DIY jobs with big impact

Paint a room

Painting a room is the easiest way you can transform your home in just one weekend. Start with the walls on Saturday. Give them a good wash with sugar soap and fill any holes or cracks using a rapid setting Spakfilla. Cut in around the edges and corners with a brush and follow with the roller. Wall paint dries in just a few hours so by the time you’ve finished one task you can move on to the next. On Sunday paint all the trim like the skirtings, architraves and windows. Modern water based enamels give you a hard wearing finish but dry quickly so by the time you’ve gone around a room it’ll be ready for the second coat.

Fix a leaking roof and gutters

You don’t have to call in a tradie to fix a leak in your roof and gutters, do it yourself! It’s never been easier either! Selleys Roof and Gutter Spray Seal is an aerosol that you just spray over the problem area. Small cracks can be filled in under an hour while larger holes and gaps can be covered using the supplied self-adhesive patches, which you then spray over for a waterproof seal. Once it’s cured you con complete the repair by painting over with water-based paint.

Create a feature display

Instead of sitting your decorating accessories on a plain old shelf, make the shelving part of the display. Use thick plywood sheets to make a series of different sized boxes that you can exactly match to what you want to show. Arrange them randomly on a wall, screwing through the back of the box to hang them up. You can enhance your display with a simple paint job. Black on the outside highlights the natural colour and texture of the plywood while painting the back the same colour as your wall completes the floating shelves illusion.