Do you ever get to the end of a decorating project and wonder why it had to be so hard, and why your results don’t look like the ones they got in the magazine? Well that’s because the decorating people in magazine-land have a lot of experience in choosing the perfect piece of furniture and getting a paint finish right, after all, this is why they have gone and bragged about it in their magazine.

So to let you in on a few decorating secrets to put your next decorating project up there with the front page features check this out:

• Stunning Flowers

So you wanted a fresh display of flowers for a dinner party or to celebrate the new season and inspire your spring decorating projects but the buds are all closed on the flowers you have just bought. Well, instead of chucking them and buying a new (and more expensive) bunch of fully opened buds, all you have to do is submerge your flowers in warm water for several minutes until they open up.

Also, if your flowers are on their last legs, leave them submerged in cold water for a few hours to revive their spirits – and yours.

• Kids’ Craft

If the kids want to help with the painting and decorating projects, you may need to distract them with art of their own, so hunt down an old dining table, cut the legs off and you have a kids’ craft table. Even better – when it gets scungy with paint and glue, sand it down and repaint it!

• Hair Colour

To avoid painting yourself when repainting the ceiling, wear an old shower cap to stop paint drips getting in your hair.

• Paint Brushes

If you have to take a lunch break, (and a tea break and a coffee break …) during your painting project, wrap your brushes in cling film to stop them from drying out.

• Masked Villain

Instead of going to all the trouble of masking off the areas you don’t want painted, only to find when you peel away the tape, the paint is taken with it – just peel the masking tape off while the paint is still wet.

Good luck and happy decorating, but shhhh….!