Savvy couple quoted £800 for chic corner seat create it themselves for a fraction of the price using free wood

A COUPLE who were quoted £800 for their dream corner seat, created it themselves for a fraction of the price using free wood.

Matthew Scoby, 28, and his partner Grace Shannon, 27, who live in Middlesbrough, caught the DIY bug when they bought their first house at the start of the pandemic.

Matthew, a plant operator and Grace, a primary school teacher, started off small, making a mantlepiece for their fireplace, and soon began tiling their own kitchen and fitting the floor.

Growing in confidence, the couple then salvaged old wood destined for the skip and built a beautiful storage corner seat unit.

They spent just £100 on the project, and estimate it would have cost up to £800 to have built professionally.

Matthew told money-saving Facebook group DIY On A Budget UK: "We bought our first house right at the start of the first lockdown knowing it was going to be a long term renovation project for us.

“With neither of us having any real DIY experience we started off with having tradesmen come in to do everything but the actual decorating for us.

"Soon enough our budget ran out and we had to start getting inventive.

"The first real DIY hack we did was making a mantlepiece for the fireplace - after pricing them up for over £100 we decided we could just make one ourselves which came out amazing.

"We then began work in the kitchen. We had a new kitchen installed by a professional joiner but didn't have the money to pay for someone to tile behind the worktops or fit our floor for us.