Is it ok living in bare minimum?

WestonDave

Not sure if this has been suggested, but in terms of carpet, in the past we carpeted a room with cheap cord carpet which we bought off a roll at a carpet barn place, folded it up and put it in the boot of the car (maybe a taxi would do this for you) cut it to size ourselves ( a sharp pair of scissors will do it) and laid it over newspaper rather than underlay. Its probably no-ones first choice of carpet, but it does wear well and as long as you don't go for a light colour will give you some time with a softer feel than bare boards. I think it was about £30 ten years ago for a big room but probably not that much more now.

The other option is to keep an eye out on ebay etc for left over carpet tiles that are going cheaply (or free on Freecycle) nearby. Often people buy a box too many just in case and then want to get rid of them.

I suspect most people would prefer the fully fitted pile carpet with underlay but there are cheaper options that might tide you over for a while.

(I think the height of my "shabby chic" era was when a new server was delivered to work on a pallet. Eyeing it up, I figured that if I put four legs on it, it would make a decent TV table, with the video (in those days it was just a video not DVD etc) sliding in between the part that the fork lift picked it up by. Trouble was I got so used to it in the corner it was a long while before it got replaced!)

Corelli

Yes, while on the subject of laying carpet - sorry I'd kind of been assuming cheap cord over newspaper and not thought it needed specifying - a staple gun is excellent for fixing the edges down. It does need to go down over newspaper because the thin foam backing sticks to the floor and will cause problems in the future.

For curtains, a cheap rail can be made with long garden bamboo canes supported with cup hooks but they do tend to be a bit bendy so can't support very heavy curtains and tbh, they can be a bit hard to pull the rings over the bamboo joints, but we managed like that for years, still got a few in place.

If you can learn to use a power drill it will change your life. As my husband said when I got my lovely cheap red one for £10 from Tesco power tools are empowering. I used to screw cup hooks into every shelf we had for storing saucepans, mugs, jugs, everything. I did it by pushing the point of a pair of scissors into the wood to start the hole off. Now I drill. It's wonderful

RAS

Corelli wrote: »

For curtains, a cheap rail can be made with long garden bamboo canes supported with cup hooks but they do tend to be a bit bendy so can't support very heavy curtains and tbh, they can be a bit hard to pull the rings over the bamboo joints, but we managed like that for years, still got a few in place.

Alternatively given the cost of good bamboo sticks, you can cover narrower windows with a broom handle as a rail. Should be able to get one for £1 or less.

dawn_rose

in my daughters bedroom there are high up cupboards with cup hook and broom handle as a wardrobe underneath it is excellent as the room would not allow space for a wardrobe so i kept it. I inherited it as a part of the house lol.

rachbc

embob74 wrote: »

Also people get rid of fridges that still work just because they are rusty. Years ago my mum got me an old fridge and sanded the rust spots then sprayed it yellow and blue (spray cans) to match my kitchen. It was very cheap and everybody commented on how individual it was and that they wanted one!

That's bought back a long lost memory of my first flat with rusty horrid fridge - I cut out loads of pictures of food from the weekend 'colour supplement' and pasted them all over the fridge then varnished it - it was a masterpiece!!