Moneysupermarket.com and the #HomeImprovementHero Competition

Is it possible to change the look, feel and even functionality of a room on a £50 budget? (Yes, it is!)

My decorated pin board.

 




The view that greets me.

DIY will always be the 'in thing' for those of us living on a tight budget so when I was asked by Moneysupermarket.com to take part in their Home Improvement Hero competition for bloggers, I was rather excited by the prospect, despite the fact that I didn't actually have a fully renovated room to decorate!

When someone asks, "Can you create something memorable in your home with a budget of £50?" and then gives you £50 to try it, the challenge is most definitely on, so here goes!

This is the room that I've chosen to give a frugal makeover. I'm almost certain that most folks already have a proper wall to decorate, so excuse us while we put that back together after having had a stove fitted a few months ago.
 

 

This is my room for transformation - it's a multi-functional room in as far as it's my sitting room, office, crafting room, dining room and spare room, plus it also serves as a dumping ground. If I can turn this room around on a budget of £50, I'll be over the moon!

 

I started by researching what was needed to complete the chimney wall, as employing a joiner was out of the question, then hit the online stores (Amazon) via my favourite cash-back site. My first purchase was fire cement, hopefully enough to complete the job that needed doing. Meanwhile, my long-suffering, often bemused house-share set to work raking out bits and pieces from the out-building and shed that could be used to help cut costs.
 

Because we are in the midst of a renovation, there are plenty of bits and pieces lying about the place, mainly salvaged leftovers from joinery or building work that has been done. I opted for the 'mosaic effect' with the plaster board when reinstating the chimney wall, rather than buying a full new sheet. It is insulated/foil backed plaster board that the joiner OK'd to fit on the chimney wall, as there's already a steel plate fitted in the area subject to the greatest heat. (Frugal choice - the metal radiates more heat when the stove is lit and it can't bend, crack or break.) Plasterboard, should you need any, is relatively inexpensive and can be bought from most builders' merchants from around £5 per 8' x 4' sheet.
 

There was still a hole in the wall around the stove flue pipe, so I needed strong wire mesh to bridge the gaps and give grip to the fire cement. This problem was solved by using the leftover grill mesh that had been saved from a disposable barbecue. (I hate throwing anything in the bin that could find a future use and this is a prime example of waste not, want not.)

 

Here in Scotland we don't tend to finish off our new walls by plastering, we often opt for taping and filling the joints and then just sanding them. The tape costs less than £5 a roll and the jointing plaster costs about £1.30 per kilo of the mix-it-yourself variety and we had some of each already, so no need to buy.

While contemplating how to decorate the chimney wall, I decided that the old radiator, amongst other things, needed smartening up a bit, so I bought a little tin of radiator enamel (£2.99), a wall transfer/decal (£3.79), a roll of wallpaper (£10.85), packet of paste (£1.55), a pasting brush (£2.27) and a tube of gold-coloured artists' paint (99p). If anything seems expensive, it's because I don't have a car, so I need to order online and account for delivery costs.

 

 

My nest of tables have been with me since 1992 and have gone from house to house for many moves, so it's safe to say that they had seen better days. It's funny how some things have more sentimental value than others, isn't it?

 

This table is one I rehomed when a neighbour was planning on sending it to the tip. (We used it at last weekend's barbecue.) As you can see, it isn't all that different from my old nest of tables, so I set about preparing everything for painting.

 

Scraper, sandpaper, some primer/undercoat and the remains of a tin of gloss got rummaged from the shed - the table was first to be scraped and sanded to remove all the flaking, peeling varnish. The legs were then removed to sand them.

 

Once scraped and sanded, everything got wiped down with a damp cloth to remove any leftover flakes and dust before undercoating with primer. This should give a good base for the gloss paint so that it doesn't simply run off the wood.

 

 

The things many TV programmes or magazines may not tell you:

• Non drip, fast drying gloss isn't neither non drip nor fast enough drying when using it outside in the blazing sunshine!
• The least little breeze and you have newspaper and dust stuck to your lovely new paintwork
• Bugs, flies and midges seem to be attracted to paint and get stuck!
• Bathing said stuck bugs, flies and midges in white spirit does not revive them!
• Make sure your hair is firmly tied out of the way when kneeling down to paint the legs of a table, especially if there's a breeze!

My crafting stuff was taking up far too much space it cardboard boxes, so a chest of drawers was commandeered and given a quick coat of gloss. Surprisingly, it stuck to the white veneer. I bought these flat-packed from Argos as part of a set about 10 years ago, so they have been dismantled and carted around the past 4 or 5 house moves and were rather the worst for wear. It was surprising how well they came up after painting them!

All we could find in the shed was magnolia and brown emulsion - it was either that or a nougat-salmon pink (I don't think so)! Brown and cream won, so the chimney wall got done chocolate brown and the walls got a freshen up with magnolia. With only one roll of wallpaper, I opted to do only the top half of two walls at the sitting room end of this multi-functional room.

A change of curtains from patterned to plain, which I already had, helped the transformation. Raking through my crafting supplies uncovered several suitable ribbons to turn into tie-backs. To attach them to the wall, I used a couple of old curtain rings and simply tied the ribbons through the loops.

Colourful ribbons can brighten up anything in minutes, so never throw away any bows, ribbons, cord or string that comes your way. Guaranteed, if you decide to follow a frugal living path through life, you'll find a use for almost anything. Curtain hoops can be found in charity shops for 10p each, in my experience, but I already had a few in my 'stash'.


Cheap artwork is another easy way to quickly transform the look and feel of a room and I was lucky enough to get some cheap picture frames. With what was left of the roll of wallpaper, I managed to cut enough to fill the five frames, which got hung on the chimney wall. They really are quite effective and I couldn't ask for a better match for the walls, could I?

There are always people decluttering, so when a friend offered me a few bits and pieces, her £5 flat-packed shoe rack seemed like an absolute bargain. It was soon assembled and turned into storage for DVDs, CDs and board games.

Time to polish my brass, but I have no brass cleaner. No problem, homemade will do for now:

 

Half a cup of vinegar

Teaspoon of salt

Flour to mix it all into a paste

 

The homemade version isn't nearly as good at cutting though the tarnish

as the commercially manufactured chemical version, but it does give a bit of a shine. There's also the fact that this was free to make, as I had the ingredients in the kitchen.

This gorgeous brass urn was one I rescued a few years ago, so it has now been brought indoors to sit by the stove. I'll add a pot plant as soon as I have repotted something suitable from the garden. (This was before it was polished.)

Now for a few 'before and after' photos to show the overall transformation as it was taking place.



The 'new' chimney wall

The stove got a good clean, as did the steel back plate. The brass items, at long last, have been hung alongside the (non) fireplace. The toasting fork is great for marshmallows when the stove's lit in winter!

Corner 1 - this has become my entertainments corner



The shelves were rearranged and then filled with my books. The shoe rack is now home to DVDs and board games, with a couple of boxes of crafting supplies tucked safely alongside. The rail along the middle of the papered wall is made up from two lengths of skirting board.

Corner 2 - the sitting room part of this multi-functional space



The one roll of wallpaper was enough to do both of these walls when only papering the top half of them and it helps that we have quite low ceilings. The couch is actually a double bed settee / futon, so this space also doubles as a guest room.

The nest of tables - sanded down, painted and decorated



Rejuvenating the tables was a very straightforward project - scrape the flaking varnish, sand everything down to give it a rough surface, undercoat and then gloss it. The difficult part was managing steady hand-eye co-ordination when picking out the bits to highlight with the gold paint.

The salvaged table - before and after.





This table has replaced the bench set, which was only being stored here temporarily. It has now been dismantled and stored elsewhere until such times as the other room gets refurbished.


Corner 3 - my work space has been transformed and I love it!



This is my office corner - a bit of tidying and decluttering has made all the difference, with the pin board now painted in gold and hung above the desk and the transfer on the wall really sets it off, in my opinion. I love the quote on the wall:

 

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass

It's about learning to dance in the rain"





Corner 4 - crafting and hobbies corner



I've left plenty of hanging space, as this room will also double as my guest room - but this challenge has prompted me to push on and get the cloakroom painted and put to proper use. The crafting materials have all been packed into the drawers and my 'McGonks' are stored in the baskets on the top shelf. Décor reflects my past by way of a few items relevant to long forgotten challenges from the late 90's. (A couple of personally identifiable items of significant, sentimental value have been omitted from the photo.)

How I spent my £50.00

• Fire Cement 3Kg - £8.14 (1 x 2kg & 1 x 1kg)
• Roll of wallpaper - £10.85
• Wallpaper paste - £1.55
• Pasting brush - £2.27  
• Radiator enamel - £2.99
• Transfer/decal - £3.79
• 2 lengths of skirting - £9.00
• 5 photo frames - £3.00 (Secondhand)
• Shoe rack - £5.00 (Secondhand)
• Small tube of gold acrylic paint - 99p

 

Total - £47.58  (Balance remaining - £2.42p)

This has been an absolutely fabulous challenge set by the guys at Moneysupermarket.com! There were a few times during the preliminary stages that I was almost pulling my hair out at the enormity of it. The room really was like a storm that wouldn't pass, so I learned to dance in the rain and did the best possible with what was available. The makeover has created an illusion -  almost like several rooms emerging from one, each corner becoming an easily defined space without looking out of place.

My visitors are now welcome anytime and I'm sure those who have sampled the delights of 'indoor camping' for an overnight stay here will be suitably impressed with these amazing changes. Frugaldom welcomes all comments relating to what has been achieved on this small budget and has to ask the question, did I make the grade as a 'Home Improvement Hero'? I think I did and am not ashamed to say so. :)

Find out what others achieved on similar budgets by checking out the hashtag #HomeImprovementHero on Twitter or Facebook and thank you for following my frugal entry into the competition.

Frugaldom.