Mum Saves £2000 Creating DIY ‘Dream’ Walk-In Wardrobe On A Budget
- Juliette, 34, wanted to design her spare room and build a walk-in wardrobe
- However she was put off a professional job after receiving a quote of £3000
- She decided to go DIY, using wood from B&Q and shelves from Amazon
- The DIY job cost just over £1000, saving her £2000
Walk in wardrobes are every fashion lovers’ dream - having a huge space to organise all of your clothes, shoes and accessories is not only functional and practical, it also makes your home look great.
One mum of 2 wanted a walk-in wardrobe in her spare room, but after being put off by a professional quote she decided to go DIY - and saved thousands in the process.
Juliette Dudley, 34 from Dudley, West Midlands who has two children aged 9 and 5 and who works as a content creator on Being Mrs Dudley and owns Glow Up Beauty, told money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk: ‘We had an entire spare room to design and a small budget. I had been scouring Pinterest and YouTube for walk-in wardrobe ideas and we created a mood board.
‘We knew we wanted a clean yet classic colour scheme to fit in with the rest of our home, and we saw some good options on IKEA. We went to them for a professional quote, but it was way over budget - coming in at over £2500 for the wardrobe frames alone.
‘Add on the flooring and other associated costs, and we would have been looking at over £3000 - which we simply couldn’t justify or afford. We then concluded - why can’t we create our own? We always knew with the odd shape of our spare room that we could definitely create something unique and amazing for a wardrobe or dressing room.
‘I had seen a few YouTubers taking on challenges like this. One of them had created her own DIY wardrobe using raw materials. Some of these projects were amazing, but a bit too complex. So I thought - why not try a sort of hybrid approach? I could combine flatpack IKEA furniture along with white furniture board from our local DIY store.’
Armed with her idea, Juliette went shopping for supplies. ‘The biggest spend was at IKEA, where we picked up 7 sets of the KULLEN chest of drawers which came in at £553. While we were there, we picked up 5 sets of KOMPLEMENT rails for £25 as well.
‘Next we went to B&Q, where we picked up the wood. We got a whole furniture board for £220. As we worked on the project, we decided to redo the floors. We paid a local flooring company called Adams Carpets £210 for new vinyl, including the fitting. Finally, we went on Amazon for a shelf unit priced at £34.99. In total, the supplies cost £1042.99 - much better than the £3000 we’d been quoted!
‘The first job was to completely empty the room. As we were doing so, we decided to redo the flooring. We replaced the tired brown carpet with parquet-style vinyl. This was a huge saving and looks amazing at a fraction of the cost.
‘We then filled in all the holes and touched up any paintwork with our favourite Dulux shade that we have throughout the house - Summer Linen. We had this paint left over from previous projects.
‘After that, we got to work measuring and remeasuring using the chest of drawer dimensions as a rough guide. We then worked out how many furniture boards we may need and also cut shelves to run around the top of the room with the offcuts. We secured everything into place by fixing the board to the chest of drawers and then also used the rails and shelves for further stability.
‘The biggest challenge during this project was making our budget stretch for the additional cost of changing the flooring. However, we are so glad we made this change as we really think it made the most of the space. Plus, the floor is more practical and cleaning-friendly now.
‘If we were to do it again we would definitely pick brighter lighting and in the future, we may add mood lighting to the insides of the wardrobes as the room can be quite dark.
‘We are really happy we went DIY overall - even if we’d brought in the professionals, the end result wouldn’t have fitted as well as it does now. We made sure we utilised every single inch of the room for storage, whilst creating a system that works for us both.’
Tom Church, Co-Founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, said: ‘Juliette has turned a plain room into a stunning walk-in wardrobe that wouldn’t look out of place in a showroom! What’s more, she has no doubt added to the value of her property with this impressive makeover.’
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