Mum transforms her grubby old stairs for £10 using Poundland buys and her DIY skills
A MUM has revealed how she overhauled her grubby old stairs for just £10 with some Poundland and B&M bargains.
Thrifty Claire Jackson, 40, from Kent, gave her staircase a makeover on a tiny budget in just two days - and the finished result looks incredible.
Mum-of-four Claire told money-saving community : “The idea originally came from my boyfriend Luke who said it would look good and stylish to paint the back bits of the stairs and carpet the treads.
"Once we moved into our new home via mutual exchange with the council, the lady who lived there before had left the lounge carpet so we decided to reuse that on the stairs.
“We had ordered some grey vinyl for the lounge that looks like wooden laminate, so now all I needed was some nice paint."
Claire added: "Once the lounge flooring arrived, there was quite a bit of surplus left over and Luke said 'what about using that?' instead of painting it, which I thought was great.”
The couple bought six bottles of adhesive spray for £1 each from Poundland and then went to B&M for some £2.99 carpet tacks.
Claire said: “It ended up costing less than £10 using carpet and vinyl leftovers.”
First, they began by stripping the old carpet away – but leaving the soft underlay - and then they took off the gripper rods and pulled out any staples, filled the holes with all purpose filler and gave the wood a sand.
Claire then glossed the sides of the stairs with some leftover product she already owned.
She said: “After this, I measured the bottom step for the carpet and cut it to size. I then laid it on top of the underlay banging on to the gripper and fixed with a couple of tacks, and a good spray of adhesive.
“A big staple gun probably would have worked better but due to the lockdown I just couldn't find one!
“After I'd secured the first carpet tread I then proceeded to do the next stair and the next and so on until all the stair treads were done in carpet.”
The care worker then measured the back of each step and cut her vinyl to size, before sticking to her stairs with adhesive spray.
She added: “While I was doing this, Luke was up on the landing using the remainder of the carpet to fix on to the landing and the top step.
“The materials I used were the carpet from the lounge, leftover vinyl, six tins of adhesive spray and carpet tacks, costing a total of around £10.”
Claire is delighted with the finished results and said she believes crafty projects are good for mental health, particularly given the current coronavirus lockdown.
She said: “I absolutely love it now it's finished.
“My main tip would be to measure twice but cut once, especially if you have limited materials, and make sure you leave enough carpet to fold over the edge.
"These kind of projects during the lockdown are especially helpful to people because it keeps us busy, especially if we are used to a busy day.
“DIY products are being classed as non-essential items, however I believe that for your mental wellbeing if doing these things keep you positive and stops depression, then these items should not be branded as non-essential, as these products are essential to our mental health.”
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Previously we shared how a woman dyed her stairs from brown to grey in one evening using Wilko £5 product.
