| Do I need to redecorate?  One thing that can be said about the age we live in...we have incredible choice.
We can choose where and how we want to live. We can choose our careers, our lifestyles and, to some extent the impact we have on the world, from an ecological point of view.
With all this choice comes the crunch...when one has choice one also has 'Responsibility' to use choice wisely.
But how do you make a responsible choice?
Weighing up the pros and cons of every decision we have to make can be both tiring and daunting.
 My way of handling the daily minefield that makes up our 21st century lives is to ask myself
"Do I really need to do/buy/have that?"
This can really weed out the impulsive 'just for me' actions from the more important 'life enhancing/necessary' actions.
You don't just cut down on the decision making you also help yourself, your environment and ultimately the future of the planet... oh and you also end up spending a lot less too.
And so with redecorating
Now you may have thought that that was a very lofty and possibly heavy introduction to the subject of choosing whether we need to redecorate, but I do believe that by thinking about our actions all the way back to "do I need to" is the first part of this whole article.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself:
- Do I need to redecorate? - Is the room/ house really in need of redecorating? See later on how to decide if you need to repaint and other ways of freshening up and brightening a home.
- If the answer was 'yes' - Then ask yourself 'have I got paint that I could use up'? Most households have tins of paint that sit in sheds and garages. Perhaps they aren't the colour you want. See later on how to use up left over paint and how to change the colour.
- What do I need to paint - how much work do I need to do? The more painting, the more paint you need, the more preparation and use of resources and chemicals. We will look at alternatives to repainting everything when you are redecorating.
In further articles we will look at:
- What are 'Green Paints' and why are they better than the large brand big boys? We take a look at what is in paint and what advantages and disadvantages there are to using 'greener' paints.
Well! All you were looking for was some information on 'Green' paints and now I'm making you do all this thinking. Well in the long run you may thank yourself for investing the time and effort in reading this article.
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Do I need to redecorate?
Why are you considering going through the process of turning the room or house upside-down? Spending days off and weekends or even whole weeks to change the colour of a room?
Are you being influenced by fashion? Or is there a more specific reason for the need to redecorate, say you have had a leak, some essential building or maintenance work has taken place and you now need to 'make good' an area of the home. Or perhaps you are thinking of selling up and you know that how you have decorated is not what the potential buyer would like to see, perhaps we'll just imagine that you love terracotta and your rooms are very warm and earthy in colour.
One time I always recommend that you paint is to maintain the structure of your home. Exterior walls, exterior woodwork, windows and furniture all need essential maintenance to keep them in good order and to prolong their life. I will look at this in more detail in a future article. This is also true in damp and wet areas of the home such as bathrooms and kitchens.
Good maintenance is the backbone to good 'eco friendly' living. The old saying 'a stitch in time saves nine' is as true today as it's always been.
Of course there will be times when it is desirable and even necessary to get the paint brushes out and freshen up the walls, but just changing colours every season, because the interior magazines suggest that 'X' is the current colour to have, is both wasteful and shallow.
Change one wall - this can have a dramatic effect on the rest of the living space. By just changing the colour of one wall you can completely change the feel of the room. I recently used this techniques through out a property I was working in and instead of using bucketfuls of paint, I used just 1/5th of the paint and of course it took a lot less time.
As with paint so with paper - changing one wall and papering this with a really attractive, fun or gorgeous paper can change the room. Again it will work out cheaper and quicker too.
Change the accessories - Sometimes you don't need to change the whole room, just aspects of it. If you have changed the wall colour, why not experiment with the cushions and rugs too. This doesn't necessarily mean buying new ones. Try moving things around in your home. Sometimes the cushions in the living room look great in the bedroom. Or maybe swap the rugs around. Rather than change the sofa could you recover it with loose covers or even a throw?
Wash the walls - Todays surfaces and finishes - paint and wallpaper, are much more resiliant. Try freshening up the room by washing the walls first. Gently dust the walls, vacuum with a soft brush then, starting from the bottom with a solution of soapy water gently use a spray (like a garden atomiser) and a soft sponge and work your way up the walls. Working upwards stops the danger of 'streaking' where water runs down the wall and creates streaky marks in areas cleaned in a non-uniform way.
Add a large piece of art or a mirror - If you want to brighten up a room that has dark walls have you thought about adding in some large light piece of art on the walls or even a large mirror. You can buy artists canvasses very cheaply these days and with just some simple emulsion and match-pots create a stunning piece of abstract art that can really change a rooms feel. See my article 'how to make simple art for you walls'. Hanging a mirror can also lighten a room by reflecting the light and also by creating a 'window' on an internal wall. I like to hang a mirror opposite a window and in a place that catches the eye as you enter the room.
Increase/ improve the lighting - By using side lamps and floor lamps you can quickly change the feel of the room. Lighting not only illuminates dark areas of rooms', it creates atmosphere and depth in rooms and so can do much more than colour alone. Low energy bulbs and low voltage halogen are good ways of increasing lighting without increasing energy costs and the impact on the environment.
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| So you need to do some redecorating!
There are times when you find that there is no way around the fact that you need to get out the paint brushes and splash some paint around. But before you jump in the car or get on line to buy more paint.
Have you got some paint already? It is a rare thing for me to work with a client who hasn't got some left over paint, somewhere in the property.
Now very often the paint isn't exactly the colour that you were planning on using so consider the following:
Tint it - There are several ways of changing the colour of paint. One is to use a universal 'tint'. These are very strong pigments that you can buy from builders and decorators merchants. They are strong enough to change the colour of most household paints.
Add other paint - If you have a light colour paint that you want to make darker then try buying a small amount of a very dark colour paint and mixing them together. You might even have some dark paint already. Be flexible with your colour scheme...you may then discover a colour you really like.
Lighten it - If the spare paint that you have is too dark, buy some lighten emulsion to lighten the dark colour. I recommend that you don't use brilliant white but rather a cream or grey colour which will blend more easily with darker paints.
If you use any of these methods make sure that you mix enough up to complete the job...you'll never create the same shade again and invest in a paint stirrer attachment for an electric drill and a large black bucket...makes mixing so much easier.
Use it as an undercoat - If you are decided that you want to use a specific colour of paint, then why not use left over paint for the undercoat and only paint the top coat/s with the bought paint?
This is exactly what I did with a client recently. She had very dark dated floral wallpaper that we had decided to paint over. She also had the left-overs of many tins of light coloured paint. So I mixed up all the light paint and used it to 'white out' the dark floral wallpaper before then applying the fresh new colour that she had chosen.
Donate it to charity - If you end up with a lot of paint left over (see my article 'how much paint do I need to buy' to help you work out what you need to buy). Don't dump it. Call a charity and ask if they are working on any housing projects that they could use it on. Don't forget 'freecycle' a website to help you get in contact with things that you have that others need, or the other way around.
 Using up paint not only reduces the cost of the project it also reduces the amount of resources you were going to buy to carry out the job and further it is a way of 'disposing' old paint without taking it to the tip where it has to be disposed of using more resources.
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What do I need to paint or redecorate?
The other way to reduce the amount of paint that you need to buy and use is to ask yourself the question 'What do I really need to paint?'.
As a property stager I am always working with tight budgets and so am creative with the amount of work that really needs doing.
The motto is 'Does it need changing? can I work with it?'
An example is often woodwork. This is both a time consuming and expensive part of redecorating. It takes longer to paint the woodwork in a room than the walls and the cost of the paint is more too.
Clients often jump in and start striping off perfectly good paint from woodwork, just because there are a few chips or marks. Problem is that once you begin the job where do you end...the skirting is next to the door frame, next to the door that is near the door frame on the other side that is near the skirting in the next room etc etc. What looked like a small patch has turned into the whole house.
Here's my advice
Wash it down - use a soapy water solution and if necessary a bit of cream cleaner and a soft sponge. wash all the wood work down and you'll soon see that most of it is in good order.
Don't re paint in white - even if the original colour was white, it will have discoloured. chip off some paint from the areas that you are redecorating and take them down to the local paint mixing shop. They will colour match the paint so that you can touch up the 'aged' paint and no one will ever know.
If you need to repaint a whole section, finish at a corner joint. This way the change in colour may not be so obvious. This is true for wall colours too.
Does it need replastering?
Sometimes lumpy, bumpy walls look wrong, catch your eye and you just want to get rid of them.
Before you call in the plasterer, with all the mess and expense that can follow, think about how you could work with the uneven surface.
Paint is in a flat matt - Shiny paints allow the light to pick up imperfections in a surface more easily. Use flat matt emulsions or 'dead flat' oils to help hide a walls uneven surface.
Use a pattern paper - or even an embossed paper to help mask the irregular surface. Avoid using stripy papers that will draw attention to the irregular surface.
Do I need to replace the cupboards, cabinets & wardrobes?
We will look at ways to rejuvenate large items of furniture in future articles, but look long and hard at the 'kitchen', 'bathroom', 'wardrobes', chairs and sofas, have they got years of life left in them? Maybe the handles are dated but the cabinets are ok. Maybe the fabric is worn and frayed but the frame of th sofa is fine.
With some effort and a little imagination you could maybe rejuvenate these and save yourself a fortune too.
Take a look at the following articles:
Choosing & using environmentally friendly green paints
How to make simple canvass artwork.
Ways of rejuvenating kitchen cupboards
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