What's the worst decorating job you've ever done ?

[sandybay]

We are [slowly] working on the house we moved into last year and at the moment I'm having a horrendous time.

Our living room has a wooden ceiling and beams [unfortuately not beautiful old ones but probably replaced about 30 years ago as a lower ceiling to the original old beams and roofing].

They have been stained a horrible mahogany colour which makes the room incredibly dark even with two windows and glass panels in the adjoining conservatory and hall doors.

I set out to paint the ceiling and beams off white and what a malarky it is turning out to be.

Generations of previous owners must have been heavy smokers as the ceiling is coated with nicotine. I'm having to wash it with sugar soap before painting on a priming coat. A small bucket of water is filthy after cleaning a piece about 18 inches square. It is disgusting and smells of fag smoke :mad:

They could film me to use for an anti-smoking advert - think what it does to peoples lungs if it has 'kippered' my ceiling !

I am dreaming of when it is lovely and clean and pale - :),

What's been your DIY nightmare - and was it worth it in the end ?

[jazzactivist]

Oh no, sandy, I remember having to do the same to the beams in my previous house! It took ages, and is so uncomfortable on the neck and arms, isn't it. The beams and ceiling will look great when they are done, though. My worst decorating nightmare was the hallway in my current house. Part of it is two stories high and awkward to get to, so even our home scaffolding kit wouldn't reach. So I had to balance on the stairs to strip the walls and ceiling of its pink wallpaper using a pump and spray water gun, then attach a manual stripper to 2 long poles tied together and scrape away tiny bit by tiny bit, and then paint it using a paintprush tied to the two poles! It was really difficult and unwieldy, but it ended up a nice job and as it is painted off-white and has remained clean it should, hopefully, suit the next people well.

[sandybay]

I think your job sounded worse than mine Jazz- all the balancing you had to do sounds dangerous.

Have made great progress today and all but a tiny bit is now primed white - what a difference-

I've been able to sit and do a crossword earlier without switching on the table lamp!

[sheddie]

sandybay well done bet it has really made a difference and as you say That Smell. X

[sandybay]

Yes it has Sheddie [great name by the way].

At last I'm beginning to see a room that is ours starting to emerge, when we moved in there was one red wall,three dirty yellow cream walls, mahogany brown wooden ceiling
orange painted skirting boards, dark blue carpet. yuk ! Got quite down over the winter living in alien surroundings. Now I can see the beginnings of soft chalky off whites and pale greens and we've chosen oyster quartzite slate for the floors - much paler than normal slate in lovely champagne/pale grey tones. Finish off with cream linen curtains, some cosy rugs and it'll be home at last. Sigh....

Home is so important isn't it - if you don't feel your surroundings are right it can hurt your soul. Oh that sounds silly when you think of all those in the world who have no where to live...

[jazzactivist]

I agree with you about how important surroundings are, sandybay. People without a home are willing to opt for anything, but I think even in that situation people try to make it feel like theirs, or they end up just leaving it. I once worked in the Dominican Republic and the shanty towns there were a riot of colour from paint and flowers - even though people were desperately poor they still took pride in their surroundings and made them as nice as possible.

Your plans for your room sound lovely and I can just imagine the space and light that it will bring in. So important in the winter months too. I have renovated two old houses now and I think that I won't do it again. Perhaps it is time for a more modern house that someone else has done up, although I wouldn't go newer than the 1950s. Good luck with all your work, I'm glad that mine is all done now, but the transformation was very satisfying.

[sheddie]

sandybay your colour scheme sounds lovely and airy, bet it smells all fresh too eh? X

[lily]

Trying to wallpaper a ceiling single handedly was a nightmare. My son has just bought a place with a once trendy pine ceiling, they have had it plaster boarded over and then painted. Certainly makes the room much lighter.
I think your scheme should be in CL Sandybay!

[joyceybug]

Taking off all the woodchip in a bedroom and the wretched plaster underneath came off with it.Nightmare.

[bonnie]

some years back i was doing a house exchange, but i had a few problems with my house so me and my best friend came up with some cost free DIY. firstly the gas man came out and capped off a pipe sticking out of the kitchen floor, only when he removed the pipe he did'nt fill the hole he had left in the floor. we decided cement was too expensive so we filled the hole with mud from the garden and stuck a tile down to cover it.
where there were holes in the walls fron pictures we filled them with toothpaste.
i had stripped the bathroom to redecorate it but my friend Karen came up with the idea to do a sponge affect on the walls, only problem was we had no paint, so we got two different food colours and sponged them over the walls. once i had moved i never heard from the people so we must have got away with it,ANYONE WANT SOME DECORATING DONE?

[Clunkshift]

Bonnie, you didn't have a relative in the south that specialised in sticking polystyrene tiles to ceilings with evostick by any chance?
After a couple of weeks we finally admitted defeat and replaced the entire ceiling.

[sandybay]

Clunk, one of Bonnie's relatives must have lived in our house at one time.
Mr or Mrs Bodgit ! Polystyrene tiles - yuk - think they're not supposed to be used now because of the fire risk. When hot they melt and drip.

I've now applied the second white primer coat to the horrible wooden ceiling - can now read without the light on - hooray !

[bonnie]

:Dclunk and sandybay it just so happens i know a man who knows a man who may be able to help you out.:D:D:D

[jazzactivist]

Oh no, bonnie, you must have lived in our old house! We started to wash the walls in a bedroom before putting on a new coat of paint and the colour started to run off them. After washing all the walls they were left clean and white and we actually didn't have to decorate in there for some time... A friend once old me that as she was moving out of her house a wardrobe stripped a piece of wallpaper off her hall wall. The new owner had loved the wallpaper, and all their tools were packed, so she sent her young son to the shop to 'get something sticky' to repair it. He came back with a jar of jam. It apparently worked exceedingly well, and the buyers still live in the house with the same wallpaper in the hall.

[sandybay]

Well I suppose the lad tried his best !

Talking of sweet sticky stuff my husband has told me that when he was a boy people used to re-stick tiles that fell out in their fire places with the really thick condensed milk. Apparently it set rock hard with the heat.