With a new year starting, many people will be thinking of tackling some projects around the house, and getting into DIY, maybe for the first time. If you don’t know what you’re doing, and don’t plan ahead, this could be disastrous, not just as you fail to achieve the effect you want, but also potentially cause yourself injury!
Let’s take a look at a few beginner’s tips for the budding decorator who wants to start on their first project.
Start Small
If you’ve never done any substantial home improvements before, it’s best to start small. If you make grand plans to redecorate your entire house, you’ll likely find yourself overwhelmed, having to scale back and end up with an unfinished job that leeches away your motivation to try anything else in the future.
Start with something you can achieve in an afternoon, so you can see the fruits of your labours and be inspired to greater efforts in future, not overwhelmed and put off more ambitious challenges.
Repainting one wall of a small room, or hanging some pictures is a great place to start: these are limited projects that let you grow your experience and confidence.
A Blank Canvas
It’s important to clear space when you’re undertaking a big project to avoid damage to furniture you may wish to keep using. In some cases, it may be sufficient to cover items in the room with dustsheets but if you’re planning some really disruptive work – repainting a whole room, for example – or have particularly precious items you wish to keep safe you might want to look into storing them away from your home. London storage options are plentiful, so you should be able to find somewhere that lets you clear out, letting you get on with your home improvements without endangering anything.
Safety
It’s important to be safety conscious when you’re undertaking decorating and home improvement work. With approximately 200,000 accidents caused every year in DIY accidents, taking a few elementary precautions is only sensible.
Make sure there’s someone around to help: if you get into difficulties, fall, or have something fall on you, the results could be much less serious if there’s someone there to help you right away.
You should also make sure you’re using reliable equipment. If you’re using an old ladder, check it for rust, and for loose bolts and screws. Falling from the top of a ladder is one of the biggest risks you face when doing some decorating, and even if you aren’t seriously injured it’s sure to put you off further projects so take care, and make sure you can keep improving your home for years to come!
