Mum quoted £300 for the dressing table of her dreams does it herself for just £15 with bargains from Facebook
A MUM who was quoted £300 for a bespoke dressing table has revealed how she made her own for just £15.
DIY enthusiast Stephanie Dawson, 32, from Gloucestershire saved hundreds on her solid oak dressing table with this unheard of and amazing hack.
Stephanie told , “I had just moved into a new run-down house with the aim of doing it all up myself.
“Getting all new furniture was integral to spicing up the house and making it look like a home. However, the costs of new furniture kept adding up.”
Desperate for a solid oak piece, Stephanie set about looking for cheaper alternatives.
She says: “Bamboozled by the cost of oak furniture, I started looking for cheaper options.
“Though plywood options were cheaper, I wanted something that could last, and knew that if I got creative I could have my cake and eat it.
“Instead of searching for ‘solid oak dressing table’, I Googled ‘off-cut oak slab’.
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“To my surprise, I found tonnes of sites selling solid oak wood for a fraction of the price of buying a furniture piece.
“At first, I thought I was going to find bits of old logs you’d see on the ground in a forest, to my surprise all the wood comes pre-treated, and the majority of pieces are leftovers from furniture retailers.
“The piece of wood I found was from a vendor on Facebook Marketplace. The seller was advertising a gorgeous solid oak slab for just £15!”
Stephanie then set about transforming it into a stunning feature.
“After fetching the slab, I cut it myself with a hand saw so it would fit a dressing table size,” she says.
“Finally, I bought four 50p brackets from a local DIY shop, screwed them into the wall, and then just put the wood on top.”
“I'm so delighted with the results I got, it looks like I purchased the wood straight from a high-end furniture store”
“Core materials are actually pretty cheap when you buy them pre-treated. And if you are up to the task to source the materials and turn them into a great piece of furniture yourself, you’ll save heaps of money!”
Money-saving expert Stuart McClure comments: “Stephanie has unravelled a huge secret in the furniture world, sourcing the core materials for your furniture is super cost-effective and is a brilliant tip for budding DIYers out there.
“Doing your research and finding the places that sell the core materials is half the battle, but a great way to save huge amounts of money.”