Decorating tips that could help sell your house

If your trying to sell you house you want to show it off at it’s best. In order for you to accomplish this you may need to do a little work. There are the obvious and cliché things such as fresh flowers, freshly made bread or coffee brewing but there is more you can do. Have a look at your decorating, as a little work could be the difference between selling and not selling your house.

If there is a choice between your house and a similar house at the same price, they may go for the other house if less work is needed, something worth thinking about.

Colours can make all the difference

If you like bright colours for your woodwork or walls you may consider changing these to a more subdued colour scheme, now I’m not saying that colour is a bad thing or everything needs to be ‘magnolia and white’. I’m saying that in order to sell your house and do so quickly you may want to go for more ‘neutral’ colours as this works best for other people’s items such as furniture.

If someone looks around your house and think they are going to have to redecorate fairly soon because your decorating scheme isn’t to their taste this to them will add on money they need to spend out and be a negative on your property.

Making a good first impression

Make sure your exterior also looks presentable, peeling; flaking paintwork isn’t normally a good sign of what may follow. If your woodwork is rotten of render blown you may need to be prepared to drop the asking price if you want a quick sale.
Gates and fences should also look in good condition and maybe a quick coat of paint wouldn’t go a miss.

The Hub of a home

A kitchen is the hub of any house. If your kitchen is looking a bit tired or outdated you obviously don’t want to start fitting a new kitchen but you could always consider changing the kitchen doors and draw fronts.
This can be done a lot cheaper than replacing a kitchen but will give an old kitchen a new lease of life and make it look newer than it is. You could paint the kitchen units but if you do make sure it looks professional as badly painted kitchen units will not do you any favours. Maybe some new flooring and a lick of paint will finish of the look.

A cared for house is a welcoming new home?

Your house needs to look as if it has been cared for, not a show house but lived in and cared for. The potential buyers will then feel that any problems that have occurred you have dealt with and they aren’t buying a whole load of problems and work.

Tools you should have in your toolbox

The following is a basic list of tools you should consider having in your decorating toolbox, you may need more than those listed but these are really the twelve essentials to get you started. This list doesn’t include sundries such as sandpaper.

Dustsheet, heavy and light

Dustsheets are needed to cover over furniture and flooring, they can be heavy weight or lightweight or even plastic disposable ones depending on the job they are required for.

Scrapers

You may find having more than one scraper of use, a thin bladed one for things like opening cracks and a wider one for filling cracks, scraping walls and ceilings and removing wallpaper.

Screwdriver

A selection of screwdrivers would be useful for removing things such as shelves, door furniture and electrical items* such as wall lights, ceiling lights, switches and sockets.

Sharp knife

This can be used to open tubes of decorators caulk, packets of filler and wallpaper paste and for cutting wallpaper, or even to sharpen your pencil !!

Continue reading 12 essential tools for your DIY decorating toolbox

Wallpapering around a window or door reveal

One of the things that puts people off from wallpapering is they are unsure how to tackle certain area’s. One of these is a window or door reveal.

It isn’t as daunting as it may first appear and I will try to explain how to do it below.

Where and how to start with the wallpaper

One of the first things I do, is measure using a roll of wallpaper to work out where the sheet will come at the reveal, in other words I see if the paper goes around the reveal and not stop on the external corner, this is bad! You may have to adjust where you start hanging the wallpaper or even start from another starting point, such as the other corner of the wall.

Once you have worked this out and made a plumb line on the wall you can start to hang the wallpaper. Hang the first sheet making sure you follow the plumb line to ensure it is straight and upright.

Now take the next sheet and match the pattern, if the wallpaper has one, and hang that sheet, then keep going until you reach the reveal.

Continue reading How to wallpaper around a window or door reveal