Spring decorating ideas

As the weather begins to warm up and the first signs of spring start to appear you may start thinking about doing some jobs around the home and garden. After what feels like an eternity since last years washout Summer and a very long Winter the house may well have been neglected for a year or so and in need of some decorating.

Interior decorating

If the weather turns for the worst or we get more frosty nights it is not the time to be painting your house outside, so why not turn to those decorating jobs inside. It’s time to clear out the spare room and give it a lick of paint, or give the home office new modern look. After such a long dull cold winter any room would benefit form a nice bright Spring like makeover.

If you are looking to keep your house looking ‘on trend’ then how about looking at the colour trends for 2013 and using some of the colours from this years palette, such as the colour of the year 90BB 09/186 or indigo blue to give it its name. This could be used as a feature wall to create a stunning modern look to any home.

You may want to do a little more than just paint the walls, you may want to do some repairs or make a room look more modern. If you have a nasty crack around the ceiling and wall line you could put some coving up, it will hide the crack and give a softer edge to the ceiling and wall line.

It could also be the time to tackle the job most DIYers hate, wallpapering the hall, landing and stairs. You could, if you prefer paint the hallway instead.

Exterior decorating

If your house needs some attention outside, wait until there are no more frosts before painting. Otherwise your hard work will not last long and the nice gloss finish on your front door will end up with a lovely bloom over it by the next day, and you will have to do it all again.

Wait for a day that is going to be dry and not windy ideally, not always easy in the UK! But for best results it is best to pick your day.

If you are thinking of painting your fascia or soffits or maybe the masonry there is an order in which to paint, if you paint in the correct order you will get the best results and make your life easier.

If you have algee, mould or dirt on you house, ensure you wash all of this off first, and never paint over it. If you have lead flashing that isn’t paint, don’t paint it just treat it.

If you have plants growing up the outside of your house, be aware the plants could damage your house. Ivy for example can suck the moisture out of the mortar or render and pull it out. Plants can also hold moisture against the house and cause damp issues, so be aware of this.

If you do not have rendered walls and you have plastic Upvc windows, do not forget the other exterior parts of the house, the fascia boards, soffits and bargeboards, these will need painting every few years. If you neglect these for long enough they will rot, birds will be able to get in and nest and they will be able to get into your loft space. You could also get other unwanted wildlife in your loft space such as squirrels.

Spring and Summer decorating

Hopefully this post has given you some ideas for decorating this Spring, and if the weather is bad there are always jobs inside you can do. I hope you found his post interesting, please feel free to leave a comment and share on Twitter and Facebook.

How to wallpaper around light switches and sockets

If you are wallpapering an entire room or simply a feature wall, more than likely you are going to come across a light switch, a socket, a TV Ariel or satellite point or a telephone socket. These may seem difficult to wallpaper around, but they don’t have to be.

The first thing to remember always is safety first, turn of the power to light switches or sockets before undoing any screws, yes this is a pain because you have to re-set clocks etc. But it’s far better to do that than get an electric shock. Wallpaper by it’s very nature is wet, the paste makes the wallpaper wet, this conducts electricity very well, so be safe, turn off the power.

The first thing to do is identify which kind of fitting you have, if your sockets or switches have the socket or switch box on the wall they are surface mounted, if just the face plate is showing then the box is sunk into the wall, this is flush fitted. You tackle these two types slightly differently.

Wallpapering around surface mounted sockets and switches

Wallpaper down to the switch or socket, support the wallpaper with one hand and smooth the paper into the switch surface mounted box, cut along the top of the box, then carefully, pull the paper away from the wall slightly so you can smooth the paper to the edge of the box, trim this edge, now do the same with the other edge. Finally cut with scissors the remaining ‘square’ out of the sheet of wallpaper but leave enough to trim. Smooth down the paper and it should go around the switch box, finally trim the bottom edge.

Clean off any excess paste off of the wallpaper and switch, making sure not to get too much water on the switch, then allow to dry for a bit and turn the power back on.

Wallpapering around flush fitted sockets and switches

As you wallpaper down to the switch or socket, make a small hole in the wallpaper, about the centre of the switch, now from the centre hole you have just made, cut from the middle toward the corner of the switch, so diagonally. Now smooth the wallpaper down onto the wall and trim the ‘triangle’ sections off but leaving enough to tuck behind the switch. Do this to all the ‘triangle’ sections. Now loosen, but don’t remove the face plate, and tuck the wallpaper behind the switch. Smooth out and air bubbles toward the switch. Finally screw the face plate down again, making sure not to over tighten and crack it.

Clean off any excess paste on the wallpaper and switch making sure not to get too much water on the switch, leave the power off long enough allowing for the wallpaper to dry out enough and any paste to dry.

Painting and Decorating for 20 years

2013 sees the 20^th year of my decorating career. It was twenty long years ago that I first picked up my paint brushes and rollers and started painting and decorating. I have worked in a few places in the UK during this time but now prefer to stay close to home, here in Southend on Sea.

Over the past 20 years of painting and decorating I have seen a few changes, not only in the painting industry but the economy also, we all have to adapt and a few years ago I also started including DIY and Handyman jobs in the list of services I provide. I feel this offers a complete service to my customers, this came about as my customers often would ask me if I could assemble a flat packed wardrobe for a newly decorated bedroom or hang the odd picture or two, as I know how to do these types of jobs I agreed and now offer this as a service.

I have undertaken commercial work as well as residential work in my career and painted things from warehouses to high street shops to mansion houses.

Styles and fashions have changed over the past 20 years from everything being emulsioned to feature walls, either in emulsion or wallpaper. And who can forget the phase of terracotta!!

Painting and Decorating Website and Blog

Way back when I started there wasn’t the Internet but have had www.propertydecorating.co.uk since 2007 which now includes a painting and decorating tips blog, that has over 60 decorating tips and has proved to be very popular.

I also have two other sites, www.rayfields.co.uk and www.improvingyourproperty.co.uk, both have blogs also covering DIY and Handyman topics as well as painting and decorating.

I have also created and written the code for four materials calculators, a wallpaper calculator, a ceiling paper calculator, a tile calculator and a paint calculator, these have proved to be very popular with lots of hits per day with people working out their materials. These are used not only by DIYer’s but tradesmen also.

I enjoy writing for all the blog’s and helping people out who want to do painting and decorating or DIY jobs around the house but are not sure how to go about it. I find this very rewarding.

New Media

Over more recent years I have started tweeting on Twitter, all the sites have a Facebook pages, I have a Google+ account as well as LinkedIn and a YouTube channel.

YouTube

Most recently I have started to put so video’s up on my YouTube channel, I plan to do lots more of video’s when time allows. But feel free to subscribe to my channel and comment on my videos.

Here’s to another 20 years!!!