February 22, 2012

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DIY: Fit your own floors

January 30, 2012 By

For anyone interested in home improvements, doing some jobs yourself is a great way to save a bit of money, but it’s important that you get it right. A botch DIY job that’s not been carried out properly will mean you are likely to spend more money in the long run, correcting your mistakes, than if you had simply paid for the job to be done professionally in the first place.

 

So, it is vital that you follow step by step guides and instructions before attempting any DIY job in the home. In this article, you will find some useful tips on DIY fitting your own doors.

 

First of all, make sure you measure the doorway accurately and select the right sized door. This means measuring the overall opening space, the middle, top, bottom and height of the door and doorway. You should consider which way the door will open: inwards or outwards. If your door is to open inwards, ensure that no items of furniture, such as beds or tables, are in the way.

 

(When fixing a new bedroom door, you may also decide you wish to replace some of your bedroom furniture. In which case, you can find a really decent range at Bensons for Beds. And the prices are very reasonable too.)

 

Once you have your measurements, you can make any small adjustments to the size of your door by planning the wood. Mark hinge positions on your door frame and the door.

 

Screw each hinge into your door with just one screw and check it opens and shuts properly before using your remaining screws.

 

Follow all these tips and you should find that you are left with a wonderful new door that you can feel extra proud of because you’ve done it yourself!

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Choosing a colour scheme for your bedroom

January 30, 2012 By

We’ve all tried our bits of DIY in the past, successful or maybe a little less successful. And we all know what a pleasure or drag decorating can be, and one of the biggest issues when decorating your home is the colour scheme.

Some like blue and some like orange, but everyone knows they’re complementary colours so it’s probably not a good idea to use them both in one room, unless you’re a professional interior designer and know exactly what you’re doing and how to make it work. If you’re not one, but you’re still keen on using the two, or another pair of complementary colours for that matter, say green and red, you can try using one colour for the courtains and lamp, and then the other for bedding. Occasionaly throw in a bit of  black and white in there just to tie it all together.

Then look at your beds. You might not think you can do anything with them, but there are plenty of stockists such as http://www.bensonsforbeds.co.uk that do beds in a wide range of colours and in a wide range of material, from all different types of wood to metal and even leather.

Then lastly look at your walls. Think of colours first and then think of whether you’d like wallpaper or not, for instance. Wallpaper comes in a wide range of patterns and colours and if you’re looking to add a bit of flavour to your bedroom, why not go into a shop now and pick your favourite style. I guarantee you it will end up looking amazing even if you fit it yourself!

 

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DIY: Install a stairlift

November 30, 2011 By

You may be considering purchasing a stairlift for a variety of different reasons. Perhaps you have an elderly or incapacitated relative who you wish to help out by making their daily life a little bit easier. Or perhaps you are considering making the purchase for yourself.

 

Whatever the reason behind looking for stairlifts, and whoever you are looking to purchase one for; there are a few things to consider before making your decision. Firstly, you might be contemplating installing your own stairlift instead of paying a professional to carry out the task for you. It is possible to install your own stairlifts, but you will need to make sure you do your homework first to ensure you do the job correctly and don’t waste a lot of time and money or put anyone’s safety at risk.

 

Take great care when installing a stairlift, as if you break or damage the equipment you could easily find yourself with a repair bill that equals or is greater than the amount you would have spent on getting it professionally fitted.

 

If you choose a battery stairlift, it will need to be plugged into your standard mains socket and this is a task for which you are highly advised to employ a qualified professional, such as an engineer or electrician. There are many elements to the DIY installation of stairlifts that can be dangerous if they are not done properly, so make sure you seek the advice and help of experts wherever possible.

 

For those who do decide to go ahead with DIY installation, make sure you choose the correct stairlift for your home. You can choose from curved, straight and outdoor Homelife Stairlifts in a variety of sizes and designs. Make sure you carry out all your measurements carefully and find out the motor power and weight capacity you will need before you make a purchasing decision and begin the installation process. One of the best pieces of advice I can give you is to first look up all the information on the internet and make sure you have the right model with the right properties for you or your loved one. Remember, this is quite and important purchase, both financially and personally because you’ll end up using it for a long time and it is quite a big investment. So put it the right amount of time into making a decision and into fitting your stair lift, whether you’re doing it yourself or asking for professional advice.

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The easy guide to flat pack furniture

October 26, 2011 By

As anyone who’s ever attempted to build their own flat pack furniture will know, ‘easy assemble’ can be a subjective term!
Many a weekend has been spent by many a couple traipsing around the shops for the perfect bathroom cabinet or the ideal modern coffee table, and that’s not where the fun ends! Once you’ve found your perfect pieces of flat pack furniture, you still need to get the things home and assemble them.
These can certainly be testing times! There’s nothing like spending an hour putting together a piece of dining furniture, only to find that you’ve built the whole thing upside down and you have to start again. Or getting to a pivotal moment in the process of constructing a table, only to discover that a vital screw is missing, and where is this ‘part D’ anyway?!
It’s enough to make you give it all up and call in the professionals. Or buy your furniture ready-made!
Don’t be disheartened however. The best piece of advice I can offer when attempting your own flat pack furniture is to take your time, and work methodically and slowly. Begin by laying out everything in front of you and making sure you’ve got all the pieces and parts that you should have. Better to discover something’s missing now than when you’re at a crucial stage of the DIY! Make sure you have enough space and time, and be realistic about what you can achieve in one day. Don’t over-face yourself by trying to make every piece of furniture for every room in your house on your own and in the space of five hours – Rome wasn’t built in a day!
Many pieces of self-assemble furniture take more than one person to make, so don’t be afraid to ask for help. And remember, it might be stressful now, but it’ll all be worth it when you’re sat with your feet up on your brand new self-assembled coffee table!

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Bedroom Basics

October 21, 2011 By

Someone wise once said that the two most important purchases we ever make in our lives are shoes and beds. Why you ask? Well if you’re not stood up in one then you’re lying down in the other of course! Now whilst this is not strictly true, the principal is sound – anything which gets a lot of repeated use is an important purchase and beds in particular fall into this category.

Double beds have the power to influence our mood, how well we sleep, our posture and indeed our overall health. The right mattress can make an incredible difference to quality of life and when we buy a new bed it is not a decision to take lightly. Before you head to the furniture showroom there are a few things which you need to take into account apart from personal taste, the basics of which are size, scale and interior design style. Buying a bed which is badly proportioned for your room is an easy mistake to make, and if the bed is too big it could be a costly error too.

As with a lot of bedroom furniture you also need to take into account who is going to assemble your new bed as the likelihood is that it will be delivered flat packed. This can be a daunting project to undertake if the toolbox is an alien world for you so if you’re having a go my advice would be to take your time and follow the manufacturer’s instructions carefully. If it comes to it then rope in some expert assistance and make sure you get the job done right.

Beds are a great place to start as a DIY assembly experience, and who knows – once you’ve cracked that you may not be able to resist another purchase and another opportunity to wield that screwdriver!

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How To Redecorate Your Bedroom

October 17, 2011 By

Are you currently considering redecorating your bedroom? Are you fretting that, rather than ending up with a new lick of paint, you’ll actually end up with a home insurance company representative on the other end of the line as you prepare to claim on your accidental damage cover? Well, fear no more, as following just a few simple tips can make the difference between home DIY success and interior design disaster!

As with any DIY job, before you consider how to redecorate your bedroom, you need to be honest with yourself in the planning stages. Are you actually capable of carrying out the DIY task? Should you hire a professional? Are you being overly ambitious? Furthermore, do you have the money to cover the project?

If you want to go ahead with the bedroom redesign, first of all decide upon a theme. Do you want a luxurious feel to your room? Would you prefer a more basic look to the room?

Once you’ve decided, clear out your room. Throw away anything you don’t want to keep; now is the time to be ruthless. Your local charity shop will thank you! Take down your curtains and any decorations on your walls and fill in any holes with a good filler that will last.

You should then paint your walls (after covering your carpet, unless you want to risk claiming on your contents insurance for damage to that antique rug!), taking particular care along the edges and around the door.

Once the paint has dried, put your belongings back into the room and replace the items you disposed of earlier. Make sure your curtains, rugs, throws, and pillows match the theme of your room and that larger items such as your bed complement the colour of your walls.

Finally, don’t underestimate the importance of those final touches; a well-placed painting or wall hanging can work wonders in any room!

Filed Under: DIY

Do It Yourself or Not?

October 2, 2011 By

Sometimes as DIY enthusiasts we take on a larger project than we can perhaps cope with, and often it is difficult to admit when we are in trouble and need to ask for help. The thing to keep in mind if you are in this situation is that the further along the line you go of turning your renovation work into a disaster, the harder and more costly it will ultimately be to put right. A sobering thought if ever I heard one!

When you are considering the work in the first place, especially if it is something you have never done before, like for example fitting hardwood doors, make sure you have the right tools and the basic knowledge and skills to attempt it. If you are not even sure on how to begin then the best advice is going to be don’t do it! At the very least, read around the subject and speak to friends or family who you know have done similar work themselves. This will give you a good idea of what you are about to tackle.

One of the areas which always seems to catch out the over-confident amateur is fitting engineered wood flooring or plain hardwood flooring. Billed as being the preferred option for DIY-ers that does not mean to say that it is easy to do. Getting a specialist to fit your floors versus doing it yourself is something that you should give serious consideration to. The flooring material itself is very expensive, the job will take a considerable amount of time, and the larger the floor the more room there is for error.

I don’t want to sound like a profit of doom here and by all means go for it if you think you know how! Just be aware of your own limitations and if you won’t ask for help then at least ask for advice.

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Make your painting look like the work of a pro

September 12, 2011 By

DIY encompasses plenty of different things around the home, from fixing shelves and cupboards to creating a wardrobe from scratch. But one thing people often don’t spend too much thinking about when they’re starting a new home improvement project is painting. While painting sounds like a simple job, it often takes far more time and effort than people have accounted for and if it’s not done well, it has a tendency to look sloppy. So, if you’re planning to redo your bedroom some time soon, we have some top tips to make sure your painting looks like it has been done by a professional!

First thing’s first, you’ll need to take everything out of the room before you get started – remove the mattresses, bedroom furniture and whatever else you might have hanging around. Then you need to prep the surface – put tape around borders and areas you don’t want to get paint on – especially window frames and doors. If you’re not planning to get a new carpet, you should cover that with plastic sheeting to avoid getting it messy.

You’ll need to have both a paintbrush and roller to hand, as different parts of the task are going to require different tools. Get your hands on a three or four-inch paintbrush with a straight edge for general surfaces. To paint around tricky bits, something which is around two inches wide will be best. Quality brushes are essential – if the bristles are good, you’re going to end up with a decent finish on the surfaces.

When it comes to rollers, the depth you want depends on the surface material. For drywall, you need smooth or semi-smooth depth, whereas on a textured ceiling or something you’ll need to have a rugged depth. Always paint the ceiling first if you’re doing this, allowing it to dry first – it may drip on other walls if you do them beforehand.

Then you’re ready to do the other parts of the room – once the first coat of paint has dried, you should add another to make sure all the walls look good as new and like they’ve been the handiwork of a pro.

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How to remove old wallpaper

August 12, 2011 By

Wallpaper removal is a job nobody enjoys. It’s sloppy, sticky and long. A few people try avoiding this tiresome task by painting or repapering over wallpaper, but this isn’t advised and should become a headache for whoever attempts this job in future times. While there is not any way to avoid wallpaper removal, there are comparatively new methodologies and products on the market to make this task a bit easier than during the past.

 This isn’t your father’s wallpaper removal.The most effective way to get wallpaper to cooperate is to make it wet enough to scratch off. To do this, you will need to score the wallpaper first. This is simply done with a general-purpose knife, but there are scoring products on the market designed expressly for this reason. These can enthusiastically be found at the local DIY emporium.

To score, take your knife and cut in a criss-cross pattern across the wall. Once your wallpaper is correctly scored, a chemical wallpaper remover will need to be applied. For your own safety, you can doubtless need to speculate in some cheap safety glasses, rubber gloves and even a mask to respire thru. The removal agent can be applied with a paint brush, but this could take a bit. Many DIY backers counsel a garden hose with a spray attachment like those you use for spraying furniture, or a paint sprayer.

You will potentially wish to open the windows. Spray or paint the removal agent onto the paper and let sit till the paper is saturated. If the paper does not get wet enough for simple removal, reapply the chemical. If chemicals are not for you, you need to use the much safer and environmentally sound wallpaper steamer technique. For this you’ll need to hire a steaming machine from your house improvement shop. Follow all directions fully. Use the steam to totally saturate the wallpaper. Regardless of which technique you select, once the wall is saturated, the wallpaper paste will start to get soft. The paper may even begin peeling from the walls by itself. Once it’s soft enough, you can begin scraping. Taking care not to cut holes in the wall, use your scraper to delicately scrape away the old wallpaper using long, mild strokes. There could be some determined areas where the wallpaper is still stuck to the wall, in which particular case, you might need to reapply the chemicals or steam.

Once the wallpaper is totally removed, you may most probably be left with walls covered with unpleasant adhesive. One can remove this by buying one more chemical or by utilizing a heavy detergent. After the glue is removed, wash by wiping the wall with a clean, damp sponge. In place of dear chemicals and steam machines, there are those preferring the more old-fashioned hot water or water and vinegar methodology of wallpaper removal. These also work, but be forewarned, if you use plain water or vinegar and water to melt the wallpaper and adhesive, the task will become even more long. Wallpaper removal has gotten a bum rap. While it isn’t the most nice area of renovation, the utilization of chemicals or steam machines make the work go by far easier than in days past.

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