DIY Painting the Bank Holiday Weekend

The bedroom of my newly acquired flat is sky blue and the kitchen is lime green. The walls have as much character as white filler so they had to be repainted.

              

On the bank holiday weekend Grant and I bought our equipment and painted. Firstly we washed down the walls with sugar soap and let me tell you the stuff is amazing. After that, the walls looks so clean we almost decided not to paint at all.

I've never painted before and thanks to the encouragement of my girlfriend, I decided to DIY. Here's a few tips I've learned from the experience:

1) It takes longer than you think. Mistakes will be made. You have to clean them up as you go or otherwise someone's going to walk on the carpet with wet paint on their shoes.

2) You have to be really organised. Have all equipment ready and jobs assigned. A step ladder makes painting easier even if you're tall, Put masking tape on all edges where you don't want to paint. Have no more than two people painting in a room so you're not interrupted by anyone else's work and you're not in their way.

3) You will probably buy more paint and equipment than you need. But that's good because you have it all on hand as long and you can return what you don't use later.

We were knackered by the end of the weekend. The night before the last day of painting I sent a "please help" text to my super trooper girlfriend Kim who woke me the next morning to say she would help out.

We eventually decided the living room did'nt need to be repainted but Kim got straight into painting the kitchen like a trojen. That's the way to paint. No faffing, as she says. Goodbye lime green walls.

It was a fun project and very messy. The flat looks a hundred times better now!