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Decorating treasures or horrors
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So I'm sitting here having a Fab and beer break from stripping wallpaper and paint in my 1950s house. Wondering about the horrendous colour combinations that I'm finding.
My downstairs loo was at one point mustard yellow with DARK green woodwork apparently. The kitchen, lime green walls with the same dark green door frames and skirting, I'm finding sky blue as well 
So what treasures and horrors have you discovered while decorating? |
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Last place i lived in we decided to decorate, went to strip some wallpaper and immediately stopped after the first bit brought a huge chunk of plaster off with it so decided to paint over the wallpaper instead |
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I'm looking forward to decorating my house.
A previous resident had quite 'the reputation' locally.. Bit of a joke between several male friends & myself, they've had sex in my house more than I have!
Apparantly they used to leave dated comments on the plaster walls in permanent marker!
What secrets are now hidden under that anaglypta wallpaper?
|
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"Do you remember when sponging was all the rage! And stipple effect or ragging!
Dont forget stencils  "
Guilty!  
The house we’re in now is over 200 years old and unfortunately, we’ve come across a lot of bodged and terrible diy jobs: ceiling tiles, Asbestos ( ), chipboard to line door jambs and upstair floors - not to mention how the lights flicked when the landline phone rang!
Needless to say, we soon guttered and modernised! |
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"Do you remember when sponging was all the rage! And stipple effect or ragging!
Dont forget stencils
Guilty!
The house we’re in now is over 200 years old and unfortunately, we’ve come across a lot of bodged and terrible diy jobs: ceiling tiles, Asbestos ( ), chipboard to line door jambs and upstair floors - not to mention how the lights flicked when the landline phone rang!
Needless to say, we soon guttered and modernised!"
I'm putting off stripping the wallpaper in the lounge as I know they, last owner, have just papered over a decent size hole. Dreading what I will find when the paper comes off  |
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By *andonmessMan
over a year ago
A world all of his own |
My bathroom ceiling has 2 foot square polystyrene tiles on it. That have been artexed over. Sigh. One of the very many horrors that I'm slowly uncovering in my house.
Thankfully the bathroom is being completely gutted and renewed over the course of the next 2 weeks so I'll never have to look at them, or the 80s throwback suite, again  |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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I'm thinking of buying a house that was my grans/uncles, its not been updated in donkeys years and has woodchip and polystyrene tiles everywhere, any helpful tips would be greatly appreciated also all bedrooms have sinks and crappy showers in when it was a b&b 30 odd years ago and its had all male lodgers in there since so definitely not the cleanest of places
I know its going to be a major task but i think 1 room at a time  kitchen and a bedroom first |
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By *andonmessMan
over a year ago
A world all of his own |
"Generally people doing DIY seem to tile or carpet around things that going under them. Which of course means you can't move anything unless you want to look at floor boards or buy a new carpet. "
Ah yes, they've also tiled over the tiled floor in my bathroom too |
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"Generally people doing DIY seem to tile or carpet around things that going under them. Which of course means you can't move anything unless you want to look at floor boards or buy a new carpet.
Ah yes, they've also tiled over the tiled floor in my bathroom too "
In our bathroom they put new wall tiles on top of the old wall tiles, rather than take the old ones down first! |
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By *andonmessMan
over a year ago
A world all of his own |
"Generally people doing DIY seem to tile or carpet around things that going under them. Which of course means you can't move anything unless you want to look at floor boards or buy a new carpet.
Ah yes, they've also tiled over the tiled floor in my bathroom too
In our bathroom they put new wall tiles on top of the old wall tiles, rather than take the old ones down first!"
Yep, exactly what they've done on the floor. Beggars belief. |
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"Generally people doing DIY seem to tile or carpet around things that going under them. Which of course means you can't move anything unless you want to look at floor boards or buy a new carpet.
Ah yes, they've also tiled over the tiled floor in my bathroom too
In our bathroom they put new wall tiles on top of the old wall tiles, rather than take the old ones down first!
Yep, exactly what they've done on the floor. Beggars belief."
The really scary ones are the people who try to do electrics themselves! |
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By *andonmessMan
over a year ago
A world all of his own |
"Generally people doing DIY seem to tile or carpet around things that going under them. Which of course means you can't move anything unless you want to look at floor boards or buy a new carpet.
Ah yes, they've also tiled over the tiled floor in my bathroom too
In our bathroom they put new wall tiles on top of the old wall tiles, rather than take the old ones down first!
Yep, exactly what they've done on the floor. Beggars belief.
The really scary ones are the people who try to do electrics themselves!"
Oh I think they did that too. For the sparks amongst us, try figuring out how I had 110v a.c. on the earth pin of one of my kitchen sockets?
Or, running a bit of T&E out of the bottom of a hallway socket, along the floor and up the wall to a fused box, then outside to the porch light. Nah, let's not bother channelling it into the wall  |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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I am just finishing off the renovations on a 17th/18th century cottage - all walls/floorboards had to come out due to wood rot and the ground floor had to be dug out 2 and a half foot to put proper hardcore/insulation down. Great fun |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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When I moved into my last house I was stripping the wallpaper on the hall to discover it wasn't wallpaper it was leaves she had glued on and varnished over them. Had to sand them all individually. There was hundreds of them
She also glued tin foil squares round the living room over an orange border. There wasn't a room in the house that wasn't decorated weirdly x |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"I'm looking forward to decorating my house.
A previous resident had quite 'the reputation' locally.. Bit of a joke between several male friends & myself, they've had sex in my house more than I have!
Apparantly they used to leave dated comments on the plaster walls in permanent marker!
What secrets are now hidden under that anaglypta wallpaper?
"
Ha ha ha many many moons ago when I was young and single, I had a 1 night stand with a girl when I woke up there were about 200 names wrote on her wall all with comments under them about their night of passion |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
|
"Do you remember when sponging was all the rage! And stipple effect or ragging!
Dont forget stencils
Guilty!
The house we’re in now is over 200 years old and unfortunately, we’ve come across a lot of bodged and terrible diy jobs: ceiling tiles, Asbestos ( ), chipboard to line door jambs and upstair floors - not to mention how the lights flicked when the landline phone rang!
Needless to say, we soon guttered and modernised!
I'm putting off stripping the wallpaper in the lounge as I know they, last owner, have just papered over a decent size hole. Dreading what I will find when the paper comes off "
could be an air vent / brick
just go for it , best get it sorted ,if it a hole fill it in |
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By *etLikeMan
over a year ago
most fundamental aspects |
Oh lots. I’ve renovated lots of places and was often the one called in when no other self respecting tradesman would touch the job.
A living room painted in BP yellow and green. Dulux trade supermatt ftw
A doorbell that rang when the coffee machine was switched on - yes seriously. It didn’t happen with any other appliance on the ring main which wasn’t actually a ring main but a seriously overloaded radial circuit supplying the kitchen.
A gas fitting held in with silicone sealant: I stepped back from that one slowly and let a certified gas engineer take over.
A power supply to a house owner’s 2 young daughters’ playhouse. Bare twin and earth up the middle of the lawn!
An outside windowsill constructed entirely of decorators caulk. Imagine a wobbly, moulded jelly, painted over with gloss.
OSB used as a covering for a flat roof- no it wasn’t intended as sarking layer before the felt. It was nailed OVER the felt and painted with fence paint |
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By *etLikeMan
over a year ago
most fundamental aspects |
Oh yes Artex. A DIYers artex ceiling, where the peaks were like stalactites. Some of them were nearly 8 inches long. I’ve still no idea how he managed to do it without them breaking off before they dried.
Plenty ceilings held up by wallpaper with inevitable results when painted. |
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By *andonmessMan
over a year ago
A world all of his own |
"Oh lots. I’ve renovated lots of places and was often the one called in when no other self respecting tradesman would touch the job.
A living room painted in BP yellow and green. Dulux trade supermatt ftw
A doorbell that rang when the coffee machine was switched on - yes seriously. It didn’t happen with any other appliance on the ring main which wasn’t actually a ring main but a seriously overloaded radial circuit supplying the kitchen.
A gas fitting held in with silicone sealant: I stepped back from that one slowly and let a certified gas engineer take over.
A power supply to a house owner’s 2 young daughters’ playhouse. Bare twin and earth up the middle of the lawn!
An outside windowsill constructed entirely of decorators caulk. Imagine a wobbly, moulded jelly, painted over with gloss.
OSB used as a covering for a flat roof- no it wasn’t intended as sarking layer before the felt. It was nailed OVER the felt and painted with fence paint "
The doorbell one 
Sounds eerily like my house...maybe the previous owners lived in Scotland for a while |
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"Do you remember when sponging was all the rage! And stipple effect or ragging!
Dont forget stencils
Guilty!
The house we’re in now is over 200 years old and unfortunately, we’ve come across a lot of bodged and terrible diy jobs: ceiling tiles, Asbestos ( ), chipboard to line door jambs and upstair floors - not to mention how the lights flicked when the landline phone rang!
Needless to say, we soon guttered and modernised!
I'm putting off stripping the wallpaper in the lounge as I know they, last owner, have just papered over a decent size hole. Dreading what I will find when the paper comes off
could be an air vent / brick
just go for it , best get it sorted ,if it a hole fill it in "
There's no air brick on the other side of the wall.
But when you know something is gonna be shitty you don't want to disturb it in case you make things worse |
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