Great Spruce Up Your Home Hunt

Becles

littlebigfeat wrote:

2) How can I spruce up some very dated kitchen units?

You can get spray paints for cupboard doors. Mine are a shades of beige/brown mottled effect, so I'm planning on spraying mine a different colour when I get round to it.

3) What can I do about an old bathroom suite without having to shell out for a new one?

Can you replace/update things around the bathroom suite? I had a mahogany bath panel, but painted that a cheerful blue to brighten my bathroom up, and replaced the mahogany toilet seat and fixtures with pine ones. New paint or flooring might brighten it up too.

msraec

i agree about replacing just the kitchen doors but if you're on a really really tight budget as we were (we ran outta money at the kitchen) and the kitchen we inherited was really dreadful we just painted the cupboard doors with a couple of layers of white paint (they havent peeled yet and dont mind being scoured - its not specialist spray or paint!) and screwed in some modern stainless steel (dirt cheap from b+q) handles and they look, well...much much better than we thought, we white washed the walls, moved a lamp or two in there and put some slate effect lino down over the old stained stuff (also dirt cheap and did a slap dash but good enough job ourselves) and the kitchen looks more than presentable enough to sell the house if we wanted to. the only thing i still hate is the yucky bland worktops and tiling but a few strategically placed funky appliances we brought from our last house, bread boards, nice oil bottles, plants etc and the eye is drawn away from it. its not the kitchen we want but its great while we save for a new one!

suki1964

littlebigfeat wrote:

3) What can I do about an old bathroom suite without having to shell out for a new one?

Thanks xx

If the suite is in good condition then changing the taps and the handle on the loo will smarten it up. Also new towel rail, loo paper holder,loo brush etc etc will make a difference. Tachibo are excellent for those bits and pieces. if the tiling is looking drab then re-grouting them will breathe new life into them.
And maybe a new bath panel? We replaced our plastic panel with woodchip and then tongue and grooved it, painting and varnishing it to match the rest of the colour scheme and our 20 year old suite looks as good as new.

dustycat_2

Hi

I recently refurbished my kitchen on a shoestring. The units were in good condition, just very dated knotty pine, so I bought a product called Easy Surface Preparation which cleans and primes the doors, then painted them inside and out with an oil based eggshell paint. I added new handles and voila an instantly updated and very expensive-looking hand painted kitchen. The oil based eggshell gives a matt finish that is washable.

Other suggestions:

If you can't afford to repaint a whole room, just paint one wall in a striking colour - feature walls are all the rage and it take a fraction of the paint needed for a whole room

Make your own abstract art prints. You can get pre-stretched, pre-primed canvases from Au Naturele Interiors (and elsewhere I imagine) for a few pounds. I used matchpots of emulsion paint to match, tone and contrast the colours in my room then painted different abstract designs (stencils, fabric swatches etc could suggest shapes). Great looking, unique artwork for a fraction of the cost of a gallery print

Just changing soft furnishings such as cushions, a rug, blinds or curtains can transform a room without breaking the bank.

Great topic Martin!



Michelle McDines
The House Coach
"Maximising Your Property's Potential"

ChatwithJacqs

Sofa_Sogood wrote:

I 'nicked' a good idea for a cottagy style coffee table from my sister-in-law.

Instead of splashing out on something expensive, she bought 4 wicker cubes and made one big low table.

Looks great with a bowl of pine cones and wicker balls and only cost about £40 brand new. Might be cheaper if you look out for a few slightly marked cubes.

Hi!

Where did she get the wicker cubes from...thanks

Jacq (new home owner)

Sofa_Sogood

ChatwithJacqs wrote:

Hi!

Where did she get the wicker cubes from...thanks

Jacq (new home owner)

Hi, it was Homebase, but you can get them from a few places - Dunelms etc. They're quite big, approx. 15" x 15", maybe more, so makes a big table

We also store things in boxes underneath them - utilise the space as much as we can (and hide a bit of clutter )

Hope that helps.

gremlin

littlebigfeat wrote:

1)
2) How can I spruce up some very dated kitchen units?

Thanks xx

Hi
As has been suggested before changing the cupboard fronts is probably your best bet. Theres loads of people out there who do this - you could check your local paper or even HERE for modern doors that are avge £10 each.

When I was a student I painted my doors, a good couple of coatings of paint ( I prefer satinwood for a nice finish) and change the handles. It can totally transform your doors.

dilly_3

I've found the best way to do a house makeover is to declutter - ruthlessly and steadily (15 mins per day, see http://www.FlyLady.net).

Previously I only saved stuff I really wanted, so it was hard. Then I started saying "OK, I want this stuff, but what do I want more, the stuff or the space?" Usually the space. Surprise, I can hardly remember the things I agonised over - I haven't mised one of them. And if I do, I can afford to replace them having saved so much money by avoiding an extension or house move!!

I worked really hard at decluttering the kitchen so I could remove one tower unit which cast deep shadow into one corner (previously tried to light the corner - very ineffective).

Removing eye-level cupboards makes the room seem huge!! Do It!!

kitty_kat_uk

wildchild wrote:

OR get your bath re-enameled (specialist firms in yellow pages etc do this).

When we bought our Victorian house last year the bath had boards round the bottom of it which were painted black. When we pulled these away we realised we had a cast iron bath complete with fancy feet. Rather than pay for a specialist firm to re-enamel it, we bought a re-enamel kit from the internet for about £90 and did it our self. We also painted round the base of the bath with normal white paint, and sprayed the feet silver. It looks fab now! :T

newnhak

Hi

I have just recently added an extra room to my house. We have three kids and needed an extra bedroom. To move would have cost us about £40k on top of what we would have got for our house. We considered a loft conversion but to be able to comply with fire and building regulations it would have cost us about £25K (and been a lot of upheaval)

Instead we have changed our old bathroom, which was quite big, into a bedroom and divided the second bedroom into a smaller bedroom and a bathroom. The rooms aren't massive but they are plenty big enough for us and it only cost £7K. Could have been cheaper too but I treated myself to a good bathroom suite and for the third bedroom we had a bespoke loft bed made for it so the space could be used to best effect.

It has taken us about 3-4 months to complete but getting it started took longer as it took ages to find decent builders and plumbers.

But we saved ourselves between 18 and 33K.

And before you ask - we did really need the room as we had two girls under 3 and one boy age 10 all in the same bedroom before then.

Karen