Mum transforms her ENTIRE ‘shabby’ home for just £300 using B&M and Home Bargains buys
A THRIFTY mum managed to revamp her whole house for £300 by shopping for bargains and hitting the sales, as well as upcycling old furniture.
Charlotte Moyse, 38, lives in a house with her husband and two boys, so wanted to create a feminine space where she could relax.
As the family rent their home in Devon, Charlotte didn’t want to spend a fortune on renovations but admitted the place had become ‘shabby’.
The mum-of-two told : “We privately rent and the house was starting to look shabby but not so bad that our landlord would be willing to do much.
“We are a social family and I love to have friends and family around and I was starting to get very embarrassed about the dated appearance, especially of the kitchen.
“We were very reluctant to spend a lot of money on a house that isn’t ours so I decided to refurbish and add to what was already there as cost effectively as possible.”
Charlotte, who works as a learning support assistant, gave herself a tight budget for the makeover, scouring Facebook Marketplace for bargains as well as using tips from Mrs Hinch, and she even repurposed old Christmas accessories to save money.
She said: “I have sourced nearly all my accessories from bargain shops like B&M and Home Bargains and added pops of colour through plants and textiles.
“I have ‘Hinched’ curtains with the insides of toilet rolls, painted furniture purchased on Facebook Marketplace, added silver leaf to shop-bought items, sprayed kitchen doors with AutoPaint and added Fablon to generic items and worktops.
“In the lounge, I bought the bookcase and lamp table from Facebook Marketplace for £30.
“I painted these items, my original sideboard and TV stand all with some emulsion paint that I had used in my son’s room a couple of years ago.
“I bought the wall hanging for £12.99 from The Range and added silver leaf to this which I had at home already.
“The plants were from B&M, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Lidl.
“The largest ones were a maximum of £12 and some of the smaller ones were bought for £1 each as they were in Christmas themed ceramic pots and I just turned them around so that you can’t see the Christmas design on them.”
We privately rent and the house was starting to look shabby
Charlotte
As well as hunting around bargain stores, Charlotte also made sure to take advantage of the sales, picking up bargain pieces whenever they were discounted.
The mum said: “The wallpaper from Home Bargains was reduced to £5 a roll. The majority of the candlesticks were from Poundland and they are mercury glass.
“A couple of the bigger ones were from TK Maxx and were bought in the January sales for £3 each.
“The curtains were £20 a pair in the B&M January sale.
“The cushions were from the Matalan January sale and cost no more than £4 each.”
Charlotte also made great use of trendy fablon, covering multiple surfaces in the cost-effective material to personalise them, as well as transforming her kitchen.
The DIY guru said: “For the kitchen, I covered the worktops in oak effect Fablon – I used three rolls used at £8 each.
“The shelves and shelving unit were from IKEA for £70 and I bought a matching shelf from Facebook Marketplace for £7.
“I used the leftover Fablon used on the worktops to personalise them.”
The mum also shopped around at homeware stores such as Ikea and B&Q, and did some online shopping on Amazon to source all her materials, with the entire house transformed for just £300.
Charlotte added: “The tile-effect wallpaper tile was £10 from Amazon and the trailing ivy was £6 from IKEA.
“The paint was from Dulux in the colour Goose Down and was two for £22 from B&Q. I used it in the lounge and kitchen.
Just wait until he falls asleep on the sofa like I do and just crack on quietly
Charlotte
“The kitchen storage canisters were from TK Maxx, ranging from £2 to £12 each.
“In the bedroom, the throw was from IKEA for £8, the curtains were from B&M reduced to £5 as there is a slight mark on them that can’t be seen when hung.
“The wallpaper was £2 in the clearance at The Range.
“For the hallway, I bought a picture shelf for £4.99 from B&M, marble effect A4 frames for £2.49 from The Range, and the runner for £8 from Wilko.”
Despite the mum being chuffed with her handiwork, she said her husband wasn’t always on board with her plans.
She added: “I am thrilled with how my home has turned out.
“It is my outlet for my femininity as my family consists of three males who are football crazy and if I’m not decorating then I am usually stood on the side of a football pitch or washing dirty football kits!
“My tips to get the look would be to follow online DIY sites, be brave and experiment with new ideas – oh, and if your husband tells you ‘no you can’t put more shelves up or wallpaper a wall’, just wait until he falls asleep on the sofa like I do and just crack on quietly!”
She added that with the UK in lockdown, now was the perfect time to get stuck into some DIY.
Charlotte said: “With a lot of people now confined to the home this is the perfect time to do those renovations and decorate those rooms that have been driving you crazy but you haven’t had time to tackle!”
Tom Church, co-founder of , comments: “Many of us are stuck at home twiddling our thumbs due to coronavirus, but it’s important to make the best of a bad situation.
“Overhauling your home needn’t be an expensive task: as Charlotte proves, getting involved in DIY and ordering cheap homeware online can reap amazing rewards.
“Better yet, getting the whole family involved in a creative project will avoid those cries of ‘I’m so bored’ and boost everyone’s mood!”
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