Now is the ideal time of year to concentrate on the interior of your home. It’s often cold, windy and wet outdoors and lockdown means our social life is non-existent. So stay indoors and brighten up your surroundings. Then, when life returns to near normality, you will be proud to entertain friends and family in your new look kitchen or lounge.

Where to start with redecorating

Think about the colour scheme of your entire property before you choose which room needs your attention first. Pick a colour you know will lift your spirits, or a fashionable hue like Pantone’s colour of 2021 to make the room smart and stylish. Ask yourself if you really want a red lounge leading to a green kitchen. As a general rule in home decorating it’s best to choose colours that complement one another. However, rules are made to be broken and if your fashion sense is off the colour charts, maybe now is exactly the right time to express yourself with a tin of paint!

Follow this step-by-step guide to give your home an instant lift:

• Use tester pots and look at the paint in different lights. Try online sites and apps where you upload a photo of your room and try new colours virtually, such as My Room Painter by Crown.
• Determine how much paint you need. The general rule is one gallon per 400sqft – more if the new colour is lighter than the existing colour.
• Make sure you have the necessary equipment: Sandpaper and masking tape, brushes and rollers, a roller tray, rags and old sheets. You might want a putty knife to seal the tape, and check to see if you need white spirit to clean the brushes.
• If you have a big home redecorating project, you could put some furniture into storage until the job is done. You will need self-storage insurance, so get an instant quote from the Store and Insure
• Push your remaining furniture and belongings to the centre of the room and cover everything with sheets.
• Now remove outlet and light switch covers, and tape around the edges of mouldings, doors and windows.
• Get your old clothes on, open the tin and start stirring that paint. Keep stirring it on and off through the entire process.
• Start with the ceiling, then the lighter walls. Use your roller with long strokes in a W pattern. Skirting boards are done last.
• Keep the room well ventilated as the paint will dry quicker and the smell will be less over powering.
• Clean your rollers and brushes straight away at the end of your day’s work.

Dispose of paint responsibly

You may want to keep a small amount of paint for touch-ups. But if you’ve got a lot left over, consider offering it on community sites like Freegle or Freecycle.

If you really need to dispose of paint, remember that paint can be damaging to the environment and should be hardened before you take it to your local recycling centre. Try mixing some soil or sawdust with the leftovers – or a good tip is to add some cat litter to the mix!