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.

Weather to Paint or Weather to Not!

That is the question here in the UK this summer.

Here in the UK we are having some very wet weather for the season. At Property Decorating this is normally the time of year for our exterior painting work to get into full swing.

Its Raining Again …….

According to the Met office ……

“Met Office confirms wettest June in over a century” ref : https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/interesting/april-july2012

Apparently the Met Office figures for this June are showing double the average amount of rain fall thus making this year the wettest “June” since their records began in 1910.

Weather to paint

So if you are considering weather or not to paint your exterior there are some things to bare in mind ;

Is it dry enough to paint the surface of your exterior or is it already too wet?

What is the forecast, will you have enough time to get the job done in time? Most paint companies have details of their products drying times so you can at least estimate the time you will need for drying and second coating.

So there are many factors to think about, with Masonry paint for example could simply be washed away with heavy rain leaving you with poor and patchy coverage, likewise Gloss paint can get pitted with heavy rain and not give you the finish you require.

These are just a few points to think about when thinking about ‘weather’ its wise to paint in this unseasonably wet weather.

Umbrella anyone !!!!

Climbers and Ivy can damage your house

Climbers and ivy growing up a wall or your house can look very idyllic but you could be heading for costly repair bills if left to grow.

This post comes after decorating an exterior of a property recently. The walls were rendered and needed re-painting with masonry paint. One wall had in the past had ivy growing up the wall but had been removed.

The main issues was that when the ivy was pulled off the wall it took some of the old masonry paint with it, and left lots of the ‘suckers’ from the ivy. The wall looked ‘hairy’ and after my best efforts scrapping and pulling all the bits off, I couldn’t remove all of the old ivy from the wall, luckily it was in an area which could not be seen, which is, I guess why the ivy got a hold in the first place. After painting, the wall looked OK although you could see where the ivy had been.

If you have ivy or any climbers climbing up your walls be aware they could potentially damage your house, many climbers will pull the mortar out of the brickwork exposing gaps between the bricks where water can get in, also any evergreen climber that has leaves on all year round can trap water against the wall and create damp indoors.

Climbers can also, if allowed to, will get behind fascia board and under soffits and even lift roof tiles.

So it maybe a good idea, to consider how these plants can affect your house before planting climbers against your house walls.