When you are working with a tight budget, keeping your home looking good can be tricky. Decorating materials, furniture, soft furnishings and tools are not cheap. But, there are ways to keep the cost down. Below, I take a look at 4 potentially expensive DIY projects and explain how you can do a good job of them without spending a fortune.
Installing new skirting boards
If you need to do this take a look at the skirtings r us website. They sell a huge range, including composite baseboards that are not at all expensive. Importantly, their products are designed to be easy to install. So, there is no need to pay a carpenter.
Replacing your flooring
Instead of laying new carpets consider switching to laminate flooring for some rooms. Often, you will find it to be a far cheaper option. This is especially the case for a room that has very little foot traffic. For example, a spare room, which can be fitted out with the cheapest laminate flooring or lino there is. To lay it all you need is a saw, a mallet, a measuring tape and something to kneel on.
Remodelling a kitchen
On average installing a new kitchen costs around £8,000, which is a lot of money for anyone. Fortunately, there are far cheaper ways to give your kitchen a new look.
One of the best approaches is to take your old cabinet doors off, deep clean them then spray paint them. Once you have reinstalled them, update the handles to complete your fresh look. It is also possible to give the walls a new look using specialist tile paint. For the floor, choose lino. It is really cheap and goes down very quickly.
You could always consider taking out a quick personal loan to help finance the the costs of a kitchen renovation that exceed your budget.
Freshen up your bathroom
You can take the same approach with your bathroom walls and floors. If you have a bathroom cabinet, spray paint the doors to freshen them up. But, be careful to use paints that are designed for use in a damp environment. You can also change the fixtures and things like the toilet seat to give your bathroom a more modern look.
Shop in the sales to maximize your savings
If you want to save even more money, I suggest that you wait for the sales and buy the materials and tools you need, at that doing. Potentially you could buy everything you need for a year’s worth of DIY and gradually work your way through each of them.
As you can see by reading this consumer rights article goods that you buy in a sale should be fit for purpose. If when you get around to using them you discover that they are defective you can potentially still get your money back. Although, as you will see from the article, the longer you leave between your purchases and making a complaint the harder it is to get your money back. So, if you do decide to buy things months before you plan to use them, be sure to check everything carefully, as soon as you get home.
This is a collaborative post.