How long did it take you to get around to decorating your new house?

[PaintingOwls]

We will be exchanging on our first house next week hopefully, leaving a 3-4 week overlap between getting the keys and our tenancy running out.

I want to do a couple of "big" things in that time before we move in, like carpet the upstairs and paint the rooms.

DP just wants to move in and do one room at a time as we save up etc. I am sceptical as I think that life will run away with us and it'll be a huge pita to move furniture once we're in and nothing will get done.

So looking for other people's experiences - either approach!

I would without a doubt try to get all your decorating done straight away! If not you just end up with rooms that you know need decorating but never seem to find the time! Good luck in your new house. Xx

Depends on so many things

what you can afford to do now (I'd rather save up to get a good quality carpet than pay for the cheapest kind). What is your budget now without going into debt vs what is your budget if you save for a while?

Also depends on the current decor - is everything plain magnolia or do you have some 1970 decor to contend with? It's easier to live with plain magnolia for a few weeks/months.

Painting a room is easiest without furniture but it's not a massive decorating task unless the current walls are dark colours that will need 2000 coats of paint.

Wallpaper removal is something I'd try and get done before moving in fully. Especially if it's bastard woodchip.

Took us two years to decide what colour to do out hallway,6 months to buy the paint.another month to paint it and then after all that we hate it!
(Can anyone recommend a true sage green paint-is be so grateful-the one we got is snot green)
Our lounge was grubby cream now denim drift
My stepdaughters room is goose down grey
Kitchen is crappy grey by wilko
It’s taken 2.5 years to get to this stage-we still have our room/man den to go
No way could we have done it all in a fortnight

Definitely do any carpets you can afford before moving in! Fitting carpets with a house full of furniture is so disruptive!

When we moved in from a rental to our old house we painted everything white and did all the carpets and hard floors. Then we decorated with colour etc once we'd loved there for a bit and knew what we wanted.

I'd definitely do it before I moved in, you can decorate in a fortnight if you did nothing else (depends on size of house of course!). I'm not madly into colour so it would be white everywhere.

We've been in just over a year and so far we've done 80% of the kitchen. I suspect this isn't what you want to hear .

To be fair the purchase wiped out our savings so we didn't have any choice. There are also things/colours I planned to do that I wouldn't do now. There's a lot to be said for living in it for a bit.

I personally think you need to live somewhere for a bit to get the colours right sometimes.
Having been in your position before I would try and do all woodwork (esp skirtings) before the carpets and then carpets down before you move in. If you do the skirtings properly that will take a while anyway. Then decorate if you have time.

motortroll

When we moved in from a rental to our old house we painted everything white and did all the carpets and hard floors. Then we decorated with colour etc once we'd loved there for a bit and knew what we wanted.

This is what I would like to do. DP argues that we don't have much furniture - but bed are HUGE to move and disassemble etc.

The house is a bit of a state to be frank.

Living Room is painted pink with a tiled chimney breast and one tiled wall.

The bedrooms are painted neutral, but on some kind of textured wallpaper, and the carpets are a hideous orange-brown which have gone threadbare.

The wooden doors have been painted badly with brown paint I can't decide whether it's worth my time to strip them or just replace them.

Kitchen and bathroom I won't even mention. I know we have to wait to sort those out. They're functional, but I did see 2 tiles had come loose and been propped up on the kitchen counter!

Sounds a bit like our last place! I would strip off as much as you can before you move in as it’s so messy. Book carpet fitting for right at the end before you move. You might find walls need skimming before you paint them.

We try to do a basic paint job in the living room and playroom or kids' room straight away, before we've really moved into it, and sort the flooring there. Really basic, we might skip the skirtings. Then we do the rest room by room, in slower time.

Basically we take your DH's approach but we kick start it a bit. I always think clearing a living room is a faff, so we take advantage of having it empty. But I'm far too lazy to paint it all white then paint it all again.

It is so so so much easier to get stuff done when empty! Unless your doors are solid original stripping costs and doesn’t always come out well so I’d replace them. Carpeting can be done in a couple days (if carpet in stock and fitters schedule available) but proper painting can take some time. To do it correctly you need to make sure walls and woodwork clean, fill in cracks/dents etc, sand back, paint and paint. If unsure of colours prepare the walls properly and paint white so you have a good base for when you decide on a colour.
You’ll have a move in deadline which should motivate you to get it done!

I've just moved into a new house and it was completely decorated before we moved in. It's not possible with kids and work to do one room at a time though it did take 6 weeks for us to get our carpets but that's another story.

Do as much as you can afford to do before you move in. Carpeting upstairs and painting sounds sensible, if you have the cash.

Living Room is painted pink with a tiled chimney breast and one tiled wall.

That sounds horrendous! Any chance of seeing a pic (will understand if you don't want to...)?

RedTreehouse

Here you go...

Without a doubt before you move in, you can add feature walls and stuff after but a basic white, off white or light grey throughout and flooring is a must imo.

PaintingOwls

Thank you! It's as gloriously revolting as I had imagined, with a bonus window/fish tank (what is that!!??) thrown in.

Good luck with your renovations

Fully functional in-built fish tank! Can't decide if I love it or hate it hahaha

And thank you

We didn't paint before we moved in, and I'm glad of it now. We ended up needing a full rewire, we also decided to build in some shelving, replaced the front door, etc. About to get it all painted now and can't wait! We did do carpets before we moved in, while rooms were empty.

My advice would be to do as much as you can before you move in . As you say, life will get in the way and it will take forever once all the furniture is in, much quicker with empty rooms.

It took us about 5years to change carpets and wall paper (don't judge, I was only 22 and I really didn't care and was too busy working and enjoying myself 😳😳😳😳😳😳)

We moved 6 years ago and have decorated one room (living room) in that time 😂 😂

I really believe you have to live in a house for a while before you decorate it - if you do it before you move in you may regret it. By living in it you get to know the light etc.,

Enjoy your new house x

Moved 2 years ago. We've done some glossing and over hauled the garden and got all the jobs outside done roof etc. Luckily the decor is pretty ok. Next year we start putting our stamp on it starting with the bathroom!

Kind of glad we waited cos our decor ideas have changed in 2 years plus we didn't have the money to throw at everything at once. Plus we enjoy living a bit too and I wouldn't sacrifice my holiday for quicker house things.
However do whatever you can afford if the decor is bad before you move in!

We are 8 weeks into a complete renovationgot the keys 29th May and will be. Moving in mid August.

That was back to brick and brand new everything

Go independent for carpets and get the underlay separately off the net! Save yourself a fortune