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Five ways to glow up your home on a budget

Christina Hoghton
Written By:
Christina Hoghton
Posted:
Updated:
28/08/2020

You don’t need to spend a fortune to add style to your property, as these top tips demonstrate

More than two thirds (69%) of homeowners would like to make improvements to their current home, but it can be costly.

Doing it yourself is one option and sales of paint, wallpaper, home furnishings and compost soared during lockdown, as homeowners opted to tackle long-awaited projects.

Trussle found that almost one in seven homeowners are considering remortgaging their property for home improvement.

On average, homeowners who switch with the online mortgage broker save up to £344 a month, more than enough to start to renovate their home.

To help add style to your home on a friendly budget, Trussle teamed up with interior design blogger, Katy Orme of Apartment Apothecary (pictured), to share some top tips for a clever, effective, and quick home makeover.

1. Create a dual-purpose room

Working from home has become the norm for many during lockdown, and there are a number of ways to create an effective dual purpose room that looks good and works well. Firstly, try using the same colour scheme and style as the existing room when adding a desk, chair or storage furniture. This helps to create a sense of cohesion with the rest of the room. It’ll also make the room feel spacious and less like an add-on. Storage is key when using a room for two different purposes, so use storage furniture to divide the space. Then make the most of ‘dead’ space by adding, shelves and storage benches in bay windows.

2. DIY expensive interior trends

If there’s a particular interior trend you love, you don’t need to spend huge amounts of money on to get it. Try some DIY instead. There are lots of natural textures being used in interiors, and you can replicate this at a fraction of the cost by adding cane panels to an existing cabinet. If you’re after the latest wall panelling and reeding craze, have a go using easy tutorials online.

Line art is another trend that’s easy and affordable to do yourself. If you can get your hands on some paint and a blank canvas, you could create a great unique piece to spruce up your space.

3. Use paint in creative ways

When working with a tight budget, it’s a good idea to colour match designer paints. You can often find the tester pots on Gumtree or Freecycle.

You don’t even have to paint an entire room to make a drastic change, especially as this can be quite a big job. Think about highlighting woodwork or period features to give a room a fresh new feel. You could paint any uPVC doors or windows to help improve the overall feel of a room, and use dark colours to hide ugly moldings.

4. Spend nothing and work with what you’ve got

It’s easy to get used to our homes and not notice the areas that we could easily improve without spending a penny. Removing any unsightly items is a good start, and changing the layout of the furniture can make a big difference. Moving just one piece of furniture in a room can free up floor space and give a room a whole new lease of life.

Once you’ve sorted out your space, you can go shopping for artwork, textiles or ornaments to update a forgotten space.It’s easy to get used to our homes and not notice the areas that we could easily improve without spending a penny.

5. Make the kitchen a focus

If your focus is on selling your home and investing a small amount in an effort to get back as much as possible, your kitchen is a great place to start. Remove tired wall cabinets and replace them with streamlined open shelves. These cost very little but will make your kitchen feel bigger and fresher.

Update your kitchen features by painting base cupboard fronts and replacing any handles. Another very easy DIY is re-tiling splashbacks.