home decor gurus come and help do a budget make over

[FluffyMummy123]

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god me neither

but i'd suggest 2 things - first, paint everywhere. second - pick a room and slowly get it up to speed. prob kitchen first. decide what can be cleaned up and what should be replaced. if on a budget can you buy 2nd hand appliances/units? look on ebay and in loot.

what's ghw?

if it is a tied house and you really want to do the decor, will they pay for paint etc?

I am no good at decorating, but you will want to do the least amount of effort, so painting, even if the paper is textured will at least freshen it up and be reasonably easy to do

DH trains racehorses. Hopefully it will be lucrative one day, but he's only started recently and because his last employer shafted him we have no savings any more and are owed about 7 grand which we will never see, so budget important. As I said, though, I am a bit of an interiors freak, and that's my problem. I could just spit and polish, but I have lived like that for ever, and think we may actually stay in this house longer than 12 months so I want to make it decent. Time is a real issue too, though as home alone nearly always with 3 y o DD who is a proper little antichrist.

Clean everywhere properly - get a feather duster and tackle the cobwebby ceilings, bleach the bathroom tiles.

Textured wallpaper not a prob, just painting over it makes it look 1000 times better.

Get trade magnolia from Wickes or Screwfix (cheapest around) and paint one room at a time, starting with the one you see most often (prob hall or living room).

...and I know it's only spit and polish, but it's a good place to start form and it might help you love the house enough to put some proper interior-design effort in later on.

What would you do with patterned wallpaper taht's got a border running around the middle of it? If I paint over it you would see the outline of the border (and the bits of it that are ripped!)

hmm
I hate stripping wallpaper and hanging lining paper is a pain as well.

could you just strip the border and paint the paper that's left?

I've experimented with a patch of border, because I thought that too. But unfortuantely the two wallpapers (different pattern above and below border) have not been cut straight and do not meet properly in the middle so there's a gap. I forgot to mention that the ceilings are also heavily beamed and cut into the tops of the walls all the way along the room.

Bet you wish you'd never got involved,eh MrsBadger?

oh bum.
will think about it while I have lunch...

If only I had a digital camera, I could photograph this monstrosity of interior design and post pics for advice. As I said, there is just so much that is wrong I don't know where to start!

Thanks, BTW MrsB

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This may be a question for a builder rather than an interior designer, but I have also noticed a serious draught coming from the wall (yes, the wall!) by the light switch in my bedroom, and what I thought was just lumpy wall under the wallpaper is actually small mounds of an earth-type substance. I am almost afraid to strip the wallpaper (but it is navy blue and gold stripes, so it has to go) for fear of what I may uncover. Any suggestions as to what I may find? Landlord will no way do anything to the house (The electrician refuses to do any work because the wiring needs replacing - it's ancient - but he won't pay for the work to be done). We don't pay rent though, as the house is tied, so I would never make a fuss because it would be like looking a gift horse in the mouth.

start with the room you spend most your time in, if you have horrid paper and can't face re-papering invest in a decent undercoat, polycell base coat is quite a good one, couple of coats should cover up textured paper and then paint. We removed a dado rail in our lounge and made a pigs ear of it and ended up getting the whole room re-plastered, are you able to live with it ie give it a lick of paint? it will get there in the end

Might just be that the plaster has "blown" (think that is the technical term plasterers use!) And if the house is old, from my own experience there will be lots of morter missing between the bricks, hence the draft.

I would seriously advise against stripping any wallpaper unless you are prepared to hire a plasterer to apply a skim coat or spend hours yourself filling holes and putting up lining paper.

I know it won't look perfect but really, the largest container of paint from Wickes, etc in magnolia/white is definitely the way to go....

Kitchen units can also be painted over - I have had lots of compliments on mine and they were vile orange pine when I moved in but have been painted in Farrow & Ball eggshell, repalced the handles and I painted the tiles also - it won't last forever but mine still look ok after 7 years....

I agree with the others. Get some decent paint, not nec the cheapest though as coverage not always so great, and paint over everything. Spend some money on things which will cheer you up, like fresh flowers, stylish table lamps, some decent things to go on the walls (large prints or even wall hangings in funky fabric), smart rugs, cushions, throws etc. Add simple pendant light fittings and think about changing any really nasty door handles. Then if there are things will still really bother you, you can take a view, but it doenst seem worth doing major redecorating/plastering work which can all get v costly. Good luck.

Like the sound of a good, thick undercoat that will cover up the textured paper. We have that all through the hall (downstairs and up) and up the stairwell but it's not too textured. At present it is painted a shiny mushroom colour with nice spillages splashed about here and there (I imagine someone has spilt drinks on them, tripping up the stairs).

Interesting about the 'blown' plaster. I hope that is what it is - I was terrified I was going to find huge cracks through to the outside! I am going to have to get a plasterer in anyway, as we had to remove some of the units in the kitchen and now that whole wall needs doing, so doing another room at the same time won't hurt too much - I'm not going to be hiring too many tradesmen so I will just bite the bullet and have that done properly, at least. Thanks for the great suggestions. Keep 'em coming!

I have to admit to ROFL at the thought of changing the door handles as the doors are made of white painted plywood and numbered from when the stable girls lived there! I am just imagining them with nice brass handles on them!

Oh, how I wish I could take photos of this place and put them on here!