Guest Author - Donna Coogan
No doubt you’ve seen those decorating shows on television where several people re-do an entire room in a weekend. They are fun to watch and full of inspiration. The best part is seeing the excitement on the faces of the homeowners when they see the final reveal.
If your friends and family are willing to participate, you can host a decorating weekend to makeover a room in your own home. Your friends can help paint, rearrange furniture, build bookshelves, sew curtains, and create custom art and more. It’s a great way to change the look and feel of your space and have fun with loved ones in the process.
It’s important to plan your room makeover carefully. Keep in mind that the budget depicted on t.v. shows usually only includes the material cost. For your project you may need to consider labor and other miscellaneous costs.
Depending on the circumstances, you may be able to save on labor if you offer your time and skills in trade to your guests. If any of them are professionals or skilled tradesmen, you may be able to receive their advice and services at a discount.
When planning your makeover, any prep work you can do ahead, like clearing out the room and gathering tools and supplies will be a big time saver. When it comes to tools, you may need several hammers, screwdrivers and paintbrushes at the very least. If your friends are providing their own, be sure to ask them to label them with masking tape so those tools aren’t mixed up. If you need to rent specific equipment make sure you take care of that ahead, too.
Plan for some basic safety rules and precautions and go over them with everyone at the start. You might post them in one central area as well. Assign tasks to everyone so there is no confusion about who does what and when. For example, painting the walls will need to be done early on, so that they are drying while you are working on other things. To handle these details it’s best to have one person designated as the project manager who fully understands the scope of the project and what you want to accomplish.
Set up clearly marked workstations for painting, sewing and carpentry. Have a trash and clean-up area available. For safety reasons, you should block off the areas with dangerous machinery for only those designated to use it.
Most of all have a sense of humor, patience and generous spirit for things that may go wrong as can often happen with any project. Allow for regular breaks for everyone to eat and be refreshed. Provide the food or at the very least, the beverages and suggest a potluck so that you aren’t taken away from the project to provide food.
Take lots of pictures of your party to scrapbook later (hey - that could be another party!). Send each of your friends a special thank you note and include a group photograph. Throw another party later in your newly decorated room where everyone can relax and reminisce over the fun you had decorating the space. Don’t forget to pay it back by helping your friends with their next decorating project, too.
