Are you so ashamed of your home that you won’t invite people in?

The average Brit is embarrassed of at least one room in their house to the extent that 66 per cent wouldn’t allow this room to be seen by anyone else.

34 per cent were found to not want anyone to see two or more rooms in their home and one in 10 were found to not like a single room in their current home.

The study commissioned by Dulux also revealed the rooms we are most embarrassed of are our bedroom (37 per cent), bathroom (22 per cent) and living room (13 per cent).

One in 10 admit they have been too ashamed to show their parents where they live and a quarter of us never host a social gathering in the property they live in because of how they feel about it.

Of those polled who are single, 31 per cent stated that they felt their love life was suffering as a result of not feeling like they could invite a potential partner back to their pad, with one in 17 men (6 per cent) admitting that a person they did invite back was appalled at their home.

The main reasons for why Brits are embarrassed of their home, were due to:

1) Dated or marked carpets (34 per cent)

2) Faded paintwork (28 per cent)

3) Cracked ceilings or walls (27 per cent)

4) Ageing wallpaper (23 per cent)

5) Bad wall colour and colour scheme (18 per cent)

47 per cent of Brits have at least one room in their home they are so embarrassed by they don’t ever use it, equating to a wasted property value of £48,483 per home (£570billion across the UK). One in five (20 per cent) have two rooms or more they don’t use.

Despite the discontent, the average household only undergoes a decorating task once every four and a half years at an average cost of £590 each time, per room.

Comparatively, moving house costs an average of £9,500 each time, purely for the logistics. Yet 31 per cent of those polled stated they would prefer to move, to a property they were happier with, than improve their current home.

54 per cent of Brits also admitted to leaving a decorating task they’d started unfinished for more than six months, with approximately 13.5million rooms currently left unfinished in the UK. More than one in 20 Brits (7 per cent) also admitted to never having picked up a paint brush in their lives.

The decorating tasks we avoid doing most were revealed as being:

1) Building works - 21 per cent

2) Plastering - 17 per cent

3) Adjusting electrical points throughout a living space - 15 per cent

4) Tiling or flooring work - 12 per cent

5) Re-doing the kitchen - 12 per cent

Dulux ambassador and interior designer Jo Hamilton said: “The study reveals how the British are embarrassed by their homes and the impact this is having on their social lives. It’s a shame that so much living space is left unused, when it’s so easily rectified, without having to spend a fortune.”

32 per cent of those polled said they felt a lot happier in life generally once they had completed a decorating task and 62 per cent were eager to show off their home’s new look to friends and family.

Three per cent even said it felt better than sex and five per cent of men said it made them feel better than their football team winning.

Colourful décor was found to be the key ingredient to achieving a home Brits are happy with, with 97 per cent stating bright colours on their walls uplifted their mood, made them happy and created a space they wanted to be in.

This is despite 69 per cent of British homes being painted in white, cream and magnolia colours and the average Brit admitting to living for nearly 41/2 years with a wall colour they dislike.

To help the nation get more confident with decorating and positively impact their own lives, Dulux has partnered with leading retailers across the UK to introduce ‘Let’s Colour Surgeries’ providing complimentary expertise and advice from leading interior designers like Jo Hamilton.

Full details can be found at Dulux.co.uk.