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I hate decorating with a passion, but apparently (I'm not convinced) the whole house needs doing before we downsize and move in a couple of years. I've reluctantly done a couple of rooms already. It's the large kitchen/living room's turn.
I get dragged to the DIY shop to buy paint. She chooses some off white colour that actually looks like dirty dishwasher to me. I say this but she likes it.
I spend most of yesterday doing prep, masking round all the beams that run across the ceiling, knackering my 60 yo back and knees reaching around and under the cabinets and fittings to scrub, sand, fill and mask. I start putting the first coat on and say 'look, this is minging'. 'No it's fine'. So I crack on and almost finish the whole first coat.
This morning, I'm keen to crack on with another coat or 2 so we can finish and move everything back. 'I don't like that colour' she says. Back to the paint shop. Rinse. Repeat. I feel a new patio coming on.
If your painting to sell, don't paint it a colour you like. Paint it a colour that will sell.
Very boring, very neutral. Let the buyer see what they want to do with it.
...it'll need doing again in a couple of years before you put it on the market as it'll be scuffed and marked by then!
🤣 🤣
If your painting to sell, don’t paint it a colour you like. Paint it a colour that will sell.
I know this. I was hovering over the magnolia but apparently that (and me by extension I think) is 'boring'.
Hire a painter and decorator. DIY is scabbing
Up the workers
Get a pro to do it. Or leave it to your wife. Life is too short to be doing DIY you resent. Other people enjoy it, or get satisfaction from it… if you don’t… live your life not theirs.
Life is too short to be doing DIY
and
live your life not theirs
Is how I feel.
I'd rather be ridinig my bike :o)
YMMV
My wife wants to lay ceramic floor tiles in the hallway, directly onto the laminate flooring in place.
I explain about floorboards, flexing/cracking, plywood sheets etc.
I'm being awkward about it
Oh, we had the “don’t like the colour now it’s up” thing… but it was me being the awkward one (colour temperature really matters imho, has to be right). Decorator went and got another colour, charged for another coat going on… everyone happy.
[ before the jibes, no, I’m not rich… but I accept there are jobs that just aren’t for me… surgeon, pilot, decorator ]
Don't do magnolia, if you're selling then you want white or just off white. Magnolia makes it look like a chain smoker has been living there for 30 years
I thought you could only legally paint houses grey these days anyway?
I'm just going off what I saw on Rightmove when I was house hunting though.
I'll turn my hand to anything, but I draw the line at painting. I get as much paint on the walls or ceiling as I do on my face.
Other trades used to take the mick out of the painters on site... "if you can piss you can paint" was one that I remember. It's not true. It's not as easy as it looks.
My wife wants to lay ceramic floor tiles in the hallway, directly onto the laminate flooring in place.
Good luck with that! Do you need a new patio as well!?
The person doing the work dictates how it's done.
Grey windows isn’t it? All refurbs around here have gone for that (30s ex council estate). Got to look dated soon, no? See also dark blue kitchens.
Good luck blokeuptheroad. Get the music on loud while you’re struggling through the work… and do it on your own so you can bitch and moan all you want about the task without your wife taking it on.
Magnolia makes it look like a chain smoker has been living there for 30 years
You say that, but really it doesn't. My hall/stairs/landing has been magnolia since I moved in 10 years ago. Too lazy to paint it and it doesn't look like smokers paradise... it looks, well, nothing really. Just don't notice it.
Magnolia in the bedrooms and any hallway between them to keep it warm. Off white everywhere else to maximise any sunlight and keep it bright. [ if in the often grey and cold UK ]
Good luck blokeuptheroad. Get the music on loud while you’re struggling through the work… and do it on your own so you can bitch and moan all you want
This is the way
My wife's record was 5 colours* in the kitchen over one weekend in the last house. Thankfully it was a small kitchen and I didn't get to take the masking tape down between coats. Actually, it was MrsWCA who did most the painting so I can't really complain.
*Because of the angle of the walls and the window, you couldn't get a true feel for the colour until both sides of the kitchen were fully painted and the reflected light could be seen. Hence the switched between Grapefruit, Passion, Sunrise, Other bollox names than means shades of yellowy orange.
Don’t do magnolia, if you’re selling then you want white or just off white. Magnolia makes it look like a chain smoker has been living there for 30 years
The reason that all housebuilders use magnolia is because they have all done the research concerning what helps to sell, and they all agree.
It actually makes white skirtings, architraves and doors look very white.
White walls in kitchen and bathrooms though. A kitchen doesn't need to feel warm or cosy but hygienic, and bathrooms are generally quite small so all white makes them look a little bigger, and of course clinical/hygienic.
Thanks WCA, makes me feel a bit better
Other bollox names than means shades of yellowy orange.
'China clay' apparently. Looks like a dirty grey on the wall.
Try it with paper...
On the roll, it looked nice. Pinky grey.
On the wall it looked like recently poured concrete.
At least we agreed and down it came - off the biggest wall in the house.
Ah well...
A kitchen doesn’t need to feel warm or cosy but hygienic
Ours is a large open kitchen living room with low beamed ceilings in a 200 year old cottage so that doesn't really work.
'scuse the mess, we've had the decorators in...
Try the dulux visualiser app, https://www.dulux.co.uk/en/articles/dulux-visualizer-app gives you an idea of what the room will look like
Just be thankful that your wife lets you live in her house. Don't do anything to mess up that deal.
Been there more than once and usually my fault, but can now be smug about it...
We were tipped off to use trade paints, from trade supplies as they do much bigger mixer pots - then get a roll of lining paper and do a massive, length of that with two coats of the test. Then you've a huge sample to play with and you can move it around the room, under different lights etc
‘China clay’ apparently. Looks like a dirty grey on the wall.
I've done my livingroom and hall in this... I like it, looks bright and neutral and fresher/more modern than magnolia while still providing some contrast to the white skirts & foor frames.
But also looks cosy on an evening with warmer colour temperature light bulbs.
Simmilar to magnonial but a bit more toward gray rather than cream.
Good luck blokeuptheroad. Get the music on loud while you’re struggling through the work… and do it on your own so you can bitch and moan all you want
My only contribution is to recommend Florence Black's new album for this. Turned up to 11...or 12 even. Absolutely brilliant live last night 🤘
Grey windows isn’t it? All refurbs around here have gone for that (30s ex council estate). Got to look dated soon, no?
I was thinking of people doing their interiors all grey. I've noticed the grey UPVC windows too though.
These are the nice, designer-y versions - but looking at houses on Rightmove there are a lot of homes that look like cheaply decorated offices.
If you're moving imminently then,
‘I don’t like that colour’ she says.
1) So what? You're moving. (Yes, I know, I know.)
2) "I don't like the colour" on a freshly decorated room in a colour she chose, I'd be handing her the roller and telling her to crack on. This is what tester pots are for.
3) I think the whole "blank canvas" notion is a fallacy anyway. The first thing the new occupants are going to do is redecorate to their own tastes. It's a waste of your time and money, and as you're no doubt painfully aware paint is bloody expensive. We moved into a white and cream blank canvas house, the rooms are now variously red, green, purple, teal, blue; the only areas still white/ish are the big expanses like stairwells because bugger that, and finicky areas like the parts of the kitchen not covered with units or tiles because (at the risk of repeating myself) bugger that. Oh, and my office is still white because I couldn't being myself to care sufficiently to change it, the wall space is mostly shelf/desk/wardrobe etc anyway.
Grey windows isn’t it?
It's "anthracite," you commoner.
I was thinking of people doing their interiors all grey.
Exactly what happened to my old house (the new owners were kind enough to let me have a look around). It looks better than it did - which, frankly, was a low bar - but honestly, meh. It's just the latest trend. I'm not sure as I get it, maybe one room or even one wall, but the entire house?
3) I think the whole “blank canvas” notion is a fallacy anyway. The first thing the new occupants are going to do is redecorate to their own tastes.
Some studies have shown that the majority of people, like 80% or something stupid, find it hard to imagine a home/space for themselves and get distracted and put off by the current occupiers wall colour and furnishings.
Ours is a large open kitchen living room with low beamed ceilings in a 200 year
So not a new build like what Ernie was referring to.
kelvin
Full Member
Grey windows isn’t it? All refurbs around here have gone for that (30s ex council estate). Got to look dated soon, no? See also dark blue kitchens.
Can't day I've seen it anywhere else but a neighbour has gone for moss green PVC windows. It looks most odd in a street of 1930's terraces. Well, it just looks odd basically.
3) I think the whole “blank canvas” notion is a fallacy anyway.
The decor in the house we moved into was so inoffensive we've only painted one wall in nearly two years! 🙂
Just getting to the stage where we feel we should 'make our mark', but it's kinda fine as it is.
I've lost count of the amount of times I saw a house on Rightmove and my initial reaction was OMFG! But I can see past it, most can't. The floorplan is where I did most of my research.
I’ve lost count of the amount of times I saw a house on Rightmove and my initial reaction was OMFG! But I can see past it, most can’t.
Yeah there is this... I can easily see past decor, but as you say, some people can't. Light and neutral is therefore best whether you go for 'Tuscan dawn' or 'Drunken Fawn'.
Looks clean and helps with lighting to make rooms look more airey, but also easy to paint over in future as its not too strong.
In the case of the OP, if you really are moving out in a year then I wouldn't bother if it meets the above critereria and doesn't look shabby.
Just getting to the stage where we feel we should ‘make our mark’, but it’s kinda fine as it is.
This is a constant battle between me and my partner. I thought "it's fine as it is, I quite like the clean look." She was like "MOAR COLOURZ!" I'll hold my hand up, she's been right every time.
I’ve lost count of the amount of times I saw a house on Rightmove and my initial reaction was OMFG!
Yeah, there are limits! Most of it is fixable relatively easily, the chandelier can be replaced and the chintz curtains are going, but you're right that it does make it hard to visualise.
Stripping a room can be interesting. My old bedroom was late 80s / early 90s pastel yellow and blue, prior to that it was a mash-up of textured paper and flock fleur-de-lys; the living room I painted two-tone red-ish with a border round the middle; the hallway and stairs were painted Anaglypta (actually Superglypta if memore serves); the front room was a textured paper that would be a 'feature wall' these days; digging out the bathroom I found the 1960s Austin Powers orange wallpaper, below that a jet black paper with dainty flowers that I assume was late Victorian. All of this lot was "on fleek" at the time but horrendous in retrospect. I expect the current 50 shades of grey fetish to fall into the same "what were we thinking?" bucket in a decade or so.
The whole idea of painting for the new buyer is mostly a waste of time unless the house is very tatty or you want to hide stuff behind wallpaper etc.
New kitchens are an even bigger waste of money. A friend of my Mum moved into a house and the first thing she did was rip out 'that ghastly kitchen' and had a new one put in. The person who had sold it heard about this and started what almost became a virtual hate campaign on the local residents WhatsApp groups because her 'beautiful and stylish £18,000 designer kitchen' had been desecrated by the tasteless slobs who she had mistakenly sold her house to.
New kitchens are an even bigger waste of money.
This just baffles me. "We've lived here for 30 years, are finally moving... best spend £18k on a new kitchen we'll never use."
If you're spending 18k to add 30k to the house value then fair enough, but it seems mad to me that you wouldn't have done it years ago.
The person who had sold it
... had sold it. You can't sell something and also keep it.
People.
The whole idea of painting for the new buyer is mostly a waste of time unless the house is very tatty
In my case, despite my OP I have to admit it did really need doing. We've been here 8 years and did a couple of rooms just after we moved in but not all of them. It's looking a bit tired and tatty in places. It's just that I'm a bit lazy, CBA and hate decorating. I just needed to vent. Mrs Bloke's instincts are mostly correct. If it was up to me it would never get done.
Good luck with that! Do you need a new patio as well!?
The person doing the work dictates how it’s done.
Ohh god, this .......
I have a stock phrase "You can tell me to do it, or you can tell me how to do it, but not both".
If you know how to do it, then do it your bloody self, don't waste both our time supervising me doing it.
She was like “MOAR COLOURZ!”
My wife chose Red Strawberry Thief William Morris wallpaper for the dining room. It's like eating inside a Xmas present. But it has to be said, it's very jolly.
scuse the mess, we’ve had the decorators in…
Yes, there is a bit of clutter - due to your decoration, but it looks like a great room. I like what I see of it.
I have a stock phrase “You can tell me to do it, or you can tell me how to do it, but not both”.
I need to remember that one for when I'm driving.
Yeah, that's what it's like being married alright.
You're better than me though, I would just gone out on my bike and left the painting to her.
Wife just bought a big tin of an 'off white'. She painted a section on the lounge wall, and has since decided she doesn't like it. 'You've still got some of the old paint left ?' she asked. I've got to paint it back over to the original colour.