B&Q unloved rooms revamp - review thread for MNers getting stuck in! NOW CLOSED

[TheOtherHelenMumsnet]

This thread is for the 20 MNers who have been chosen by B&Q to revamp an unloved room in their home.

Those selected have been sent a B&Q giftcard to buy the things they need to give their unloved room a makeover. They've undertaken to complete the makeover by 3rd June, and will be keeping us up-to-date on how their revamps are going on this thread as well as posting photos.

Please do follow their stories and add your own comments if you want to show some support!

Below are the questions we'd like testers to answer but please feel free to add your own comments too. Please give us a bit of info about the room you're revamping and what you plan to do with it in your response.

• Why is your unloved room unloved? What do you want to change about it? What has stopped you until now?
  
• Where did you get your inspiration for doing up the room from? What sort of style are you going for etc?
  
• Have you had much help along the way with the revamp? If so, who from? And what sort of help - practical or ideas-based?!
  
• How did you find your shopping experience at B&Q? Were the staff helpful? Did you find anything in store you maybe didn't expect to beforehand?
  
• Did you use any of the help and advice that B&Q offer? This includes their videos on YouTube, leaflets and classes in store etc. If so, how useful was that help and advice?
  
• If B&Q could do anything more to help you next time you visit, what would it be?
  
• Have you had any feedback on what you've done with the room from family/friends? Has the transformation had a big impact on you and/or your family?
  

If you're not an official tester but would like to be in with a chance of winning a £200 B&Q giftcard, please post on this thread to tell us about your own room revamp successes (or failures!) - we'd love to hear from all MNers who have a room makeover story to share!

Thanks very much
MNHQ

[nevergoogle]

i think the warehouses are the biggest, then maybe the mini warehouse and then the supercentres.

[thecatcamebacktheverynextday]

Thanks nevergoogle, the website doesn't make it clear which is the biggest!

[nevergoogle]

no it doesn't. i asked in a store where the biggest one was in the area and she said plymouth, it's named as a warehouse on the website.

[Bracketfungus]

Hello everyone. I was so thrilled to be picked! Thank you mnhq and b&q.

Some of you are getting on brilliantly... Some fab wallpaper choices, and some real experimenting going on!

Usually I am quite minimalist in that I only redecorate when absolutely necessary, and get by with the minimum equipment. I was getting quite nervous about achieving good results and making th most of the opportunity. However I have now decided that this is a windfall. The whole point is to be open minded and to do what you can with the time and the money to make a difference to how you feel in your house.

And to try doing it with a different attitude than the norm.

So I have ditched my plans to do the most sensible thing and am now going to redecorate my bedroom, which used to be a nursery and has teddy bears which I can't stand!

I have checked with the landlord, and they require neutral colours which is a bit of a shame. Can any one recommend a neutral sort of yellow or green?

I have a problem with my bedside light which is that it is too close to the door and keeps getting knocked over.

So,my project is going to be repainting the mousy grey walls, changing the border, putting up a shelf instead of having a bedside table, and sorting out the lighting.

I have a streetlight very close, so I also need to improve the curtain or put a blind up.

I have no tools, so some of the money will need to go on things like a tape measure and a drill.

The DIY floating shelf video said about some kind of cable detector to check if there are any cables inside the wall before you drill into it and electrocute yourself. Have any of you used one? Is it a good idea?

[HappyHippyChick]

- Why is your unloved room unloved? What do you want to change about it? What has stopped you until now?

My unloved room is my kids bedroom, it was decorated not long after we first moved in, about 7 years ago and is looking a bit shabby now. It has massive holes in the plaster where little bits came off and then the kids "helped" pull more off!; it has bright orange pine built in cupboards; the light fitting has been pulled down from the ceiling when the kids were "playing"; there is a sea of plastic tat, I have four boys and have been hoarding toys for the last 10 years and the crowning glory is the carpet, which has been vommed on from the top bunk on more than one occasion .

I want to pare back the toys and make more room in the room for the kids to play, at the moment nearly half the room is taken up with toys and they don't really play up there, as they can't get to most of the stuff. I also need to move my youngest ds into the room soon so need to clear some space for him! Apathy has stopped me until now . It is such a daunting task, it has been on my to do list since the beginning of the year, but I keep dropping it down the list and putting things off. I freaked out a bit about the deadline but actually it is nice to have to get off my butt and actually do this stuff I have been putting off, and now I've started decluttering it feels great (6 massive bin bags to the charity shop and counting!).

- Where did you get your inspiration for doing up the room from? What sort of style are you going for etc?

I asked my ds what colour he wanted to have in his room (blue, what a shock, he's been obsessed with blue since he was 2, he's now 9!) and I want laminate/wipe clean floors to more easily deal with other sickness incidences!

- Have you had much help along the way with the revamp? If so, who from? And what sort of help - practical or ideas-based?!

I will be having help with the practical side of the revamp, my BIL is a plasterer and so we have had him round to sort out the walls and one of our friends is going to help us with the floor as our last attempt at laminate went hideously wrong!

- How did you find your shopping experience at B&Q? Were the staff helpful? Did you find anything in store you maybe didn't expect to beforehand?

I have only had a quick browse round the paint and flooring section at my local B&Q but I found the staff very helpful, answering any questions that I had, even the girl who I think was heading out to lunch, who saw me looking bewildered, stopped and answered my question. I will be heading back later to look at blinds and other soft furnishings, so will add more later.

- Did you use any of the help and advice that B&Q offer? This includes their videos on YouTube, leaflets and classes in store etc. If so, how useful was that help and advice?

I haven't yet, although I was very impressed with the list of classes they offer and am still hoping to book myself onto one of them.

I will answer the other questions when I have finished my revamp!

[katiewalters]

we have made 1 trip to b&q so far, but we need to make another as we didnt get everything we wanted. we decided to go for paint, and before we went we had decided we wanted a lime green, so we have got 'lime crush'. We are not 100% yet, but think we are not going to do all the walls green, but maybe have a feature wall. We are thinking this because where we live we rent, and we dont want see us being here for ever, and once you love out any decorating you do you have to put back to the magnolia walls. So we have got some magnolia paint as well, as if we do a feature walls, the other walls which are magnolia need repainting anyway, as they have marks, scratches on etc. We got filler and sanding paper for scratches and a dent we have in the wall. We got a lampshade for the bedroom. There was soooooo much choice of lampshades, we were there for ages, and kept seeing lots of different ones we liked. Last time we went to this b&q they did bedding, so we had planned to get some bedding, so we had some which matched the green, but were disappointed to be told they no longer did duvet covers. We also got some brushes, tape, rollers, etc all the stuff we need for painting. The main thing we need to go back for is curtains. I was so dissapointed with their range of curtains, as it wasnt that great. We want to get a decent pair of lined curtains, as the ones we currently have are cheap, unlined ones, and we are always waking up in the morning when the sun comes up as the light just comes through. We preferabbly wanted some green ones or ones with a green pattern, doesnt have to be all green. We did see a couple we liked, but they were unlined! We have to have the eyelet curtains as well, as someone recommended buying the lining you can attach to the curtains without sewing, but you cant do this with the eyelet curtains. Dont know about the lining you sew on with the eyelet curtains, but dont really want to pay to get someone to sew the lining on. They had brown and grey lined curtains, so does anyone think anyof those colours would go with green and magnolia walls? We also want to get either a small mirror or some wall art, but said once we'd decided on the colour of the curtains we would choose that. We also wanted to get some small sotrage drawers for next to the bed, but they only had 3 to choose from, and the 1 that would go with the furniture we already had was really expensive for what it was. Staff were very helpful, once you could find someone to help you, as they were either all on the tills or helping other people and had to wait around for a while to find someone who was free.

[katiewalters]

some advice please. if we did a feature wall which would be painted lime green, and the other walls were magnolia, would brown or grey curtains go? we want lined curtains, which have to be eyelets, but the green ones or ones with a pattern that included the colour green werent lined. only had brown or grey lined ones

[katiewalters]

new lampshade up and fully functioning. its a white metal lace effect ball shade. previously we had no lampshade up

[SweetestThing]

Evening :) First trip to B and Q today after several hours on the website generating ideas. Sample paint purchased and put on walls and I think I have made my final decision. Pictures of the room before doing anything have been taken and my first Video Diary filmed. Eek!!!

[SweetestThing]

Oh and can someone tell me how to upload photos from my iPhone to this thread, please?

[ouryve]

I'm jealous of everyone's progress! The walls under the old wallpaper we've been removing are shocking and I've injured my shoulder removing the antique wallpaper and paste that was under the top layer in places :(

So, since I've given myself an evening off, I can finally start answering questions!

• Why is your unloved room unloved? What do you want to change about it? What has stopped you until now?
  

We're re-vamping the boys' bedroom. The walls have old textured wallpaper on, except where the boys have torn it off. It's a mess!

So, we need to get that off, make good the walls as well as we possibly can without resorting to moving out and replastering (there's 4 of us in a 2 bedroom house - this would only be possible if we actually moved out of the house!) We've been held back by logistics - we can only do it a section at a time and it's a lot of work.

• Where did you get your inspiration for doing up the room from? What sort of style are you going for etc?
  

DS1 wants it orange and red. I drew the line at a red ceiling, but he has chosen tangerine dream walls! No wallpaper and we can't use lining paper as it gas to be unpickable! (both boys have SN and picking at wallpaper is too much to resist)

Orange is DS1's favourite colour! The downside of that is that he's easy to lose in B&S and a certain orange supermarket because he blends in!

• Have you had much help along the way with the revamp? If so, who from? And what sort of help - practical or ideas-based?!
  

DS1 has been helping to pick off some more of the wallpaper and is glad not to be told off for it. DH is doing the rest of the stripping and a lot of the heavy tool-based work. I might have been a dab hand with an electric drill or power sander 15 years ago, but my HMS means that I not longer have sufficient strength in my hands, wrists and shoulders. I'll not let anyone else near the painting, though - my job!

• How did you find your shopping experience at B&Q? Were the staff helpful? Did you find anything in store you maybe didn't expect to beforehand?
  

We live near the massive Durham store, so there was everything you could imagine in there. DS1 was impressed to find lego storage cubes!

We bought the bulk of our stuff on Thursday evening - more than a trolley full. There were lots of other people with very full trolleys, too. And we all arrived at the checkouts together. Disappointingly, only the self serve checkouts were open and we had more stuff than would fit on the scales and there was one poor, overworked lad dealing with all of us. We popped in for a few more things on Saturday lunchtime, though and, despite the torrential rain keeping customers away (we were on our way back from elsewhere) there were plenty of tills open and we were served quickly.

DH (WibbleBoy) did one of the courses and reported on his experience upthread.

[gazzalw]

Well we are not very far on...some of the items arrived thro' the post today and we are getting a delivery tomorrow...Have a few days off work and the BH weekend coming up so hoping to crack on then.

What has struck me though is where are we going to put the contents of DS's bedroom whilst we are decorating -it's not a very large room (probably 12 X 10 feet maximum). I think when we originally decorated the room (when DS was a baby and had the 'nursery' room) there was on a double bed in it and it was quite easy to move that to the centre of the room and decorate around it.....

[ouryve]

This is a before of the boys' room as you walk into it. There is cladding that has already been removed from around the window, as there has been a leak coming through, around the window, somewhere (which has left a nice damp patch and some rotten doorframes downstairs. Fun!) thankfully, there is no damage to the wall at this level. We can't make a permanent fix because we still need to replace the window, which can't be done until we've taken the dodgy render off the back of the house (our next house will be a nice, easy cardboard new build!) but it can be tidied up with MDF cladding.

The bare backing paper under the window is DS1's own handiwork from a series of sleepless summer nights about 4 years ago!

DS1 regards the shelf as babyish, so we have chosen something smart and modern looking. We already have a new curtainpole to replace the wooden one that's already hanging off the wall.

[ouryve]

More of DS1's late night insomniac handiwork! This room hasn't been touched, since he was a baby, 9 years ago, and all we did was paint over the existing paper and put soft carpet in, so it's overdue an update, anyhow.

[ouryve]

This wall started with only a tiny scuff where DS2 had tried it (apparently ) This is the result of the first hours' stripping. If you think this one is scruffy, you should see the one on the right. I had to set another MN product test on it - yes - I spent 2 hours blasting ancient paste and paper, which had been partially plastered over, with steam from my Karcher steam cleaner!!! It did the trick, but was hard work and has set me back a long way, considering how much work this room needs.

We're having to work in sections. The room is about 8'3 by 15' and we can't move the boys out, but we can move it all to one side.

Apart from the gunk and bad patch plastering, that black line is done in chinograph and the picture rail at the top of the yellow section of wall has been attached to the wall and then roughly varnished, leaving varnish all over the wall. I've had to fish out the universal primer undercoat I've been using on the cladding on the stairs (the project I halted to start on this one) to cover bits like this, since emulsion just runs off.

[ouryve]

Sweetestthing - I've just emailed photos from my iPad to myself and edited and uploaded them using my laptop!

[Bracketfungus]

Hi, Katie ... Why do you need eyelet curtains? If you have curtain poles you can attach the pencil pleat curtains using hooks and rings.

Hth.

Got stuck in today. An after school trip to b&q to get the tools I need, and let the kids choose a lamp each as we only had 2 lamps in the whole house!


Cleared the room, then remembered to take 'before' photos, so put things back a bit, took pics and then cleared out again, moved my matress into the living room, and sorted out the dust sheets and that. Did first coat. I can see it will be minimum 3 coats to obliterate grey colour.

Going to bed in the living room now. Night night!

[whiteandyellowiris]

etco love the wallpaper, good job

[gazzalw]

Right I've cracked on with the wallpapering now and am on a bit of a roll (excuse the pun!!!) - nearly papered the room, realised that DW didn't use the helpful B&Q online wallpaper calculator so we probably have enough to do DD's room too (although not as part of this exercise!). It will then need to be painted etc.....looking a lot more promising now though than even on Monday evening! Hoping that I will complete phase one this evening all being well - DD helping even though it's DS's room we're doing (she's a lot more practical than he is!).

We have got some Nature eco-paint which has to be made up in a bucket with warm water so that will be a new experience....

I am enjoying the wallpapering experience having not done it for a good five or so years. The idea of decorating is a lot more of a hassle than the reality.....

Only hitch is that three of the items scheduled for delivery today (the curtain pole, blind and picture frame) haven't arrived yet - no evidence that they've tried to deliver. And someone has been in all day too....

[JParkson]

Just popping in for some feedback, DH and I have differing opinions on duvet sets...

DH and I both like these

but I spotted www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/1373028.htm these first...

Please help me pick which would be better?! As has been harped on about mentioned once or twice before, I will have cushions to help finish the set.

[nevergoogle]

the second link is 100% cotton, so i'd go for that one.

[gazzalw]

- just realised that I've been a week ahead of myself with the delivery date for the yet-to-be-delivered items - it's next Thursday. That's something that might usefully be addressed too, B&Q - for items that are available in-store (if only one had a car!) surely it should not take ten days to deliver them - the other stuff, ordered online at the same time, presumably sent from different suppliers, came within 48 hours.

[SweetestThing]

Why is your unloved room unloved? What do you want to change about it? What has stopped you until now?

My unloved room is our spare bedroom (or box room!). It is unloved because it doesn't really get used as a bedroom often enough for us to have bothered doing anything to it since we moved here (17 years ago..). It has become a dumping ground, a place to put the laundry airer, temporary storage and, very occasionally, we clear the bed and have overnight guests. It has been neglected and forgotten and we just close the door on it. The only thing that has stopped us doing anything about it until now has been a combination of being busy, bringing up children, working and - let's be honest - a bit of laziness! I want to turn it into a proper guest bedroom, with no clutter and a fresh, country feel.

• Where did you get your inspiration for doing up the room from? What sort of style are you going for etc?
  

My inspiration comes from a desire to have a room that feels a bit more feminine and country style than the rest of our house, which is more traditional, with quite a lot of dark, antique furniture. My inspiration comes from looking at online at properties for sale, friends' homes and general nosiness. I want to have light, fresh coloured walls, pastel curtains and bedding, stripped back floorboards and no clutter!

• Have you had much help along the way with the revamp? If so, who from? And what sort of help - practical or ideas-based?!
  

I wanted to do this project on my own, although my husband and son have both offered to help. I have taken them up on their offers for heavy stuff, such as lifting the carpet and moving furniture but - so far! - I have been doing it myself.

• How did you find your shopping experience at B&Q? Were the staff helpful? Did you find anything in store you maybe didn't expect to beforehand?
  

I am fairly familiar with B&Q and (dare I say it?) other diy stores, but it was a novel experience shopping and knowing that it was courtesy of Mumsnet and B&Q! I asked several staff for advice and everyone was very helpful and suggested things to me that helped me decide what to buy. I didn't expect to have such a wide choice of wall art...

• Did you use any of the help and advice that B&Q offer? This includes their videos on YouTube, leaflets and classes in store etc. If so, how useful was that help and advice?
  

I have looked for advice online and am booked in for a class, which unfortunately is on the day of the deadline for this project, so I will have lots of painting skills for my next project!

• If B&Q could do anything more to help you next time you visit, what would it be?
  

I can't think of anything.

• Have you had any feedback on what you've done with the room from family/friends? Has the transformation had a big impact on you and/or your family?
  

It is still a work-in-progress!!

[SweetestThing]

The spare room before - full of clutter, as you can see.

[SweetestThing]

More clutter....