Ideas for redecorating rented room (holes in wall?)

~Divine~Wind~ said:
<300/m
Industrial looking, School?
Is it even legally rentable as a living space? I don't see any radiators?
How above board is this?

Gut the place and get the entire room re boarded/plastered.
Clever reboarding and you could possibly lose the industrial looking surface mounts.

Fresh white paint will make the place look so much better.
Cover the floor with a dark coloured laminate and Im sure you could do something with the school looking cupboards in the corner.
Click to expand...

That sounds like a little too much work! Also the room isn't that big, so don't want to lose any space.

Isn't the thing under the window a radiator?

White paint sounds good.

maccapacca said:
I'll take a wild guess it's an HMO?

White emulsion the lot as it is then go back over with Red Devil One Time Filler http://www.amazon.co.uk/Red-Devil-Onetime-Filler-1L/dp/B004PPJ3AO and another two coats of white
Click to expand...

HMO?

Would paint like this do the job?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crown-Emuls...F8&qid=1405373042&sr=1-2&keywords=white+paint

Sounds like a good plan. Paint and fill holes and paint. Should brighten it up some! Is it suitable for painting the window frames etc as well? :)


Floor wise, I think Rroff was onto a winner with laminate (though I've spotted a nice second hand rug which might do), I'll check the prices out.

How hard is carpet to put down? (Just a thought)
 
For the record, I know it's a **** hole, but I'm reckoning on saving 1,300 a month (+ whatever I'd have saved with bills) on top of another 500 a month from the job. If I can do this for 2 years (I'd hope for a promotion by then!) I'm hoping to have saved a good 40k. That'll allow me a bit more flexibility for the future. :)
 
**** Brah! the landlord isn't this guy is it?

5471-3729.jpg
 
For the amount of money you're saving per month and the fact yer there for 2 years I'd spend a bit money up front before you move in and give yourself a nice clean place, I ignored the state of the place in my first flat before I moved in, my good I wish I hadn't.

It so much more ball ache decorating when you've actually moved in and all your stuff is in there.
You really won't lose much room boarding it mate, theyre only 12mm thick.

Spend a week or so and give yerself a nice smooth blank canvas mate
 
Boarding is easy yeah, just cut out the sections where you want switches and stuff and either glue or screw em down.

If the room is completely empty, shoudlnt take too long really to plaster/skim, coupla days maybe? They all look like nice large "flat" surfaces.

Like I say tho with clever boarding you could cover up some of the industrial looking trunking too.

As for floor surface...
Need measurements :p

I'd seriously think about getting it sorted out before you move in, the little things will annoy you when your in, after the huge saving your making each month you may as well make it a half decent place to live :)

Nice TV, some small 5.1's some nice furniture, could look really nice
 
Polyfilla the holes, sandpaper & emulsion paint with roller, Look for reclaimed 600mm square carpet tiles, often these are on Ebay & you might find some in your area at around 30p each or a bit more. Get some pictures from local charity shops to brighten up the walls
 
I would pay someone to board and skim the place. If you dont want a perfect finish you could porbably get it done for £250 and then all you need is some paint and a few picturs around the place and it will look a million times better.

You could get some cheap laminate too, Ikea do packs for something ridiculous which would probably cost you about £50 all in for the room.

Ligthing wise you could get a couple of lamps with remote switches (link) which would mean you dont need to go round turning each one on and off and you could also switch them off from bed etc.
 
Just hang loads of posters, lay down a rug, add some curtains and a nice lampshade and say "**** it that'll do"

No use doing a tosh job, it'll look crap (admittedly it'll be an improvement) and cost more money than it ought to. I don't believe in improving rented accomodation and if a jobs worth doing it's worth doing right.

If you were doing it properly but on a budget I'd box in the pipes, remove the extinguishers and place them outside the door (you don't need those in a bedroom in a HMO), skim it, then give ceiling, walls and trim a good coat of quality paint. Get some carpet laid down then add a lightshade and curtains. That'd home it up a bit.

Infact I'd consider replacing the door if I was spending some good money.
 
Last edited:
Usher said:
Polyfilla the holes, sandpaper & emulsion paint with roller, Look for reclaimed 600mm square carpet tiles, often these are on Ebay & you might find some in your area at around 30p each or a bit more. Get some pictures from local charity shops to brighten up the walls
Click to expand...


This looks like a winner to me. Checked on ebay and the tiles are fairly cheap. Guess I can just stick them down on the existing floor? Should cost maybe 20-30 euros for it all?

Filler seems be be around 10-15 euros. Paint + brush maybe 20 euros.

So hopefully between 50-60 euros to get it done. This seems fair to me. :)

Mark M said:
I would pay someone to board and skim the place. If you dont want a perfect finish you could porbably get it done for £250 and then all you need is some paint and a few picturs around the place and it will look a million times better.

You could get some cheap laminate too, Ikea do packs for something ridiculous which would probably cost you about £50 all in for the room.

Ligthing wise you could get a couple of lamps with remote switches (link) which would mean you dont need to go round turning each one on and off and you could also switch them off from bed etc.
Click to expand...

I like the idea of lamps, and think the idea of remote switches is inspired! I'm not going to fork out £250 (around 300 euros, probably 400 since everything here is expensive) as that's just mad money imo. Maybe later down the line.

Laminate flooring looks good, though I'm not sure how much prep I'd have to do over existing floor?

pitchfork said:
Just hang loads of posters, lay down a rug, add some curtains and a nice lampshade and say "**** it that'll do"

No use doing a tosh job, it'll look crap (admittedly it'll be an improvement) and cost more money than it ought to. I don't believe in improving rented accomodation and if a jobs worth doing it's worth doing right.

If you've got a couple hundred going spare then you could probably easifill some of the walls, bit of deckies caulk about. Give everything a good coat of paint and then a rug (carpet if you can find it cheaply I guess).
Click to expand...

Tempted to say **** it, but I'm trying to change. I've never bothered decorating the places I've stayed, and I think its symptomatic of who I am. :)
 
Forget filling and sanding, Id stick some lining paper over the walls with big holes and then just paint the rest as they stand.

Pop down to your local carpet place with dimensions and see if they can sort you any off cuts to fit that area. Fitting it yourself shouldnt be too difficult, particularly if you're not bothered about it lasting past 2 years.
 
Your going to use "reclaimed" carpet tiles?
Cheap carpet is well... cheap haha :p
You've also been given a few suggestions for cheap laminate.

A few suggestions to VASTLY improve the look too?

Your saving what £1300/m in rent?
Even if you spend half of that doing the place up you'll be far happier with the place.
you don't know how big the room is? may not even be legally lettable as a living space, and your not even gonna bother to do a half ass job to make is somewhat liveable?

Later down the line? Boarding and skimming with all your stuff in there will be such a PITA wish we had done all of ours before we moved in :(

You're there for 2 years dude!

As for the industrial lights, pull em down and attach a normal ceiling flex?
Probs just standard voltage I would expect for that.

You've been given permission to do the place up and yes I understand the "its not my property" approach, but serioulsy as one person has already said.... It looks like a crack den.

And £1600 a month for rent? Where are you actually living?
 
Burned_Alive said:
Forget filling and sanding, Id stick some lining paper over the walls with big holes and then just paint the rest as they stand.

Pop down to your local carpet place with dimensions and see if they can sort you any off cuts to fit that area. Fitting it yourself shouldnt be too difficult, particularly if you're not bothered about it lasting past 2 years.
Click to expand...

Good call on the offcuts. Fitting isn't hard? Even better! :)

~Divine~Wind~ said:
Your going to use "reclaimed" carpet tiles?
Cheap carpet is well... cheap haha :p
You've also been given a few suggestions for cheap laminate.

A few suggestions to VASTLY improve the look too?

Your saving what £1300/m in rent?
Even if you spend half of that doing the place up you'll be far happier with the place.
you don't know how big the room is? may not even be legally lettable as a living space, and your not even gonna bother to do a half ass job to make is somewhat liveable?

Later down the line? Boarding and skimming with all your stuff in there will be such a PITA wish we had done all of ours before we moved in :(

You're there for 2 years dude!

As for the industrial lights, pull em down and attach a normal ceiling flex?
Probs just standard voltage I would expect for that.

You've been given permission to do the place up and yes I understand the "its not my property" approach, but serioulsy as one person has already said.... It looks like a crack den.

And £1600 a month for rent? Where are you actually living?
Click to expand...

I'm trying to keep the costs down at the start, because this is my first job, and I recognise there is a danger of me blowing all the cash very quickly, and or getting into a lifestyle habit, especially given the nature of the job. I really want to save moolah. :)

In regards doing stuff when I'm there, I don't reckon that will be a problem, as I literally own one box of stuff, a laptop and a bag of clothing. I'll be putting a bed and a desk in there, so again not hard to move. (Maybe a sofa later on, but no plans for now).

If I can do plastering and skimming myself, I'll probably give it a go over time, as I'd like to learn a few skills like that for when I buy some houses down the line.

Oh and the tiles that I was looking at are all brand new, so slightly more, but are a nice colour. Laminate is definitely on the cards depending on price, how easy it is to fit, and whether I need to do anything to existing floor.

The industrial light bits sounds interesting, how would I check if its standard voltage? Are they easy to remove without frying yourself?



At the moment the plan is:


Temp:

whitewash walls after filling in holes
putting down tiles or laminate.


Possible medium term:

plaster walls



P.s I'm in euros here. Capital city, very nice location etc. Cheapest (literally a hovel place, with bills not included is just under 1,500 euros. Others go up waaaaaaaaaaaay past 1,500, 2,000 etc (albeit for slightly nicer rooms. None as close as me though!). I pay no bills so it's a no brainer. :)
 
You can but its more likely to peel, also don't use white paint on the walls. Go for an off white but keep the ceiling white. In the long run it will make the room warmer and feel less empty.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom