Save £100s On Christmas Displays With Top Tips From Savvy DIYers
- These savvy crafters have saved £100s on their festive makeovers
- Tips and tricks can help Brits to avoid forking out for Christmas decor
- Ideas include recycling old supplies, buying from online marketplaces and harnessing your inner artist
Christmas is always an eye-wateringly expensive time of year, and most of us are on tighter budgets than usual. That means cutting down on costs for gifts, groceries - and decorations. However, if you’re determined to make your home look festive despite the cost of living crisis, these savvy DIYers have shared how they transformed their homes on tiny budgets - saving £100s in the process.
Tom Church, Co-Founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, said: ‘The Latest Deals community is always resourceful and full of ideas, especially when times are tough. I’ve been inspired by these stories of how people have made their homes look beautiful without breaking the bank. From reusing items destined for the tip to turning chicken wire into a stunning festive display, here are my favourite tips, tricks and ideas.’
Recycle Your Old Christmas Tree To Make An Arch - Save £250
Christmas arches will brighten up any space, but you may be wondering how to get one when money is tight. Instead of browsing the shops, why not make your own? That’s what Zoe Hemmings, from Yapton, West Sussex, did. She told Latest Deals: ‘My mum bought a new Christmas tree and was planning on throwing away her old one, so I asked if I could take it and repurpose it into the archway I had been dreaming of.
‘The materials I used for the project were my mum's old seven-foot artificial tree, warm white plug-in lights, wire mesh, command hooks and a few decorations from my local home store.
‘I bought the warm white lights from B&Q for £7.20, the command hooks from B&Q for £20, the wire mesh roll from B&Q for £12.75, baubles from The Range for £4.99, small bows from The Range for £3.87, the large bow from The Range for £1.99 and the artificial stems from The Range for £4.58, so the total was just over £55.
‘I absolutely love the arch and my living room now that it’s done. I seem to spend my time in that room staring at my arch instead of the TV! It gives the room such a cosy and Christmassy feel.
‘It feels amazing to know that I’ve created an arch that I prefer to the ones I was looking at in the shop, but for a fraction of the price. The ones I was looking at were £200 to £300 without lights or decorations!’
Use What You Already Have In A New Way - Save £100s
You will most likely have a collection of Christmas decorations, but perhaps you want to make an entirely new display without buying more products. Chrissy Shaw, from Portsmouth, may provide some inspiration.
‘We had seen some TikTok videos of people using chicken wire and baubles to make Christmas decoration arches so we thought we would give that a go,’ she said.
‘I live with my partner Callum who helped me put the chicken wire on the wall with command hooks. I had a bunch of baubles and feather boas from the year before.
"I started on the bottom right-hand side and just started adding loads of baubles, mixing the sizes so it didn’t look boring and then from there started building it up.
"When it got to the bigger ornaments my partner used zip ties around them so I could hook an ornament hook to it and then hook that onto the wire.
"If I couldn’t get the hook to the wire I would use either another zip tie or some garden wire and bend it around the chicken wire and the tie on the ornament.
“The chicken wire cost £6, the hooks cost £4, and the ornament hooks were £1 for £2.50 - I had two packs of them.’
Upcycle Products Headed For Landfill - Save £300
Decorating the outside of your home can be a great way to spread festive cheer. But you may not want to splash out on additional supplies. If that’s the case, take a leaf out of Katie Whitehurst’s book and upcycle products headed for landfill.
The mum of five from Stoke-on-Trent explained how she created a stunning Christmas display for free: ‘I had an old tree heading for the tip and thought ‘I wonder if I could make something with this myself’. My friend gave me some chicken wire that she had no use for and it was just in her way, so I asked if I could take it off her hands.
‘I made the top at first and then thought ‘I need more trees to carry this on around the whole door’.So I asked if anyone was throwing old trees away and I got another three.
‘I attached the chicken wire to my wall with wire clips, cut the trees up with wire cutters and weaved the branches through the chicken wire. To finish, I had an old set of lights I had no use for that I added to it.
‘I was absolutely thrilled to not only have saved myself a huge amount of money, but also that I’d saved these items from ending up in a landfill. When I had been searching for a garland for my door, some were over £300 and nowhere near the size I have made mine.’
Buy Old Furniture From Gumtree and Marketplace - Save £50
Browsing Facebook Marketplace, Gumtree and similar sites can pay off if you’re looking for cheap decorations or need a springboard for ideas. That’s what Lisa Allison from Blidworth did when she transformed her living room into a festive haven.
‘I got a fireplace surround for £20 on Facebook Marketplace. It’s always worth looking there – and on Gumtree – for old furniture to upcycle. I knew I would need to sand it and paint it, but it was exactly what I was looking for, and it was worth the effort for how well it turned out.
To tie in with her theme, Lisa got her hands on a secondhand geometric coffee table and spray painted the base rose gold.
Tom added: ‘I’ve seen fireplace surrounds like Lisa’s selling for over £80, so she must have saved at least £50!’
Save £100s Repurposing In-Store Bargains For Themed Displays
If your family loves a particular move or TV franchise, why not create a themed display on a budget? Louise Howard picked up supplies from bargain stores and repurposed them for a festive Harry Potter Christmas tree.
‘I found some gold and burgundy Gryffindor theme colour baubles in B&M. I then printed some Harry Potter-themed clip art from Google onto sticker paper and cut them out and stuck them to the baubles.
‘I thought about other things related to Harry Potter: an owl and stag, letters, a broom, a Golden Snitch and so on, and I started to source them.
‘The Range had a Harry Potter writing set which I used for the envelopes, which filled some quite big areas.’
If you want to give your furniture a festive look, try using Rachel Wood’s strategy. The mum of two from Luton collects bargains from charity shops and eBay for her Harry Potter makeovers.
‘I love my drinks trolley, with its spinning orbs that look like something that Dumbledore would have in his study. I found it at a local second-hand emporium two years ago for £30. It started off as gold and I decorated it with pre-loved potion-style bottles, which I added lights and Harry Potter labels to. Over the past two years, I’ve sprayed it silver.
Rachel usually decides on the theme at the beginning of the year so she has lots of time to collect things that she thinks will work. ‘I will use the majority of the items I collect the next year, too, by painting them or altering them in some way.’
Get Artistic Friends & Family To Help Out - Buy Supplies For Just £10
For a truly unique display, consider getting an artistic friend or family member to draw up some festive designs. Sarah Ratcliffe, a mum of two from Sheffield, created a beautiful Christmas window display from scratch.
Without a plan before she started, Sarah developed her artwork as she went along, even adding in a cute Highland cow inspired by a picture she’d seen on Google Images.
‘Art is something I've mainly done for myself and for pleasure, with the odd gift for my favourite people.
‘I mostly paint at night because it's easier to see what the paint is doing against the black background.
‘In terms of materials, I just used white acrylic paint. I treated myself to a couple of new brushes. I reckon it's cost me about a tenner.
‘My tips would be to keep the ideas simple: my favourite bits are pretty uncomplicated: the cow, the trees, particularly in the latter two panels.’
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