How to Prepare for a Decorating Project

When you decide to carry out your own DIY projects, there are a few things that you need to do in preparation to ensure everything flows smoothly. The last thing you want is to get ready to paint, and find out you don’t have the right tools, or that you need to spend the next 30 minutes wiping down surfaces before you can begin. Preparation is key when it comes to any decorating project, and these points below cover everything you need to do to be ready to get stuck into your decorating.

Spring Clean

The very first thing you should do before any decorating begins is give the room your working on a thorough clean. It’s important to clean the room from top to bottom to ensure you have every last bit of dirt and dust, as you don’t want this floating around and sticking to the wet paint whilst you decorate. If you try to paint a dusty room, you will end up with bumps and bobbles in the paint that you won’t be able to remove unless you strip the paint back. It’s also beneficial to spring clean the room as you can throw away any items that have accumulated over the months that you no longer want or need. This will help to free up some space and make the room feel lighter and spacious when you’ve finished your decorating.

Create Space

Dependant on the room that you’re choosing to decorate, you’re more than likely going to need to reshuffle the furniture in order to create some space for you to move around with ladders and so on. You don’t want to have to carry out an assault course between your furniture pieces just to reach the wall, so position everything in a sensible location, piling some items (safely) on top of each other and making sure there’s plenty of room to move around. You could even look at moving some furniture pieces out of the room for the meantime, just until your room is ready to move them back in again.

Protect Furniture

To ensure your furniture is kept in the best condition throughout the decorating process, it’s really important to cover everything up. By covering your furniture in tarpaulins or old sheets you can prevent any paint or dirt from marking your furniture. It’s really difficult to remove paint from furniture pieces, so you really want to avoid this happening if possible. This will also be useful for resting items on there for easier use, knowing no damage will be caused to your furniture pieces.

Clothing Essentials

You want to make sure you have the right clothing to do your decorating in. The last thing you want to do is ruin your favourite jumper, so dig out your old clothes and use those for your DIY projects. Try to avoid wearing long sleeved tops as this can cause issues when trying to paint the wall and your sleeves get in the way and mark the paintwork. Similarly, you want to ensure you have the right shoes on when using ladders, as this will keep you safe and prevent any unwanted accidents.

Air it Out

Paint fumes can be harmful if too many are inhaled, so it’s really important to open the windows and keep as much air flowing through the room as possible. If you leave your windows closed when decorating the room then you’ll find that the fumes build up and will cause headaches and so on. It will also help to air the paint out and help the walls to dry properly.