5 things to think about when decorating a childs bedroom

When decorating a childs bedroom there are a few things to think about, such as what colours to use, what the child is going to use the room for, is it going to be a dual purpose room for study and play? Or is it just a play area? Here are just five things to think about.

Bright and bold

Kids love bright and bold colours so reds, yellows, blues and oranges will keep the kids interested and make it a fun room to be in, especially if they are young. Don’t be afraid to use colour in a kids room, you can always change it at a later date when they get older and grow out of the current colour scheme.

Think tough

Kids being kids will make marks on the walls and paintwork so look out for wipeable emulsions and those that say they are tougher than normal, the same goes for woodwork. A good emulsion should allow you to remove any scuffs easily, if you are going to use wallpaper, find a scrubbable and washable paper so marks can be removed.

Murals and drawings

To make a room even more fun, you can add drawings or murals to a wall, or perhaps a decal of their favorite superhero? You could theme a room to what your child is interested in, such as animals, cars, or space, and the theme can be changed as they grow and tastes change. If you are an artist or know a friend who is one, you can have a scene painted onto the walls of over lining paper.

Storage

Kids have a lot of toys and games and you will need somewhere to store them all for when they have finished playing with them at the end of the day, so think of storage solutions, such as underbed storage, cupboards, shelves, and storage boxes. All of these things are relatively cheap to buy and will help keep your kids room clutter free, which will inturn make the task of cleaning just that little bit easier.

Study area

As your children gets older they will need a place to study and do their homework, so a desk will be vital and help them organise their stuff and have a quiet place to study and do their homework. These can be a stand alone desk bought as a flat pack that you assemble yourself, or a custom made one if you have a small or awkward area to fit a desk into. You can do it yourself by buying some wood and board from a DIY store if you are handy with your hands.

Should you hire a professional decorator?

Many people think they are not too bad at DIY and decorating and are willing to have a go themselves, which is fair enough. But should you hire a professional decorator to do the job for you?

There are a few things to consider before having a go yourself:

• Do you really know how to do the job
• Do you have all the necessary equipment to complete the job
• Do you have the time to do it yourself
• Do you have the money to fix mistakes

If the answer is no to any of these points above you should hire the services or a professional painter and decorator to decorate your home. Many people go charging into decorating without thinking things through, such as the order of how to do things. They then get stuck halfway through the job and either leave it for months or make a botch job of things.

Frankly life is hectic for everyone, you may have children to look after, work long hours, or have a second job. Do you really want the grief and hassle of tackling the decorating yourself? By hiring a professional decorator the whole process of making your home a beautiful place to be can be virtually stress free.

Professional decorator

Professional decorators decorate day in day out, so they will have the know how, the tools and the time to transform your home for you. Hiring a decorator can save you time and money, you can leave the decorator in the morning to go to work and come back and see the progress, and be amazed at how quick it is going, and how long it would of taken you to strip the wallpaper a bit each day!

Your professional decorator can advise you on colours, give you ideas, source the required materials and save you time, money and the hassle. How long will it take you driving around trying to find the materials, get paint charts and shopping. So hiring a professional can actually save you money.

The finished decorated room

Imagine how lovely it would be to come into a room that has been professionally decorated for you and is far better than you could of ever imagined, now isn’t it worth hiring a professional decorator?

One of my favorite sayings is as follows:

If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional, wait till you hire an amateur – Red Adair

To hire a professional decorator in the Southend on Sea, Essex (UK) area contact Adrian Rayfield via his online form.

Feature Walls : How To paint a feature wall

Feature walls have become very popular in recent years, they are a great way of giving a room a new look without the expense of changing everything in a room or completely redecorating. Simply by re-painting the feature wall can transform the look of a room. You can also follow the latest trends simply by re-decorating the feature wall.

Feature walls can be painted or wallpapered, it is personal choice and it will depend on the type of look you are going for.

Sometimes a feature all is called an accent wall, but they are both the same thing.

Deciding on paint for a feature wall

Deciding on what colour paint to buy for a feature wall will be determined by how the remaining walls have been decorated, typically a contrasting colour is used. But if the other walls have been wallpapered you can pick a colour from the paper to use as the feature wall colour.

Once you have decided on the colour for your feature wall you can buy the paint, you can buy ‘Feature Wall’ paint, this is just over a litre in size and should be enough to paint one wall. You don’t have to go this route, you can buy any colour in any sized can of paint. You could even use leftover paint if it suits your needs.

If you are unsure how much paint you will require for your feature wall, give our paint calculator a go, simply fill in the required figures and hit the calculate button and you will be told how many litres you need to by for your given area.

Painting a feature wall

To paint your feature wall, you can either mask the adjoining walls, skirting and ceiling with low tack masking tape, then cut in with a brush around the edge of the feature wall, just overlapping the masking tape but being careful not to paint any other surface. The use a roller to fill in the main wall area. By using masking tape you should achieve a straight line.

If you are confident in cutting in you can cut in without masking up. Cutting in is the term used whereby you use a paintbrush to go up to an adjoining surface, be it a wall, ceiling or skirting boards.

Once you have cut in or painted up to the masking tape and painted the first coat onto your feature wall, allow the paint to fully dry before applying a second coat. When you have painted the second coat you can remove the masking tape, if you used any.

Making a statement

By painting a feature wall you are making a statement, and making this one wall the focal point of a room. You may want to do this to highlight some pictures that are hanging on the wall, you maybe make a fireplace the focus of the room or simply it can give orientation to a room.

Whatever the reason for painting a feature wall, it can quickly and easily transform any room and give a focal point to an area of a room.