Help... how do you redecorate?

[Blankiefan]

I've never lived in a house long enough to have to redecorate! This is my 21st home since leaving my parents home at 18 (I'm 45). We've been in our home for nearly 8 years.

We did everything when we moved in then nothing since. Everything is looking shabby. I've been doing some rough calculations and it feels so expensive. I get this is a bit "how long is a piece of string" but I wanted to gauge what people would budget.

Living room (big - about 5m x 4m)

• whilst I'd like parquet flooring and a big rug, the beige carpet could do another shift but definitely need to replace the big rug (2m x 3m)
• need storage along a 4m long wall (ideally floor to ceiling)
• wallpaper on 2 walls and paint on another
• needs new skirting boards
• rough cals are around £4k and that's without replacing the 10 yo huge sofa (which I'd love to)
• if I did the flooring I want and the sofas, my fag packet calculation is upwards of £10k 😯. That feels like a fortune. Do people spend this?

Bathroom (4m x 3m)

• I'd like to put in double sink units and cabinets above. Install an electric towel rail which will mean a new floor as there's no close electrics. It needs painted. Rough calculations put me around £4k. Does that sound realistic?

I don't know why I'm finding this so shocking. We literally did everything when we moved in (new bathrooms, new kitchen, heating and electrics upgraded, decorated throughout). I've no idea what we spent previously but I don't remember feeling shocked by the budget.

How often do people redecorate and how do you do it? I'm concerned that once I start one of these big projects, the rest of the house will look even shabbier and ill need to do more... any perspectives?

It’s all too variable to say! A 4m stretch of built in, solid wood storage, made bespoke is v spendy. But 4m if Ikea is very doable. You’ve got to decide how long it’ll last, how much you want it, is it worth the cost per year to you. I don’t think anyone else can tell you that...

Can you split jobs into time-hungry and money-hungry? So then you try and get a balance between them (eg new bathroom costs a lot but you’ll not be fitting it yourself, repainting isn’t so expensive but takes a lot of your time... so you could do a time-hungry job and a money-hungry job in the same year.

We’ve been trying to do that with ours, as we “did it up” when we bought it 14 years ago. So 2019 I painted the exterior myself (took ages, but only cost was the paint) but had new bathroom fitted (cost a fortune, but I didn’t do the work as beyond my skills!).

I wrote a messive list of everything I thought needed doing in our house, when we moved in 3 and a bit years ago. I put an approx. cost by each one and then marked each job as 'mandatory' or not.

This allowed me to see the cost of doing the mandatory jobs which was my minimum.

It's really helped me keep track of everything.

e.g. painting the hallways (twice over) was mandatory because the original colour was so dark and depressing and the first colour we chose was awful paint (Dulux Easycare can sod off!). But changing the flooring is not mandatory because it's OK - even though I'd prefer solid wood. That'll have to wait for a bit while everything else mandatory gets done.

It also helps you see that some rooms are way more expensive than others. My lounge was similarly expensive because I also wanted to change the sofas and most of the hard furniture.

I did that but then chose a much cheaper room for the next one to balance it out. e.g. the dining room which wa sjust getting fresh paint and light fittings.

Finally, it helped me think about putting the most money in the room I wanted to feel the best in. i.e. the lounge was important to be as nice as possible and as comfy, because that's where we relax in the evening. The dining room didn't need the same focus because it just needed to look nice to eat in, iyswim.

Also, start with the rooms that mean the least. Do some jobs yourself and you slowly gain in confidence and might be more prepared to tackle bigger jobs in some of the more important rooms later on. Thus reducing costs.

e.g. I'll happily now change sink taps etc myself, having slowly worked up to it and know this house and sinks better now. Ditto changing light fittings, extractor fans and a bit of garden landscaping like building raised borders etc. Nothing very complicated but saves £ paying someone else.

My DH built me my wall of shelves. He followed a YouTube tutorial (there are LOADS on this) and used Billy bookcases from Ikea, and some wood cut to size from B&Q. The whole wall - which is around 3m long - cost under £300. He did it over one Christmas break.

We had quotes from carpenters for £3k.