If you’re the kind of person who finds it hard to stop tinkering with your interiors, then you might as well learn how to do the job right. There’s no point in committing your weekends and evenings to make your rooms look great, only to find yourself making basic mistakes and having to start over.
Here are some DIY skills that everyone who loves interiors can and should learn.
Mastering The Cordless Drill
Corded drills were useful in the past, but DIYers were forever plugging extension cables into sockets and tripping over wires. They weren’t exactly user-friendly.
When cordless drills came in, they made a big difference. All of a sudden, you could create mounts for wall decorations or screw boarding into place without having to worry about leads.
Mastering cordless drills, however, still take a bit of effort. You have to understand how they chuck works, as well as how much torque to apply to screws. You also have to know when you need to charge the batteries to optimise your work.
Learning How To Grout
Grouts and anchors are essential for ensuring that you create tight seals around sinks, showers and kitchen sideboards. Without good grouting skills, you end up with mould, damp and all sorts of other nasty problems that are difficult to resolve.
Plastering Drywall
Builders love drywall. It’s cheap, AND it is suitable for insulation. The downside, of course, is that you can damage it remarkably quickly. Even falling into it can sometimes cause it to crack and splinter.
The good news, though, is that you don’t need to replace it outright when you damage it. All you need is a little plaster and some skill.
We would be fibbing if we said that plastering was easy. It’s not. But neither is it beyond the realm of most people’s capabilities. If you’re a reasonable, intelligent person, you should be able to learn how to do it.
Using A Roller Brush
Using a regular paintbrush to decorate your rooms takes a long time. You’ll know all about this if you’ve tried it. A roller brush, by contrast, can have the job done in minutes.
Roller brushes also offer another advantage – they allow you to paint walls more evenly – far more so than with a regular brush.
When using a roller brush, you need to be careful of two things. First, that you don’t get paint you don’t want on the skirting board, doors and coving. And second, that you don’t apply paint too thickly to the roller head. Excess paint causes drips and streak – not what you want.
Putting Down Carpet
Changing your interiors invariably involves ripping up carpet and putting new down. Knowing how to do this in the right way can save you an enormous amount of money, particularly if you can avoid hiring out a trades person.
The most significant difficulty with laying carpet is cutting it to the right size. If you’re a pro, you might be able to get away with using a Stanley knife. If you’re not, then investing in the right carpet cutting tools is a good idea.