Home decorators often do not realize that with a little planning, a lot of heartbreak can be avoided. This article is written for people who may be tackling home decoration for the first time, and goes into area where people make mistakes which are not only disappointing, but can be costly.
*Planning.
*Tools for the job.
*Color coordination.
*Preparation mistakes.
*Taking shortcuts.
*Choosing the wrong paints for the job.
*Protection and safety.
*Finishing.
Planning.
Often the home decorator acts spontaneously, and while spontaneity may be fairly adventurous in other areas of life, decorating is not one of them. We all expect our decoration to last a long time, and we have to live with the results. It can also be costly to make mistakes. How much paint and decorating materials can you afford? Which rooms do you wish to tackle first? Having some plan in advance helps you to organize family life during the decoration process. Where can you place furniture. How can you find the right materials. The research you do in advance pays dividends. Talk to friends and also the experts before you part with your money. The number one mistake people make is not thinking the decorating process through and buying without comparison of products and product prices.
Tools for the job.
Cheap tools may look tempting but how efficient are they? Home decorators often confuse price with cost effectiveness and quality of finish produced. Buy cheap brushes and what you find is that these leave streaks in your paint-work. Buy cheap rollers and what inevitably happens is that they hold less paint, making them less effective and meaning that you have to give the walls more than one coat. Cheap roller trays often are too shallow and need to be refilled more often than good quality ones. It really is a mistake to think you can do a professional job with tools which are less than professional.
Color coordination.
Start out by thinking through the desired color scheme. A great way to do this is to make a board and put the different elements on that board to ensure that everything blends nicely. For those things where you cannot get a swatch of material, take a digital photo. This helps you because when you go to the shop to choose your paints, you will have the color of the large items such as, carpet colors, floor covering colors, bedclothes or bath towels, and you won't make the mistake of buying paints which clash with those all important items you cannot change at a later date. It really is cost effective to plan your scheme and to be assured that the chosen colors really do go with items within the room you are about to paint.
Preparation mistakes.
Filling holes can seem tedious, but this really does help your work to have a professional finish. Even if walls are going to be "hid" by wallpaper, you will still see defects if you do not prepare walls and woodwork correctly. Scrape out any splits to remove loose plaster and fill with a suitable filler, rubbing down with sandpaper in between coats until you achieve an even surface.
One of the biggest mistakes decorators make is to paint windows while the wood is still wet from the winter. Although the surface may appear to be dry, often dampness penetrates the wood, and what you are doing by painting it in this state is locking in the dampness and more or less guaranteeing that your woodwork will rot.
Dust brush the surfaces between rubbing down and painting, as walls will have a layer of dust which will get trapped in the paint.Baseboards will also have an accumulation of dust which has fallen from further up the wall, and if this is not removed, the effect will be that your paint work to these areas will gather dust and look badly finished.
Taking shortcuts.
While it is very tempting to take shortcuts, the decoration of a home is a serious business. Never depend upon a paint being one coat. Woodwork needs to be primed, under-coated and top-coated if it is bare wood to start off with. If you want a wonderful finish, give each coat sufficient time to dry and never forget to sand down in between coats as this helps the paint to adhere and also helps your finish to look the best it can.
Don't be tempted to second coat before the first coat is dry. Patience is a virtue when it comes to decorating and one of the most common mistakes a home decorator makes is impatience.
Choosing the wrong paints for the job.
You will have different kinds of surfaces to paint during the course of your decoration. There are paints specific to each of those jobs. Under-coats come in different colors for a reason, and also at different prices, though this is the foundation upon which your decoration depends. Never choose cheap undercoat. A good quality undercoat will ensure that your surfaces will be ready for their top-coat and look great.
For walls and ceilings in general purpose rooms, choose a mat finish as this is discreet and does not show up bad areas of wall. Mat paint is also great for ceilings since it does not detract the eye from the presentation of the room. Often home decorators make the mistake of using mat paint in areas where there will be either condensation or water, such as kitchens and bathrooms, and these really should use a suitable paint for those areas which is harder wearing given those circumstances.
Skirtings or baseboards should be painted in an oil based paint, since these get a lot more wear than you may suppose. If you are going to highlight baseboards in a darker color, remember to mix or to buy an appropriately colored undercoat, since these areas tend to get chipped. If you make the mistake of using white undercoat under a color, these chips will be much more apparent and disappointing.
Stick to known makes of paint, since these are more reliable. Often cheap paint gives disappointing results which have to be reworked and in fact use more paint than you would have used had you chosen a good quality paints.
Remember to buy white spirit, as the unaware decorator will often forget this is an essential item for cleaning hands, brushes or spills straight away when using oil based paints.
Protection and safety.
It is much easier to work in a room which has been emptied and protected with dust sheets. You may think this is tedious, but you will give yourself a much easier time if you free up the space to work. It's very time effective to have the room empty, and you will finish the job more quickly. Check that you have sufficient dust sheets and avoid the use of plastic dust sheets. This is a common error and what happens with these is that they slide, causing a hazard and that the paint spilled upon them does not dry and is more likely to be walked into other areas of the home. Sheets are much more efficient.
Make sure that you store paints away from children, and particularly bear in mind that little hands may wish to help you with your endeavors and should be dissuaded, not just for the safety of the project but also for the safety of the child.
Finishing.
The finishing coat of paint is the most important of the whole job. Do make sure that your surfaces are sanded down with a fine sandpaper before you apply the final coat. Also be prepared to dust brush or vacuum before that coat is applied. One of the biggest mistakes first time decorators make is that they assume that the paint-work is safe once applied. At this stage, the paint is very vulnerable to dust. If you wish to move things back into a finished room, do make sure that the woodwork is fully dry to avoid dust being caused. It is always best to leave oil based paints to dry for 24 hours before cleaning up the dust sheets, since they will by this time have a coat of dust on them. Clearing them away at this stage can ruin your perfect finishes.
The job of decorating doesn't have to be hard. All it takes is a little organizational thinking before, during and after the last brush-stroke, and you too can sit back and celebrate a job well done, without falling into the pitfalls awaiting the enthusiastic home decorator who fails to foresee problems. After the dustsheets are removed and the furnishings are put back into place, you can take pride in a job well done, and leave mistakes to those who prefer spontaneity.