LICK OF PAINT
Want to redecorate a room over a weekend? It’s all about prep. Follow Aneira Davies’s tips to keep stress levels down
A weekend is the ideal time to revamp a room and it’s surprising how much you can get done in just two days, especially if you do the fiddly bits beforehand.
A fresh lick of paint in a tired-looking room can really make a difference to its overall appearance and, if you’re lucky, you may find that giving your windowsills a good clean may mean you don’t have to paint them at all.
Before you begin, it’s important to make sure you’re prepared – by getting in the tools you need, prepping surfaces and buying the right sort of paint.
Here are some top tips for getting your room ready for a weekend makeover project.
Time-saving preparation
“The key to decorating a room in a weekend is all in the prep – that means having everything you need to hit the ground running on Saturday morning,” says Marianne Shillingford, creative director of Dulux.
Clearing the space before the weekend and moving furniture out of the room will also save precious time you can dedicate to painting on the day, while a deep clean is also an important step. Give your windowsills and skirting boards a scrub down with some cleaning solution and your walls a clean with some sugar soap, which will get rid of any unwanted marks before you start.
“Before painting, walls and ceilings should be clean, dust-free, smooth and completely dry,” says Jason Hines, senior buyer at Homebase. “Wash them down with detergent or sugar soap. Then rinse with clean water and let them dry.
“You might even get lucky and find that cleaning skirting boards, window frames and doors means you don’t actually need to paint them,” says Shillingford.
Get your odd jobs out of the way first
Have a hole that needs filling or a rough bit of wall that needs sanding down?
These odd jobs can often slow things down if you do them on the day, but getting them out of the way before the weekend means you can concentrate fully on painting on Saturday and Sunday.