DIY on a tight budget

YORKSHIRELASS

Thanks all, thats really helpful. We have no plans to move so whatever we do needs to be something we can live with - although I accept that we are going to have to compromise a bit.

I think its going to be quite tricky to paint the existing wallpaper, the top and bottom halves of the wall were papered differently with a border around the middle. Its quite patterned and I can see it being a nightmare to cover. There are also corners and edges that have lifted up and I am not sure how well they would stick down. I think I might go for the lining paper option. I am itching to get the paper off now and see whats underneath!

Still not sure about the floor, the carpet wasnt laid very well by the previous occupants and has bunched up a bit (I am giving you a lovely picture of my lounge now!). I think getting a new carpet might be the easiest way, need to get some prices I think.

ormus

a half decent carpet will be 300/600 quid.

YORKSHIRELASS

Mmm, in that case dont know about the carpet. Really dont have that much money to spend.

CharlieBilly

You could always laminate but you still looking at around £100-£300 depending on the quality, you can diy it will be far more with fitting

poppyolivia

would the carpet just not need stretched and relaid type thing?..is it faded or thinning? If no I would get someone in to get rid of the bunched up bits??

YORKSHIRELASS

I wondered about how much it would cost to get it relaid, and whether it would ever go back down properly. It needs a good clean but would probably last a bit longer. I just wonder whether its worth spending the money or whether I should just think about investing in a decent new carpet.

dander

You can get some amazingly cheap rugs in Ikea. You could always either cover up the existing carpet with rugs or pull it up and put rugs on whatever's underneath. I saw in a magazine someone who had stitched a load of rugs together to make a whole carpet.
Or as a temporary measure you could get rock-bottom cheap carpet in a beige or something and lay it yourself and then add rugs on top.

Depends on the look that you like though - if you are a fan of the sleek modern, laminate type-style that probably wouldn't work.

A lot will depend on what you want to achieve and what compromises you are happy to make. In my first flat I took out some Odeon-style carpet in one bedroom and replaced it with bottom of the range carpet with old newspapers underneath instead of underlay. No, it wasn't a top of range finish and it wasn't particularly soft, but it was serviceable and clean and looked much nicer than what was there before.

Where you've got wallpaper already, and it's in good condition, it's worth checking if it's peelable. Some vinyl papers let you peel the top layer off, leaving a plain paper layer underneath which is perfect as lining paper.

Also, if you like the wallpaper, feature wall look, that can work out quite a cheap way to do something stylish with a room - you can paint most of it in a basic white and then just use one roll of paper in one place - or even just use one more expensive paint colour.

I have found pound shops are quite good for DIY tools if you are just doing a little bit of stuff. They're not high quality but they are serviceable for just occasional use. Poundland even have small tins of paint. Wilkinsons is also very reasonable for DIY stuff.

If you've just moved house and you've got a Focus DIY near you, they do a special card for home-movers, giving you 10% off everything for a few months. If you shop in Sainsburys, you can spend your Nectar points in Homebase. All the DIY chains quite often have days/weekends where they take 10% or 15% off everything - usually around bank holidays and times like that, so if you can buy when one of those is on you'll save money.

YORKSHIRELASS

Thanks Dander, we have lived in the house for 8 years and havent decorated the lounge because we keep saying we will wait until we can afford to do it it properly (this would include replacing the open fireplace with an wood burning stove, replastering, redoing the ceiling, getting a really good quality carpet etc etc.) However the likelihood of us being able to afford this in the next 3 years are very slim and we just cant live with the room any longer. The kitchen also needs re-wallpapering and my sons bedroom needs an overhaul.

So I suppose my question is really about making the house look decent on the cheap. Yes buying a cheap carpet probably costs more in the long run because it has to be replaced sooner but at least our lounge will look better than it does now!

I have been looking online and have found some plain biege/cream wallpaper which would probably do the job - could just get a different pattern for over the fireplace. Then I just need to sort out the floor, think I need a trip to my local carpet shop to get some prices so I can decide whether I can afford to replace the carpet or not.

WillowCat

I know someone who bought a big rug (as mentioned earlier Ikea do some good cheap ones) then put carpet tiles around the edge of the room to hide the gap between the rug and the walls. It looked very effective.

Mind you, when they sold I'd loved to have been a fly on the wall when the buyers walked in on completion day and saw the room without the rug :eek:. But they never said the room had fitted carpet, and the buyers didn't ask.......

claire1234

hiya,

we are currently doing up our house, one thing i always make sure what we pick we take our time over as its going to be there a long time and you see it every day,

with the carpet cant you get a "off-cut" from your local store then see if theres anyone in the papers who can fit it for a small charge,
we got laminate flooring roughly £200 from b&q this did the whole of the front room / dinning room & also our small hall, very clean.
what about having a look on ebay for anything people are selling?

with our front room / dinning room we choose one paper for the feature wall again from b&q (they usually have 15% off wkends) we spent roughly £100 on paper and paste (8 rolls & couple of boxes of paste), the rest of the walls were painted to go with the feature wall,
we changed the lights above the fire place - just something different.
then slowly over the year we bought other things - sofa, tv, new table & chairs & accesories, some of those things you will already have but ours really did need replacing.

with the hall we bought 5 rolls of £5 anaclypta (sp) wallpaper (so £25 plus £5 for some paste), paper had a floral pattern and we painted it in a primrose yellow (dulux usually on offer 2 for £20-ish), yet to buy new carpet for the stairs as we cant decide,

the anaclypta is great, you can get it in all kinds of patterns and looks very fresh and clean,

one bedroom we did a feature wall with wallpaper costing around £6 from wilkinsons, did the feature on one small wall and painted all the other walls, changed the furniture around and added new curtains - looks so clean and fresh compared to what it was before,

once we stripped the walls we always filled any cracks, then painted them, then sanded any bumpy bits so the walls were nice n smooth,

hth