Interiors: how to redecorate your home on a budget

There is nothing wrong with being frugal these days. Indeed, 'thrift’, as it's known in fashionable circles, is to be encouraged – particularly when it comes to sprucing up your home.

A quarter of us are planning to tackle home improvements this year and 52 per cent of all DIY projects are aimed at making the home a better place to live, rather than adding value, according to Kingfisher, parent company of B&Q. We spend, on average, just under a thousand pounds a year on renovations, so how can we save money, without scrimping on style?

Queen of 'thrift chic’ is Eithne Farry, who hand-makes everything from the dresses she wears to the curtains she dresses her home with. She lives and breathes the 'less is more’ mantra, features in Channel 4’s popular SuperScrimpers programme, and has compiled a book with the best money- saving tips from the experts on the show.

Over the pond in the United States, where home makeovers are not so much a trend, as a subject of near-religious fervour, DIY addicts Sherry and John Petersik typify the enthusiastic young family in their 30s who want to live in a beautiful home, and aren’t letting lack of money get in their way. Learning as they went, they took on two houses and remodelled them from top to bottom, then documented all their blood, sweat, tears and ideas on their hugely successful blog, Young House Love (five million hits a month and counting).

The Petersiks and Farry share one inspiring belief: that the most creative ideas come not from having bottomless pockets and an army of interior designers at one’s disposal, but from working with smaller budgets and looking at everyday items in cheerful and unexpected ways. “There is no point in being frugal if it is joyless,” says Eithne.

New look: the Petersiks’ office, with reupholstered chairs and charity shop cabinets (Pic: Kip Dawkins)

BARGAIN HUNTING

“Try Red Cross charity shops, flea markets, house auctions and eBay,” says Eithne. “You can find great furniture cheaply, sand it, repaint – make a cushion cover out of any old fabric, an old T-shirt or a holey jumper and you have a unique piece to update a room.”

She recommends casting off our British reserve, and asking friends and family who are renovating to donate unwanted items such as kitchen countertops, cabinetry and so on. “Have a big swap shop – one unloved item in your home might make a great match in a friend’s house,” she says. Cheap fabric to reupholster furniture with can be tracked down in haberdashery departments of larger stores if you ask for end of rolls or last season’s designs. “Have fun with haggling; a cheeky request can sometimes pay dividends.”

UPDATE YOUR KITCHEN AND BATHROOM

Take old, dingy kitchen cabinets and repaint them in a sunny colour, or buy white flat-pack cabinets and white tiles for splashbacks and make them look more expensive by laying granite worktops over them. Corian, which is a smarter and more hard-wearing version of laminate can lift your home in a rainbow of colours. Some companies (such as Mr Mitre,) will cut and fit new worktops into your existing kitchen space, no matter where you have bought the material from.

Alternatively, many companies offer “kitchen makeovers”, where rather than buy a whole new kitchen, you keep the shell but have the doors, worktop and tiling replaced, which can save you thousands of pounds (Try Dream Doors). For a more vintage feel, you can find original kitchen cabinets from the 1950s from online salvage yards such as Salvoweb.

To give your bathroom an easy facelift, bring in hard-wearing, water-loving plants in colourful pots (such as ferns or money plants). “White hex tiles look elegant in a bathroom, and won’t date,” says Sherry. “Pretty accessories, a vintage soapdish, bamboo or colourful blind, attractive glass or wicker containers also give a more spa-like feel.” To make a small bathroom appear bigger, “hang a white waffle shower curtain to almost ceiling height to draw the eye up.”

The Petersiks' kitchen with Corian counters and new lighting (Pic: Kip Dawkins)

RECYCLE, RE-USE

It is worth taking the time to look at everyday objects in your house with an eye to how they can be refashioned or re-used. Up-cycling, the art of turning the tired old objects you might usually throw away into beautiful – and useful – pieces for the home, is gathering huge pace in this country.

Sherry has turned old doors into table tops, screens and headboards; a colander or clothes pegs into a ceiling light; an old luggage rack into shelving, a cart into a drinks trolley; a an wooden old tray into a food platter with chalkboard paint . Have a go yourself with an online tutorial or have a local carpenter joiner put pieces together for you. Visit Upcyclethat or Upcyclist for inspiration.

Refashioning a lampshade is an easy interiors fix. “Old fashioned vintage styles, big, bold colours can transform a space,” says Eithne. “Sometimes simply just taking off the trim can make it entirely new in your own eyes.”

One of Eithne’s favourite items is an old 1950s glass cabinet. “I took out the shelves, sanded it, wallpapered the back of it and it looks like I paid a fortune for it. It only cost me £10.”

INSTANT IMPACT

Instead of wallpapering an entire room (reeks of Laura Ashley from the 1980s), try it on one wall only to add interest to the room. “It will immediately transform the space,” says Eithne. Resanding and resealing wooden floors makes a dramatic difference and instantly refreshes a room. “We sold our first house in a week after having all the floors sanded,” says Sherry. “It makes a small house look bigger.

Another simple update is to dress up your doors with elegant knobs and handles (online reclamation yards such as Ribble Reclamation) sell high quality glass, brass and enamel doorknobs for £29 a pair). Plain white doors to bedrooms can take on another life with characterful handles such as cricket-balls (from Chloe Alberry) or leaping bronze animal figures, reflecting on the tastes of the character living within.

PAINT EFFECTS

Tester pots of paint can go a long way, especially if you just want to update one piece of furniture or take a chance on a new colour. Indigo is the colour of the year, apparently according to fashion and homeware designers. Eithne sanded an old wooden chair she bought in a charity shop for £3 with medium grade sandpaper “to rough it up a bit so the paints sticks better. I painted it bright turquoise and put a handmade cushion with it and it looks fantastic,” she says. “Literally just put the paint straight on – it’s not a professional finish but you can use primer for a more polished look.” There are chalk paints for furniture on the market now, which you can apply directly onto furniture without sanding (try Annie Sloan, for example).

You can also really brighten up your floors with floorboard paint, which is cheaper than laying new carpet, “but make sure it is good quality,” she says.

Even repainting a bookcase can have an immediate effect. “We painted the background of a large bookcase, along one wall, so it changed from cream to teal which transformed the dining room. Now the books and objects there really stand out,” says Sherry.

IF YOU ONLY CHANGE ONE THING ...

“Everyone says paint, designers say lighting – I say curtains make the most impact,” says Sherry. Floor length curtains, hung high and wide add polish and finish to a room, and make it look bigger,” she says. For fabrics, it is worth trying online companies such as The Remnant Room, which sells offcuts of designer and vintage fabric, including Laura Ashley, Liberty and William Morris designs. Vintage liberty print fabric starts at £16p/m. Or shop around for curtain material for as little as £5 a square metre try your local cloth shop or the markets and small shops at Walthamstow in East London or Shepherd’s Bush market in West London. Alternatively dye your unloved, lightweight curtains a completely different colour, recommends Eithne.

Colour, of course, also has its major part to play. Sherry recommends looking at a room in your house, and if everything is neutral adding 20-30% of say greens and blues, which can lend a very 1950s chic to your space. Mismatched chairs in bright primary colours can update a dining room, rather than having everything matching or a furniture set which can feel dated.

“It is amazing the change in atmosphere in my kitchen from simply painting my kitchen cabinets a bright yellow,” says Eithne. “It was the work of a weekend and it makes the room so cheerful.”

FOR MORE ADVICE

Video tutorials:Try YouTube or Videojug for videos on everything from grouting to how to reupholster.

DIY tutorials:B&Q offer You Can Do It Workshops, held in 15 stores in the UK: Classes include basic plumbing, hanging and removing wallpaper and laminate flooring. (To book: diy.com; 0845 600 5428).

Pinterest:A brilliant way to save images of favourite pieces of furniture or roomsets to inspire your home makeover. An online interiors filing system of sorts. Also try Houzz.

Books: Young House Love: 243 Ways to Paint, Craft, Update and Show Your Home Some Loveby Sherry and John Petersik is available through Telegraph Books for £14.99 + £1.35 p&p. See their website Young House Love for tips on how to do absolutely everything for your home.

SuperScrimpers: Live Life for Half the Priceby Eithne Farry is available for £9.99 + £1.10 p&p. Call 0844 871 1514 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk.

CUT PRICE CONTACTS

Kitchens: The Used Kitchen Company,020 8349 1943. Ex-display or pre-owned kitchens, 50-70% off the original price; The Discount Kitchen Factory, 01257 270273. Fit new kitchens or replace parts of existing kitchens.Kitchen worktop: Mr Mitre, 0800 1078664. Corian worktops: Worktop Centre,01562 750 000. Kitchen makeovers:Keep the shell, replace the doors, worktop, tiles: Dream Doors, 02392 604630; Granite Transformations; 0800 822 3410.

Bathrooms on a budget:C P Hart, 0845 873 1121 – designer and bespoke, ex-display and discounted ranges. Bathroom solutions: Bargain Bathrooms 4 U, 0845 3081489. Bathstore: often have sale and clearance offers.

Vintage finds:Salvo web; Source Antiques– reconditioned fitted kitchens, 01225 469 200.

Online reclamation yards: Wells Reclamation, 01749 677 087; Ribble Reclamation, 01772 794 534 – one off pieces and antiques.

Reupholsterers: Alan James Upholstery, 020 7424 9002; The Upholstery Workshop, 01722 710274; Classes: upholsteryclass.co.uk, 020 7622 9347.

Homeware: Screwfix; 0500 414141. Trade prices on bathroom and kitchen accessories. Tiger: lots of home items and attractive storage for under £10.

Discounted furniture, lighting: House of Fraser eBay store, 0844 2646427: discounts of up to 50%. Home Sense,01923 473500: sister company of TKMaxx. Out of town superstores with daily deliveries of furniture and up to 60% discounts. Free Cycle: one man’s waste is another man’s gold. Collections only.

Discounted fabrics/ soft furnishing: The Remnant Room, 07925 747815: designer off-cuts The Sofa Workshopclearance outlet, (020 7924 1150), call to inquire about discounted stock.

Paint:Generally Dulux paint is cheapest from Wilko (08456 08 08 07) or Tesco Direct (0845 600 4411). Their 'Authentic Origins’ collection (available through Homebase) has a similar, although smaller, range of muted colours to that of Farrow & Ball. Chalk paint: Annies Loan. Floorboard paint: Floorpaint Express.

High street homeware: M&S Outlet, 0845 3010874; Next, 0844 844 8000; Laura Ashley outlet store, 0871 223 1551.

Interior decoration on a budget: in pictures