With the spring comes the urge to tidy, renovate and redecorate your home. It makes sense: with the weather improving, you want to through open the curtains, open the windows and let a fresh breeze blow through your house and blow away the cobwebs of winter. This makes your house more open than it’s been in months! You’re putting it on display, and that’s going to make you see it in a new light. You’ll recognise tired paintwork and furniture that needs either serious attention or a one way journey to the tip, but also opportunities to create a better home. Sudden realisations that a lighter shade makes this room look bigger, or the way your spare room looks out over the garden and could make a lovely office.

Today we’re capitalising on the season with some tips for redecorations to make sure you’re avoiding mistakes and painting your way towards success.

Clear Space

This is the most important advice of all. Whether you’re completely remodelling a room or simply touching up a bit of paintwork, give yourself room to work otherwise you might find that what was supposed to be a short, cheap job ends in a trip to Ikea to buy a new, less pain splattered sofa.

If you’re doing substantial work and don’t have the space to simply shift everything out of the room you’re working in, look into storage units. If you live in London, storage companies are everywhere, and it’s the same in towns across the UK! Hire a storage unit in the short term and you can evacuate the entire room, giving you space to paint without worrying about destroying the furniture.

Plan

Starting your decorating with a complete plan is a fool’s errand. It results in work that’s never quite finished, it causes you to spend too much money and it could end in a serious wound to your ego, if not more tangible injuries.

Start by deciding what you want to do and what exactly that entails. If you’re going to repaint a room, is that just the walls, or will you also be touching up the woodwork? That will require different equipment and different paint – so factor it in or you’ll be making a return visit to the hardware store before you can complete the job.

Try tester pots of paint before you commit – you can’t be sure how a shade will look in the precise lighting conditions, and when it’s dried so if you don’t actually paint a bit of wall to check, you could find that things to turn out very different to how you expected!

With a clear space to work and your plans in place, you’ll be all set for success!