HERE’S A QUICK RUNDOWN OF WHERE HIS & HERS WILL AND WON’T BE INVESTING WHEN DECORATING THIS SUMMER.
The cost of home repairs can quickly mount up and this might put you off giving your place the makeover it needs. But living in a house that needs a bit of work can get you down, so you need to find a way to decorate the house without spending too much money. The key to budgeting well and making sure that you do it cheaply at the same time is knowing where you should spend a lot of money and where you shouldn’t.
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Do Spend On Furniture:
Furniture is often one of the most expensive things when you’re decorating a room but don’t be tempted to try to get it cheap. If you’re buying discount furniture, it’s not likely to be of a good quality which means it’ll break after a year or two and you’ll find yourself paying out again to replace it. You’ll save a lot more money over the years if you buy good quality stuff from places like Old Charm Furniture. It’s also important that you get nice furniture because it will create the focal points in your room and you’ll build everything else around it. If the foundation of the decor is built on cheap tacky furniture, the rest of the room will look equally bad.
Don’t Spend On Painting:
There are certain jobs around the house that you need to call a professional in for. For example, you definitely shouldn’t mess around with the electrics if you don’t know what you’re doing. But painting is one job that you should generally do yourself. As long as you take enough time to prepare the walls properly, you can’t really go too wrong. When you’re decorating bedrooms, bathrooms etc you’re fine to do it on your own, the only time you should consider calling somebody in is if you’re painting a difficult area like a high ceiling.
Do Spend On Paint:
You shouldn’t spend money getting somebody in to paint the house for you, but you absolutely should spend money on good quality paint. There are plenty of cheap paints out there but if you use those, you’ll be redoing the paintwork all the time. Cheap paint will start to flake off in no time but if you spend a bit more cash on the good stuff, you won’t have to do it again for a long while. You can even splash out for some wipe clean paint which is easy to maintain.
Don’t Spend On Wooden Floorboards:
If you’ve got some old carpet that you want to revamp, you could always pull it up and see what state the floorboards are in. Often, they’re not going to be in a good way and bringing them back to life seems like a bit of a daunting task. You could pay somebody to do it but the work isn’t that difficult. It’ll take a bit of time to sand them all down but if you’re willing to put the hard work in, you can save yourself a lot of money. Renting an electric sander won’t cost you that much and then you’ll just need to pay for varnish.
Follow these do’s and don’ts of spending money on home repairs and you’ll be able to redecorate the house without breaking the bank.
We’re very proud to bring you this feature in association with The Place for Homes, B&Q and This Old House. For similar features, please pay a visit to our interiors page.
