First Steps To Decorating Your New Home

One of the many questions you’ll need to ask yourself when viewing and buying a new home is whether it will need to be redecorated once you move in. This can be a big job, especially if you’d like to change the décor of every room, but it can also help to create a homely atmosphere that suits your personality. If you want to save money, you could do your own decorating, in which case there are a few essentials you’ll need to buy before getting started.

Equip yourself properly

Before you even start thinking about wallpaper designs and paint colours, get your decorating equipment sorted. You’ll need a sturdy ladder, a good set of paintbrushes, a paint roller and a paint tray, a good number of dustsheets, some masking tape and a pair of overalls for yourself. If you’re planning on wallpapering you’ll also need a pasting table, as you’ll find it even more of a difficult job otherwise.

Find your true colours with the right paint

Even if you already have your heart set on a certain colour, it’s always best to take a paint chart home with you before buying anything. The sizes and shapes of rooms new homes will logically play a large part in figuring out your colour scheme, but just as important is the room’s natural lighting. When you’ve narrowed your choices down a little further, go and buy some sample paints – you can get some on the wall and imagine what the whole room would look like in that shade of blue or green. This should help you to make your final decision, and it’ll certainly be easier to paint over a tiny patch of unwanted paint than repainting the entire room.

Choose the perfect wallpaper for the room

Wallpaper can really bring a room together and it’s an excellent way of adding colour, texture and patterns, while also covering any imperfections on your walls. You might want to consider having just the one wallpapered wall (often referred to as a feature wall) that will draw the eye, or you could wallpaper the entire room. Whatever you do though, when you’re choosing your wallpaper make sure you view it in a vertical position, not lying flat on a table. This will give you an idea of how it will look on your wall.

Get started!

When you’ve bought your equipment, paint and wallpaper, you’re finally ready to start decorating. Always cover the floor and any furniture with dust sheets to catch dripping paint and wallpaper paste, line the skirting boards and ceiling with masking tape to stop any paint splotches from happening, wear old clothes and your overalls, and always have a second person there to hold your ladder for you.

Have any decorating hints or tips you’d like to share? Leave a comment below...