After spending a lot of time at home this past year, it’s time to give your four walls a new lease of life. However, if you’re not careful, the cost of home DIY can quickly creep up on you.
So how can you channel your inner interior designer without breaking the bank?
Mel Hamblett, 37, from Gloucester shows us how to achieve DIYs on a budget through her home dedicated Instagram account, @awholenewbuild. Sharing her colour-driven home designs, she encourages her followers to transform their beige homes into something a bit bolder.
After spending large sums of money on previous refurbishments, Hamblett has recently transformed three rooms in her house for a total of £716.99.
“It’s become a real passion of mine to encourage people to stray from the more traditional greys and magnolia schemes, and add some real personality,” she says.
As to how she keeps costs down, Hamblett says: “Over the last two years I’ve been learning a lot of DIY to save money on hiring tradespeople, and I always search for discount codes before buying anything online. I love finding bargains on Facebook Marketplace and eBay and upcycling them with paint and patterned vinyl.”
“Adding personality to your new build property is a great tactic for the future when you come to sell. It enables you to stand out from the crowd of very similar style built properties,” says Gary Hemming, property expert at ABC Finance.
So how did Hamblett really manage her bargain makeover? Here, she takes us through her interior design genius, room by room.
The leopard print toilet
After what Hamblett described as “terrible decorating job” of her downstairs toilet, she decided it was time for a bit of colour with a multi-coloured leopard print wallpaper saying: “I knew this would be perfect for brightening the embarrassing loo!”
Matching the MDF wall panelling to the pink featured in the wallpaper, Hamblett moved onto the task of the tiles. “I used some leftover stick-on wall tiles from a previous upcycle to cover the beige ones which came with the house, and added a powder blue patterned vinyl floor to complete the look,” she explains.
Using repurposed items from her home and finding bargain decorating supplies, such as a £27 tin of paint and a £12 mirror, Hamblett spent just £224 on designing her dream leopard print loo!
The jungle-tastic ensuite
Hamblett’s next project was the ensuite bathroom, taking inspiration from a bright AirBnB she had stayed in once in north Devon. Beginning with a kiwi lime green paint, Hamblett added jungle-themed wallpaper for a tropical take on her previous beige bathroom.
The shower room also got a glowup. “I updated our silver shower enclosure with black electrical tape to give it the effect of a Crittall door. It’s easily removable if we ever change our minds on this look,” she explains.
Costing just £128 all in, this bathroom makeover is the definition of balling on a budget!
The Dalmatian spare room
The third renovation on the list was the spare bedroom. After being met with some scepticism from her husband over her suggested teal colour palette, Hamblett plumped for a simple white paint to brighten and refresh the walls.
However she didn’t miss the opportunity for add some pizzaz with a pop of colour from the new teal bed (bought using one of her handy discount codes) and a Dalmatian print sticker feature wall.
Her furniture was upcycled using bright, colourful paints and even decorated shelves with wallpaper samples.
This room marked the most expensive DIY of them all, coming in at £364.99 – but we think you’ll agree it’s still a total bargain.