Top Tips for Redecorating your Home

Whether you’ve been living in your home for awhile or you’ve just moved in, redecorating is a great way to freshen the house up and make it feel more like your own.

Many people assume that redecorating will be a monumental task, budgets will be blown, fights will be started and everyone will be stressed out, but redecorating can actually bring you closer as a family and can even be fun.

Here are some top tips for redecorating your home:

Do your homework

Before you even begin redecorating, it’s a good idea to start planning so you know what you want to change. Are you planning to stay in the house for a long time or will you be selling it and moving on in a few years?

While you may wonder why this would matter, you’ll have more artistic license if you’re planning to raise your family in a home, while if you need to appeal to a large range of potential buyers you may need to be much more conservative with your plans and think about whether the work you’re putting into it will pay off when it’s time to sell up.

Another reason to make a plan is to ensure that you and your significant other are on the same page when it comes to colours, fabrics, materials and furniture. If one of you loves the monochrome look, while the other person wants it to look like a country home, complete with wooden furniture, some serious compromises will need to be made.

Start with furniture

If you have a few pieces of furniture in mind, this is a good thing to know since if they draw attention you may need to tone down your colours for your carpets, curtains and walls. Spend some time shopping for furniture so you can get an idea of what you do and don’t like and list a few key pieces that you definitely want.

If you’re replacing furniture that’s old and scruffy, you may want to consider having a yard sale or listing it online to see if you can make some money- after all, one persons’ trash is another person’s treasure.

Teamwork makes the dream work

It’s not fair if one person is doing all of the planning and redecorating and the rest of the family is pretending it’s not happening. If you feel like you’re doing all the work, ask yourself if you’ve made a real effort to ensure that the whole family is involved.

Ask opinions, especially if you have kids and you’re changing their bedrooms. Since everyone in the family will be living in the home, it’s important that it’s a warm, welcoming, comforting space for the whole family.

Encourage everyone to come with you to pick out furniture, paint colours and carpet, and try to keep sessions short and sharp so you don’t have to deal with boredom. It’s much more fun when the whole family is involved and takes the pressure off of one person.