How long did it take you to furnish and decorate your new house?

[Misscf81]

Exactly that!

My partner and I have just bought a house, which we love, and although it is more than liveable we do want to put our own stamp on it and completely decorate some of the rooms.

Before we moved in, I had lots of ideas and couldn’t wait to get started but now we are in here I feel a bit overwhelmed and don’t know where to start. Some of the rooms we know we are keeping pretty much the same (kitchen and bathroom) mainly because we like them and we don’t have the budget to start from scratch, but there’s a lounge, dining room, 2 large bedrooms and a converted basement that we want to decorate - but I’m not sure where to start.

I am putting myself under pressure to get things done ASAP (we have only been in a month) and I keep looking at all these gorgeous houses on Instagram, which probably doesn’t help!

Plus, there’s Covid, and the fact my partner has only just gone back to work...and my job may be on the line (and I’m the main earner), which may delay things even more!

So how long did it take you to get your house completely decorated? Are there rooms you haven’t touched since moving in?

I need to take the pressure off myself to get everything done now!

Moved from a 1bed flat to a 3bed house in August 2018.

The house was neutral magnolia with wooden floors and beige carpet so the furniture I did have looked ok.

It didn't take me long to fully furnish it - I hosted Christmas that year and had everything I needed by December.

It took until lockdown last year for me to actually decorate though. Did it all myself top to bottom and am really proud of the result.

16 years and just about to finally decorate our bedroom 😂

Oh, god, we've been here nearly nine years (Edwardian 4 bed) and everything seems to take forever. And it's not that it's a wreck or that the jobs are major renovations (by which I mean things like taking down walls, or putting on new roof) but ceilings are high, materials are expensive, good tradespeople are busy, and we're not that handy. I can paint a bit, but not wallpaper, fit insulation but not a floor, sort of thing. But we keep pushing on and we've done a lot inside and out and now we're down to doing the last three rooms (sitting room, dining room, one bedroom). I would also like to get shot of the carpet on the stairs and upper landings and replace it with wooden flooring and a fancy stair runner. At some point we'll need to replace the kitchen. And there's hard landscaping to do in the back garden. So I reckon, in all,15 years to get the place we love won't be unrealistic.

Moved in end of October 2020, doing a full refurb including some minor building work (converting the garage, knocking through some walls). We have 9 rooms done, two in progress and we should finish the last room shortly after new year.

Moved in Easter 2019, perfectly livable, but a bit neglected 50s semi. It's still a work in progress. We do one thing every month if we can but to be honest a lot of it has been furniture, and some boringly necessary invisible work like getting the windows repaired and boiler fixed. And lockdown put the kibosh on getting trades in anyway.

We've painted the living room and replaced the floors downstairs, and in the process had to get plastering done and new skirtings. Toddler's room has been painted, bar the woodwork. The garden has been being hacked into submission, revealing lovely seasonal planting.

Our room, teenager's room, office and hall/landing have still to be painted, and the next big job will be the kitchen, which was clearly a very nice kitchen when it was put in in the early 90s but is on its last legs.

And then we'll do something about the bathroom, which is horrible and also starting to go a bit.

Sorry op but a really long time!
It's evolved.
Lots of stuff for free... Reduced.
If you have lots of money to throw at it.. Shouldn't take long but may not have that evolved look and more of a show home feel.. Which is fine.

I used a few different property magazines as a kind of fodder. I scoured the Internet looking for cheap high quality ideas on home decoration and came across this property forum. I then talked to some local actual tradesmen online about what I wanted done and selected paints too.

Stop looking at Instagram and/or magazines OP; just live in your new house and enjoy it for a while before you do anything.