Help Me Decorate my new home!

[bgfilly]

So guys, I am in the middle of buying a house and i got the house at an amzing deal, however the house needs an immense amount of work. So I am coming here and asking for ideas on color combos, floor colors, textures, anything you guys might like. Faux finishes and tricks you guys have used to make your home look spiffy, instructions on how to do so, even pictures you have of your decorated rooms. Im not looking for anything specific but just ideas and tips and how you guys have your homes decorated.

The things that need to be done in my home are as follows

removal of textured ceilings
painting of wood paneling in basement
removal of all carpets and laminate floor
removal of ugly pink tile in the basement
covering of old ugly brick on the fire place
removal of wallpaper
painting of the wall
choosing of the furinature
Painting of the kitchen cabinets

As you can see there is alot to do so any tips and tricks is greatly appriciated!

I have books and Ideas and color combs in my head but i would really like the imput of others who have decorated their homes. Just to see what other ideas there are out there!


As of now my style is very zen, very clean line. I love bright and virbrant colors but i also love earthtones. I love all things bamboo and stone textures.


Thank you in advance!

[jjjoan]

covering of old ugly brick on the fire placethe older brick may have the better look.;)
click this:
http://www.slide.com/r/qjNAdb844z9sBvviA8juESWT_uh2sFDQ?view=original

http://www.slide.com/r/7Z8ZE3RY5D-P-xXPkj9IEh2LQ1H0wWSp?view=original

[bgfilly]

actually the brick needs to be covered, they painted over it and completly destroyed it, theres no way to fix it. So im planning on tiling over it.

[BeNt]

I painted wood panelling in my lounge and back room. I did 2 coats of an oil based undercoat and then 2 coats of a matt acrylic called white secrets - they came up looking really good! For colours in the rooms I used paintings, rugs and stones.

In the lounge on the painted panel is a large painting done in mushroom pinks etc with chinese calligraphy written on it. Underneath sits a largish buddah statue , in the cup he's holding I put chunks of rose quartz which brings out the colours in the painting. Next to the buddah is a large, white oriental vase with bamboo and silk orchids (pink & cherise sp??) On the other wall is 3 paintings of cherry blossom.

The rug is oriental, a lot of red and gold with patterns in jade green. The coffee table has a nutral coloured oriental runner and Ive placed a handful of jade stones, and hand carved oriental wooden box.

Have fun - rennovating can be lots of hard work (not to mention the $$$) but it is so satisfying when you've finished :D

[bgfilly]

Thanks for the response BeNt your decorating style sounds lovely. I'm not a fan of all the rose and pink colors tho but I do love reds and greens and earth tones and again other really bright colors.

Painting wood paneling is a tedious process so thats gonna be a pain but in the end, i am sure it will turn out lovely. As for the money i'm not too concerned about it because most of the stuff I am doing I am doing on my own. Except for the removeal of the textured ceiling and the replacement of the floors.

[Loopy_loo]

erm... don't hit me.. but i think brick is a very late 80's/ 90's look in a room.
My dad put brick on our fireplace about 12 yrs ago, an is adamant he doesn't want to remove it, but we decorated a year ago, eveything else in the room is modern. an the fireplace sticks out like a sore thumb!!
my advice would be to pull them off( unless they are not budging)and bin them.


Does youre place have like original wood flooring underneath? is it in good nick?
maybe sanding it off an varnishing it ??

as for colours. maybe earthy tones creams, light / soft browns in ur living room.

dark furnishings complimenting white sinks/shower loo etc bathroom? (1 block colour?)
house plants

what about red and white colour in the kitchen with silver table top furnishing?

neutral colours in bedroom. with splash/ hints of soft pastel colour. i.e powder blue??


big mirrors are a good centre to a room. seating reasonally low to the floor.??

i dunno.... just randomly typing as things pop into my head now. ..dunno if u have a budget ... ?? :p

[Vee]

Hey there, I know that your houses in the States are different to ours here in the UK and your general materials are too. I have just finished doing up my first house and looking at it now with all neutral colour apart from the kitchen and bathroom it looks good with pictures and furniture bringing out the colour in the rooms. I used a soft cream throughout and have stuck to earthy colours for curtains etc.

I also put a new balistraid in and have done that in antique pine varnish which ages naturally with the light in the house.

I had textured ceiling which I scrapped back and had it plastered with a smooth finish.

LOADS OF INDOOR PLANTS!!!!!!!!!!!:thumbup:

good luck and hope you update us on your house :rolleyes:
Vee

[Sleepless]

So guys, I am in the middle of buying a house and i got the house at an amzing deal, however the house needs an immense amount of work. So I am coming here and asking for ideas on color combos, floor colors, textures, anything you guys might like. Faux finishes and tricks you guys have used to make your home look spiffy, instructions on how to do so, even pictures you have of your decorated rooms. Im not looking for anything specific but just ideas and tips and how you guys have your homes decorated.

The things that need to be done in my home are as follows

removal of textured ceilings
painting of wood paneling in basement
removal of all carpets and laminate floor
removal of ugly pink tile in the basement
covering of old ugly brick on the fire place
removal of wallpaper
painting of the wall
choosing of the furinature
Painting of the kitchen cabinets

As you can see there is alot to do so any tips and tricks is greatly appriciated!

I have books and Ideas and color combs in my head but i would really like the imput of others who have decorated their homes. Just to see what other ideas there are out there!


As of now my style is very zen, very clean line. I love bright and virbrant colors but i also love earthtones. I love all things bamboo and stone textures.


Thank you in advance!

reomval of heavy texture require a paint stripper or sander, then filler to fill in the cracks then use a gloss finish paint which then keeps its colour longer

painting the wood...why not sand it down then stain it the colour you want with a wood stain, it looks beautiful after

removal of carpets and laminate flooring throw the carpets out, but i would keep the laminate flooring unless it is real bad, you can stain it another colour and fix the parts that are worn or broken use a buffer to remove the dirt and grime

removal of pink tile, sand the tile down with a tile sander to remove the pink, or get a ceramicpaint to paint over, vinager soaked over the tile will clean up the white edging or re-grout with fresh buff over the tiles to give it a better finish

covering brick again sand down the worn parts, re-cement to bring up the old warn parts recovering brick is kinda difficult it might peel after, cant you just work with the brick somehow?? plus brick is beautiful in my opinion lol, there is lots you can do to bring up a new look

removal of wallpaper... hire a paint and wallpaper stripper from a D I Y shop you can hire it for week or however long you need it


painting the wall, strip will wallpaper stripper, sand down filler for the cracks, then size the walls use a one coat paint, match the colours you want, use a glossy finish paint for a sheen finish, add a dado rail in the middle of the wall, stain the dado rail, to the colour you want it, then you can either paint both halves or do paint on the bottom and wallpaper on the top, or vice versa, i have seen these, they look very elegant..

choose the furniture to match your colour scheme, space is a good thing, so dont try to clutter by adding to much furniture, make sure any wood furniture matches, go online at www.lowes.com (http://www.lowes.com), you can plan any room from there with decorating or furniture

painting the kitchen cabinets, sand them down stain, or painting the colours you want, make sure you use light colours in the kitchen, as it will look too dark if you dont, replace the handles units with ones you like that all match, chrome is a good idea or gold or silver, make sure you replace the faucet (taps) with the same design to match eg chrome silver gold etc, make sure the tile in the kitchen works well with you colour scheme, add spot ligting in the cuboards to lighten up the kichen, the top units on the wall could be replaced with glass if your using lighting inside, use a good quality work surface eg granite or marble the effets are stunning,

ps i could ask cheri to add you to give you more ideas, she has built 5 houses and the interiors are superb which she designed..

[bgfilly]

Thanks Sleepy. I've pretty much have an Idea of how to do most of the stuff. The brick needs to be covered up, im going to tile over it with a stone tile. I will prolly have to dry wall over that first. The floors need to come up! They are old and nasty and need to be replaced and you cant really restain new laminate since its fake and doesnt take stain too well. Im probably going to go with oak flooring. The tile downstairs im probably going to replace with slate.

The wall paper I know how to take down but its tedious!

As for the kithcen cabinets, im going with a darker color becaues all my woods are dark colors and the tile there will match the tile on the fireplace. I know how to paint cabinets and the panneling downstairs so im not worried about that. Its cohesive and it will work. The appliances are also white so that will help inject a lighter atmosphere. The hardware im probably going to go with chrome.

[bgfilly]

Hey Everyone, I am pushing this back up as I still need help. We are finally going to be closing on my house in a week or so and I still have decided on nothing. I have a few ideas in mind but nothing final. So I am still looking for loads of help!

[Razbo]

I wish you luck on your Home Improvements bgfilly! God knows you have a ton of them!

My biggest suggestion, unless you LOVE to DIY everything, is hire some good local/reliable contractors...the job gets finished in no time and lessons frustrations and stress...

As for colours, you won't like mine but I am partial to mixtures of blacks and whites. All white walls give the rooms a brighter atmosphere and will compliment any colours you want to add into the room.

However, a friend of mine painted her walls in two adjoining rooms (the dining and living) in totally different colours and it really is cool. The dining room was solid watermellon color on 3 of the 4 walls and then a combined, sponge painted mixture of watermellon, blue, yellow, green - you name it!)...the adjoining living room was GOLD on one wall and white the rest of the way around (if I recall correctly). Really, really looks cool!

G O O D L U C K G I R L ! ! ! And yeah, keep us updated.

[bgfilly]

Well I am getting down to the wire in my home remodel. I picked out this really awesome red tile for my kitchen and really dark expresso colored cabinets and they look great together. However, I need some opinions on what types of other colors and accessories i should bring into the space, since i took down the dividing walls between the kitchen, dinning room and living room. They all need to flow. Any help would be greatly appriciated!

[Razbo]

Hey there BF, sounds like you're really coming along well on your "Move that bus!" remodeling!! LOL.

My suggestion on colors, I would use BRIGHT / Pastellish colors --- a nice lemon color or teal / aqua would round out the mix (that's just my opinion). Or just go with mixtures of rose, peach and beige colors

I myself am partial to black and white with a mix of teal or aqua. I know, I'm boring! :)