Why does my touch-up patch show as a different sheen?
Three differences make a patch visible and none of them is colour — film thickness, texture and the sheen the wall has lost since it was painted.
beginner15 min4 min read
Decorating
Painting, filling, finishing — how to get a tidy result.
191 guides in Home & DIY
Why does my wall look like orange peel after rolling?
Heavy roller stipple comes from the wrong nap, too much paint, or rolling paint that has begun to set. All three are fixable, but the texture already on the wall has to be dealt with first.
beginner25 min2 min readShould I restore my original floorboards or cover them?
Bare boards are cheap, characterful, cold, noisy and draughty; a covering is warm and quiet and hides everything below it. The five tests that decide which one your floor is actually suited to.
beginner40 min4 min readWhy does my touched-up paint always show?
A touch-up shows because of sheen, thickness and age, not usually colour. Knowing which of the three is betraying you decides whether a better technique will work or the wall needs recoating.
beginner20 min2 min readCan I paint melamine or laminate furniture?
Melamine is a cured plastic film with nothing for paint to grip. The preparation and primer that make it hold, and the honest limits on where it will survive.
intermediate1 hr4 min readCan I paint plasterboard without plastering it first?
Painting straight onto taped and jointed board is normal practice — but board paper and jointing compound absorb at completely different rates, and that is what gives the patchy result.
intermediate2 hr4 min readCan I water down paint, and by how much?
Thinning is right for a mist coat and for spraying, and wrong almost everywhere else. What water actually removes from a tin, and the limits worth knowing.
beginner8 min4 min readDoes new plasterboard have to be skimmed, or can I just tape it?
Two entirely different ways of finishing a boarded wall, what each one costs in money, time and skill, and the surfaces where one of them is clearly wrong.
beginner20 min4 min readHow do I apply hardwax oil without patches and streaks?
Hardwax oil fails when it is treated like an ordinary oil. Why the coats have to be so thin, and the wipe-back that decides how the finish looks.
intermediate1 hr 30 min5 min readHow do I fill and sand a wall so the repair does not show?
Proud filling, thin coats and sanding beyond the edges — the technique that makes a repair invisible under paint.
beginner1 hr2 min readHow do I fill the gaps in my staircase?
Gaps on a staircase open and close as the timber moves and as the stair flexes underfoot, so rigid filler in them cracks. What you fill with matters more than how neatly you fill it.
beginner1 hr2 min readHow do I improve a room without spending much?
The changes that make the largest visual difference per pound, in the order worth doing them.
beginner3 hr2 min readHow do I lay out a gallery wall so it looks deliberate?
Setting the whole group from the eye line, keeping the gaps equal, sizing the arrangement to the furniture below, and the paper-template method that avoids a wall full of holes.
beginner2 hr5 min readHow do I paint over old gloss paint?
Why paint slides off gloss, the abrade-and-degrease routine that works, and when an adhesion primer earns its place.
beginner1 hr3 min readHow do I put up coving?
Setting out the lines, cutting the first corner, and getting a run of coving up without gaps at the mitres or a wavy line along the wall — including the order of work that makes it manageable alone.
intermediate5 hr5 min readHow do I scribe skirting to an uneven floor?
Scribing copies the floor's shape onto the board so it sits down tight along its whole length, instead of leaving a gap you have to fill.
intermediate1 hr3 min readHow do I set out floor tiles so I don't get a sliver at the doorway?
Squared centre lines, a dry-laid grid and a deliberate decision about which walls get the cuts — the planning that keeps thin cuts out of the doorway and out of the sightline.
intermediate1 hr 30 min5 min readWhat is the white haze on my tiles that keeps coming back?
A white bloom that returns after cleaning is usually salts carried out by moisture, not leftover grout — and the two need completely different responses.
beginner30 min2 min readWhich varnish should I use — polyurethane, acrylic or yacht?
Four families with genuinely different jobs: what each resists, what each does to the colour of the wood, and why yacht varnish is the wrong answer to most questions.
beginner12 min4 min readWhich wood stain should I use — water, spirit or oil-based?
The carrier decides how a stain behaves under your brush. What each does to the grain, how long each gives you to work, and what will go on top of it afterwards.
intermediate12 min4 min readWhy can I see my filled repairs through the paint?
Flashing — the dull patch over a repair — is a suction problem, not a coverage problem, and one more topcoat will not cure it.
beginner1 hr4 min readWhy do the joints between my coving lengths keep cracking?
Butt joints between coving lengths crack because the joint is rigid and the wall is not. Bonding the joint properly and filling it flexibly is what keeps it closed.
intermediate45 min3 min readWhy has my matt emulsion gone shiny in patches?
Shiny patches on matt paint are burnishing — the surface has been polished by rubbing. It is a durability limit of matt paint rather than a fault in the tin.
beginner20 min2 min readWhy is my gloss paint still soft and tacky weeks later?
Oil-based paint cures by reacting with oxygen, not by drying. The five things that stop that reaction, and how to tell which one has stopped yours.
intermediate30 min5 min read
Going deeper: Renovation Calculator
Room-by-room material quantities, wastage allowances and project cost estimates.