DIY Mum Revamps Lounge & Dining Room For £300 Using Facebook Marketplace Buys
- Jo Hayes, 50, was bored with the look of her lounge and dining room
- She created a panel feature wall for just £52 using strips of MDF
- Jo then got secondhand furniture from Facebook Marketplace that she repainted
Many of us are fed up with the look of our homes, but renovating them seems too expensive of an option to be considered.
But one mum managed to give her lounge and dining room an on-trend makeover for just £300.
Mum-of-two Jo Hayes, 50, a trainee nurse associate from Manchester, was bored with her rose wallpaper and dark sofa cushions.
She found bargain furniture on Facebook Marketplace that she upcycled, and created a chic panel wall feature using £52 MDF.
Jo told money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk: "The idea started one evening when I was chatting to a friend about being fed up with my lounge and dining room.
"I originally wanted to go for mustard but it seemed a bit masculine and I wanted something feminine without being little girly.
"I couldn't find the paint I wanted so I mixed my own with with 10L of white that I already had and two very small pots of bright red that I bought for £3 from a local DIY shop.
"I had seen on a DIY Facebook group how someone had done a panel wall super cheap using 9mm MDF board which was a couple of hundred pounds cheaper than wood.
"I paid £52 for the MDF, which was super cheap. It was from Atlantic Timber and they cut it into 10cm strips for me.
"My auntie Caz showed me how to use the jigsaw and stayed to be the extra pair of hands I needed.
"I wanted medium squares so I measured the length of the wall and divided it by the number of squares I wanted and repeated the process for the width.
"As the strips were already cut into 10cm strips, all I had to do was trim to the length of the wall, then measure and mark where the next strip would go. I used a spirit level on each piece.
"To attach to the wall I used No More Nails adhesive and a few simple tacks to secure.
“Once painted, you could not see the tacks. I then filled any gaps with Polyfilla and sanded down before painting.
"I wanted solid furniture but I couldn't afford it so I looked on Facebook Marketplace, where I bought a solid wood TV unit for £20 and a £6 side table and painted them using Wickes grey gloss and adding handles I already had.
"My fire was one I bought off Facebook Marketplace last year for £20, and I painted it white and grey.
"The dining suite was my most expensive expenditure at £129 from Amazon.
"I revamped my sofa by removing the dark back cushions and replacing them with cushions bought on Matalan in the online sale for £7 each.
“It cost around £300 for me to totally revamp both the lounge and dining room."
Jo was over the moon with how her renovation turned out and found it to be a soothing project during the stresses of the pandemic.
"I am a trainee nurse associate at a local GP practice so I could not spend a lot on redecoration, but I completely love it,” Jo adds.
“It's been very empowering learning new skills and has given me a great sense of pride in my home.
"It's been hard working through the pandemic and this has been great as therapy for me.
"I have two teenage children at home, a boy and a girl, and they both love it!”
Tom Church, co-founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, comments: “When we want to give our home a new lease of life, it’s easy to become discouraged by browsing furniture online and seeing just how expensive everything is.
“However, Jo has proved that you really don’t need to spend a fortune for your home to look fantastic.
“By creating a panelled feature wall that would have cost hundreds for a builder to do for just £52, and buying secondhand furniture that she’s then personalised herself, Jo has got a brand new lounge and dining room for a fraction of what she could have spent!"
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