Interior Decoration Good Advice?

[Galant]

This is an attempt to scour the depths of Hexite knowledge and experience and see what might appear - on the subject of interior decoration/painting.

While I do appreciate a beautifully decorated home, and I'm reasonably confident in my ability to apply paint to walls (since I worked for a painter one year), when it comes to making 'creative choices' for myself I'm pretty useless. - Happy to say I'm married to a patient woman who doesn't demand artistic or DIY miracles!

So - for any of you who are more gifted in these matters - what are some tips, pieces of advice, wise words, hard and fast rules etc. that you would always recommend?

I'll leave it open in case others have their own interests or preferences but for my part, I'm interested in:

Choosing colours
Having high-ceilings
Using darker/natural colours
Paint types/finishes
Wallpaper/trims

[Saracen999]

Oh, yikes.

Can of worms or what?

Tip #1 - get the prep right. No paintwork will look good unless the prep is good.

Tip #2 - no all paints are born equal. Don't use cheap crap. Good paint will go on easier, cover better and last longer.

Tip #3 - choose paint surface carefully. Some will mark easily, other not so much. Some are washable (including good emulsions) whereas cheap paints will tend to destroying the finish is you wash more than very gently.

It somewhat depends on your circumstances. Young kids suggests washable paint, for instance.

As for picking colours, that's a HUGE subject. Some general points are that white ceilings tend to lighten and 'raise' the ceiling, whereas darker colours can make the area feel 'cosier'. Also, warm colours can make you feel warm, 'cold' colours feel cooler. Blues tend towards coldness BUT it depends on the blue, and definitely depends on the room, and what effect you're going for.

Or, in a computer room, if you work with colour, you might want a light grey. It's colour neutral and the user eye doesn't pick up a colour cast from wall colours in blue, Green, red, orange, etc.

We had our hall and stair walls done in a light grey (supposed to be based on the colour from old gaslight smoke) with bright white but non-shiny surface. We really like it. A similar effect could be achieved with a light greeny white, or even powder blue, but we think the grey looks classy.

Which brings me to ....

Tip #4 - choose colours you like. If that happens to be lime green and orange, go for it. Visitors might think it's gross, but they don't live there. you do.

Tip #5 - Now read point #1 again, and apply to final coat, as well as prep. If necessary, be prepared to give undercoat and two top coats. Takes longer, and might cost more, but pays off. Don't apply coat 1 too heavily to try to only do one coat.


Note - We had a (IMHO, very good) professional local decorator do our last lot of decorating. Most of the above come from three weeks of picking her brains.

[Kumagoro]

Take into consideration how long it will be before you redecorate again. In under 10 years then going with the fashion of the last few years isn't going to be a problem. After 15 if you went for something very common and trendy then it will look very dated. Choosing something which looks good and isn't to trendy is easier said than done.

[jimbouk]

We always just stick with Dulux for paint, no troubles with the paint going on and if you need another pot 5 years later then they have the colour still in stock.

Re colours - because we go with Dulux then when you look at a colour on the website then you get suggestions for pairing colours. We've gone for 'feature wall' in our house in most rooms, has worked well. Generally the smallest wall and round the window so the bolder colour doesn't overpower. Exception was the living room where we did the alcoves (two proper either side of the chimney and opposite wall (large inset which just excludes the door intrusion). Got red, green, orange and blue combines with off-whites or pale shades.

Haven't done wallpaper for a long time, though seen nice houses using wallpaper as the feature wall.

[Zhaoman]

I always prefer more neutral walls and ceilings as I find deeper or even vibrant colours tend to darken the room. I'd only suggest it if you have a particularly well lit room but then furniture can become tricky to match.

Wallpapers have been making a bit of a comeback recently. I've put up wallpaper as a feature wall in two apartments now and it does look really nice if the rest of the colour scheme is relatively neutral imo. You don't have to paint an entire room one colour either, you could have one wall one colour as a feature wall of sorts to add personality and the other walls a neutral colour to balance it. I think of neutral walls as a canvas that you can add colour to with pieces of furniture and soft furnishings or lights. Bonus points of course if you can match your RGB gamer PC

[Saracen999]

One advantage to wallpaper is that it covers a multitude of sins. Painted walls are (IMHO) preferable provided you have a good surface to paint. When I took some horrible woodchip off one wall, chunks of plaster came off with it (probably not done right in first place) and I ended up having to get a plasterer in.

Yes, you can use liner paper and paint it but it never looks as good.

Wallpaper is making a bit of a fashion comeback. Personally, and it's very subjective, I don't give a flying fig what is or isn't in fashion. Never have. If we like it, we'll do it whether it's in vogue or horribly last year. After all, visitors see it briefly. We live here.

[kalniel]

I'd just listen to the wise one above

For me, polyfiller, sandpaper and a cork block are my best friends - sand down irregularities, polyfill gaps, sand back to level and then when you paint you get a magical 'just built' kind of finish.

For painting it's the obvious hand paint edges (with masking tap if needed) then roller fill in everything else. Work from top to bottom in a room.

Colours.. just look in a dulux freebie brochure for some ideas. Also any kind of home catalogue like Next etc.

[Galant]

I see examples of 'accent' walls but when it comes to my own home I struggle to be able to make a good decision about which wall should be an accent wall. I think I'm too conceptual. I need to understand the principles behind a thing before I can make a confident decision. Maybe there are some theories of design that explain why certain walls should be painted certain colours or used as accents.... not that I have the time and interest, but it might be a solution.

Most of the rooms in our apartment have quite high ceilings - maybe 5 metres tall. There's a hallway that's about the same, but it's dimly lit. I think I'm just going to upgrade the lighting in it because otherwise I'm going to get stuck with choosing some sort of off-white... and I'm bored with white everywhere.

I do want to choose colours and designs I like but then what I imagine and what I end up with are often two different things...

[Galant]

I'd just listen to the wise one above

For me, polyfiller, sandpaper and a cork block are my best friends - sand down irregularities, polyfill gaps, sand back to level and then when you paint you get a magical 'just built' kind of finish.

For painting it's the obvious hand paint edges (with masking tap if needed) then roller fill in everything else. Work from top to bottom in a room.

Colours.. just look in a dulux freebie brochure for some ideas. Also any kind of home catalogue like Next etc.

Paint-skill wise I'm pretty confident. I do like to use masking tape and then also painter's caulk to give a nice clean, smooth finish.

[OhMyGodzilla]

When I got my first place, I found it easier to focus on one room at a time and to lay out what mood I wanted in each room; I then went from there with colour ideas and style. Once I had settled on a colour, I'd then google that room type alongside the colour to get ideas of what colours blend well together. For example I went for a lavender shade in my bedroom as I wanted it to be calming and after a bit of googling, I noted white goes well with that so my furniture pieces are now white. I guess you have to think about how much you're likely to re-decorate in future too as it can be costly to replace/mix and match. I would have some sugar soap on hand to wash the walls with as applying paint onto walls which have any dirt or grease can be troublesome.

I opted for Dulux paint as there's a reason why they're so popular - I tried a few other paints and they were quite watery to apply and therefore needed a few coats to get the desired coverage.