Decorating Your New Loft Conversion

Once you have completed all the building work on your loft conversion then the fun part comes, decorating your loft.

Painting your Loft Conversion

When it comes to decorating your loft conversion the first thing you will want to do is paint or wallpaper the walls. One of the biggest mistakes people make when decorating is to paint on newly plastered walls, so if your walls are newly plastered wait as long as possible before painting on them. Preferably two or three weeks. If you want to start decorating your loft straight away you can water down the paint which will allow you to paint straight on to newly plastered walls.

A newly created loft conversion will be full of dust and leftover debris; you should clean this away before you start to paint the loft.

Before you apply the paint it is a good idea to apply a water-based sealer for the newly plastered walls, this will help to keep the plaster in good condition and make sure any adverse weather conditions don’t harm your loft conversion walls. It is worth paying a bit more money and buying water-based sealer. It will take more work and electricity to keep your loft warm as it is so high up in the house and it is nearer to the roof, so it may take your plaster longer to dry, so allow as much time as you can before you start creating your work of art on the walls.

You may want to decorate your loft conversion in stages, if you are using sealer and paint you will need to make sure that the room is well ventilated and that you wear a mask. If your loft is small and enclosed then you will need to make sure you open a window and make it as ventilated as you can.

Sanding Down your Loft Conversion

The great thing about a loft conversion is that everything is new, you’ll have new walls, new flooring and a new roof, but with newness also brings the need to get everything clean and in the right condition.

Your new flooring and possibly your ceiling will both be made out of wood. Before you do anything to your wood you will need to make sure that you smooth it down properly.

You don’t need to go crazy, you just need to sand it down so it’s ready to paint on, you should use medium size sandpaper and make sure that you sand with the grain and not against it. You should also apply a stain-blocking primer to make the wood as strong as possible and that no stains get on the wood.

Home Decoration and the Loft

When decorating your loft conversion it is important to think about how much space you have. If your loft conversion isn’t very big you don’t want to put a lot of home decoration in there or loft furnishings that will be too weighty. If you can it is a good idea to put the loft furnishings together in the loft if possible. If you have steep or narrow loft stairs then you might not be able to fit wide or large furniture up your staircase, so if you can fix it together in your loft this will be an extra bonus. If you want to turn your loft conversion into a games room it is worth thinking about how you are going to get things such as a snooker table upstairs to the loft.

Decorating your loft is the most fun part of your loft conversion, so don’t make it too hard, remember that you may be restricted by the height and size of your loft, so make sure you have measured how you will get your decorating equipment up to the loft before you start, or you could find yourself stuck with loft furnishings that won't fit in your loft.