I transformed my boring garden steps into bright and inviting space with Wilko bargain and £1 beauty product
A DIY fan transformed her boring garden steps into a bright and inviting space using bargains from Wilko and B&Q - and an unlikely beauty product.
Nicole Bell was fed up with the dull grey stairs leading up to the front door of her Ayrshire home.
So the arty personal assistant decided to spruce up the steps and breathe new life into the space on a budget.
Nicole, 32, told money-saving community : "I wanted to make my outdoor steps look brighter and more inviting.
"The plain stone needed sprucing up and I decided a monochrome effect would look good.
"I came up with the idea after I bought a stencil to decorate my gas box.
"I realised I could do something similar with my steps and get even more use out of the stencil.
"I did advanced higher art so I knew I would be able to give this project a creative twist.
"Like the gas box, I wanted the black and white effect and I knew it would look really striking."
Nicole picked up the stencil for under £4 from eBay.
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"There are huge stencils out there for £30 or more that people use on their patios", she explained.
"But I knew this one would be big enough for what I needed."
From there, the DIY fan only needed some paint to get started on her garden makeover.
She picked up a tub of exterior white masonry paint for £14 in Wilko and a £5.50 tester pot of sandtex black masonry paint from B&Q.
Nicole said: "Altogether the supplies cost under £25 - which I think is great as the stairs have been completely transformed for next to no money.
"The first step was to clean and brush the steps within an inch of their life. As people are going up and down these stairs there was plenty of dust and dirt to get rid of as I didn’t want any of this grime to get mixed in with the paint.
"I then lacquered the steps so that the paint would go on evenly. The lacquer also helps the paint to adhere to the stairs to create a more professional finish. I already had lacquer from previous projects.
"Next I taped all of the areas that I didn’t want to accidentally get paint on. This step is so important as you can never tell where paint could end up during a project like this.
"I then applied the base coat of white paint. I needed to apply two coats for good coverage and to ensure it was totally even. I then left it to dry.
"After that I painted the sides of the stairs in black. Then it was time to move on to the stencilling. At first I tried spray painting over it, but that was a fail so I had to think of another solution."
Instead, Nicole made use of a clever hack for the final effect - using an item she had in her cosmetics bag.
"I came up with the idea to use a small makeup sponge, dabbing the black paint onto the stencil this way", she said.
"It worked so much better and created both better coverage and a neater effect."
With makeup sponges costing just £1 in B&M, it works out as a cheap trick.
Nicole added: "There was still a challenge to overcome as the stencil would smudge if I wasn’t careful. The key is to go slow and make sure the stencil is down properly.
"Alternatively, you can buy an adhesive to glue the stencil in place each time - but I didn’t want to use it for this project.
"Once I was done I arranged some plants on the steps and now it looks completely different - very bright and inviting!
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"I love it and wouldn’t change anything about it."
Tom Church, Co-Founder of , said: "Stencilling has been really popular this year, but I have seen patios being decorated - steps are a new one! It looks fantastic though."