. I really, really couldn't live with it. And we slapped paint everywhere.

I have friends who will slowly and painstakingly do one room at a time until it's jaw dropping by perfect but have lived for decades with ugly rooms they hate.

I have other friends who earn a fortune and throw big sacks of cash at this kind of thing and their house looks perfect within weeks. But they still end up in debt for a while cos it does cost.

None of us is right. Just figure out what brings you the most pleasure and do that. This is your home after all - the most important place in the world.

I love your house BTW it's gorgeous (tho that's seeing past the lime green).

Make it as pretty as you need to. My parents bought a knackered Victorian house when we were primary aged kids and the refurbishment almost destroyed us all
It is a huge thing to live through

CMP69 yes now that you mentioned it there has already been a noticeable increase in bickering in our household, too! PicaK thanks although it's hard to see past the lime green, I know. Good advice to wait until after rewiring and to just paint over everything in white to buy time, thanks all.

I have just bought an early victorian house divided into two flats and we are reuniting into one house. Having spent weeks stripping back just one set of shutters with a combo of hot air gun and nitromors I have decided to paint over everything else with white emulsion. I have removed embossed wall paper and wood chip except on the ceiling, and the polystyrene ceiling tiles (fire hazard). It is going to be a huge white empty space as we can't afford new furniture! but personally I always prefer interiors that evolve organically.

I ended up feeling very paranoid about lead paint dust and fumes too, can't spare any brain cells these days!