With some know-how redecorating doesn’t have to be expensive
Property transformations don’t have to break the bank.
With a bit of savvy decision-making (know your integrated hob and oven from your stand-alone range cooker), a few well-thought out splurges (getting acquainted with the sales), and some DIY know-how (YouTube tutorials), you can turn your dream space into a reality without maxing out your credit card.
Bex Stirling has not only upsized a property but she’s saved money doing it.
Priced out of Reading, thanks to Crossrail ramping up the costs, Bex and husband Andy looked further afield in Wantage, Oxfordshire, where larger properties could be found for the same price.
They managed to get a three-bed terraced house with a garden for the same as a two-bed apartment with a window box.
But there was an added bonus. Moving to a quieter, more rural location has meant more time for Bex to learn DIY, encouraging her to take on jobs she wouldn’t have in the past, using YouTube tutorials and upcycling secondhand furniture to save an estimated £11,000 over buying new and professionally fitted interiors.
Thanks to what she’s learned while working on the property, saving money is now a way of life – and she can’t open a website on her laptop without widgets popping up for discounts or where to buy it cheapest.
Bex, Cookie and Andy
‘We’ve come to realise that if you do your research and look up how to do things properly, DIY projects and upcycled items can look really professional and even, at times, like you’ve bought them new,’ says Bex.
‘It’s made us love DIY projects more as we’re starting to become more confident in our decisions and the things we’re willing to look into doing ourselves. We have a better understanding of what does and doesn’t work, and feel more confident that the things we do try will come out looking quite good.’
As a departure from the cliche conservatism that is associated with small market towns, Bex has gone for a riot of different colours for the interiors, set loose from the restrictions of previous rental properties.
‘We’ve added splashes of colour to every room, especially the living room, to make it pop when you enter and to draw your eyes to certain features.
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‘I think one of the reasons we wanted lots of colour was partly because we’d always lived in rented properties or those that were on the market, so we’ve been restricted with how we could decorate,’ says Bex.
‘We love the freedom of having our own property, and being able to do whatever we want to it and not worrying about making something too bright. It’s the first time we’ve been able to make decisions completely for ourselves, without worrying about other people’s approval.’
There are some indulgences, such as chairs from Anthropologie – bought in the sale, naturally – and a bespoke neon sign in the living room saying ‘Let’s stay home’, which was handmade for a fraction of the quoted £600 to £700 from upmarket shops.
The couple decided to keep their old sofa
The TV cabinet was upcycled and secondhand
Plants bring life to the interior
But everything is balanced out by cheaper items, as well as avoiding racking up credit card bills. After buying the chairs, the couple decided to keep their old sofa and buy an upcycled TV cabinet secondhand.
‘We’ve agreed that if we have our heart set on more expensive items, we might not be able to get them straight away. Instead of putting them on a credit card at full price, we’ve waited patiently for them to be reduced, for discount codes or for sales like Black Friday – and that’s enabled us to buy things at quite reduced prices, which are more within our budget.
‘And when we do want to splash out and get some more expensive items then we work out how we can balance this by making savings elsewhere.’
The TV cabinet in the living room is an upcycled piece Bex found online, with the drawers replaced with old wine boxes, painted pastel pink to match the chairs.
The wooden coffee table started life as a secondhand trunk found on Etsy. ‘I think we got it for a bargain price because we’ve seen some selling recently for around the £300 to £400 mark and we bought it for £100,’ she adds.
The whisky bottle light in the living room was £70 from someone who made them on eBay, whereas normally they sell for more than £200, while the blue curtains were handmade by Bex from material bought cheaply.
The whisky bottle light was found on eBay for more than half the cost brand new
The gold mirror was found in a charity shop
Andy learned how to install paneling with the assistance of YouTube videos
Bex and Andy were glad to be able to use bold colours after years of renting
Pricey purchases like this chair were bought on sale
In the spare room a framed picture of Christ The Redeemer was found by Andy in a charity shop, as was the gold mirror. Even though secondhand, the picture is still sentimental as the couple got engaged in Rio.
All the mirrors in the property are from the local British Heart Foundation. Bex says: ‘We had no idea how expensive first-hand mirrors were, as we’d never had to buy them before. So, we got ours from charity shops. The ones in the spare room and bedroom were £20 each.’
Weekends were spent painting walls and wallpapering. Andy took on the panelling himself in the spare room with some help from YouTube. The gold accessories in this room come from Sainsbury’s. ‘If you want to save money, it’s worth looking down the interiors aisles of your local supermarkets – you can find some great things which are low investment, cost-wise.’
Andy is creative director at Fable Kitchens and it was his dream to design and create his own kitchen. ‘After spending the last 16 years designing other people’s kitchens, I’d been desperate to create my own for quite a while,’ he says.
‘I also come from a family of keen cooks, so food and cooking has always been quite a big part of my life.’
The kitchen that came with the property was functional but had suffered years of wear and tear. ‘It lacked a little soul,’ says Andy.
The pink cabinet is from a secondhand book shop in Wantage
The mottled mirror splashback makes the kitchen feel much larger and reflects more light
The Tatiana Alida prints for the kitchen were bought unframed in the Black Friday sale
The room isn’t huge and being north-facing it can be quite dark, so Andy decided to add in an antique, slightly mottled mirror splashback behind the cooker. This makes the kitchen feel much larger and reflects so much more light into the room.
He incorporated deeper-than-standard worksurfaces to reduce clutter. ‘There are quite a few gadgets we knew would be in constant use, so I was keen to not have these in the way of food preparation areas and the extra depth keeps them out of the way.’
The kitchen cabinetry has been painted in Farrow & Ball Hague Blue and Cinder Rose with Heritage Brass Bauhaus cabinet pulls. The pink cabinet is from a secondhand book shop in Wantage, which also sells furniture and Bex painted it herself.
She bought Tatiana Alida prints for the kitchen, which were a little out of budget, (about £80 for each, unframed) but she waited patiently until Black Friday and saved 30 per cent on them. She framed them herself buying cheap frames from Amazon.
In the end, Bex estimates that they’ve saved between £4,000 to £6,000 buying secondhand furniture and upcycling, and a further £2,000 by doing their own painting and decorating.
Quotes for jobs such as panelling, putting up the neon sign and curtains were about £2,000, all done themselves instead.
Finally the kitchen design would have cost from £200 to £1,000 just for a design. Andy says that even if you don’t design a kitchen yourself there are a lot of ways to save money.
Now the house is a home and Bex hasn’t looked back. ‘I think Wantage is quite invested in its community too and it’s the sort of town where everyone says “good morning” to you when you’re out for a walk or popping to the shops.
The ‘Let’s Stay Home’ sign was handmade for a fraction of the cost of upmarket shops
For Bex and Andy the house is a home and they haven’t looked back
Bex got crafty and made the curtains from cheap material herself
‘We love having more space to move around. It’s wonderful to have saved money on the project as well, as we now have a third addition joining our family in March and it means a little less worrying about the money we need for the future.’
Andy Stirling, creative director at Fable Kitchens (@fablekitchens), shares five top tips for saving money on a kitchen:
How to save money on your next kitchen:
1. I like the ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ mantra. We often re-incorporate customers’ existing appliances, sinks, taps or even family heirlooms into their new kitchen, which is a great way to make the process cheaper.
2. Look at the features on any new appliances you are looking to add in. Are you paying extra for features that you will never use?
3. A pair of integrated ovens with a hob above look incredible, but mean you’re potentially paying for all three appliances, the cabinetry that houses them, the work surface above and the installation charges for all of these components. A freestanding range cooker instead of all of these tends to work out a little more cost-effective (Depending on the appliance).
A freestanding range cooker works out a little cheaper than integrated oven and hobs
4. If you are going down the bespoke kitchen route, opting for fewer cabinets but making them as wide as possible is often a good way to stop the cost from spiralling. In most cases, there is less material, components and carpentry labour involved to make one large cabinet, than say three or four that equal the same width.
5. There are a large number of elements involved and you can help create your own perfect kitchen. Is there anything you can do yourself to alleviate some of the costs/stress involved? Whether it’s painting the walls yourself, or even ripping out your own kitchen – both can help keep the overall price down.
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‘If we splash out then we make savings elsewhere’
