Decorating on a budget


When we moved into this house 15 months ago I really hated the hallway flooring.  It had a horribly stained blue carpet on the floor and stairs and I knew I wanted to get rid of it but as we don't have a lot of spare money I had to think about how to decorate it cheaply.


The first job was persuading OH to rip up the horrid carpet and see what we were dealing with underneath.  Actually the floorboards weren't too bad although they had been cut about when the new heating system was put in a while ago.

A bit of filler filled the worse gaps.

I wanted to do something about the handrails too as they had loads of paint covering them and looked really dirty.

OH stripped the paint off the handrails and sanded them back to the wood. Cost nothing but his time as we had the sandpaper and paint stripper in his shed.  After a coat of varnish they looked much better.  He refreshed the paintwork on the rails and at the edge of the stairs to clean them up whilst I thought about what to do with them. 

 I decided to keep the minty green walls as it looks clean and light but i wanted to move the coats into the under stairs cupboard as they look too messy on show.
I kept these lovely hooks up to hang something more decorative.
I moved about my pictures on the walls to make a pleasing display of mismatched items


I decided to paint the stairs and floorboards so brought undercoat, rollers and some varnish and there was an offer on B&Q's own brand paint so we chose a deep red for the floors and have enough to do the lounge at a later date.
I popped into Hobbycraft and chose some wrapping papers for £1 each. 
This is what I have done on the stairs...

I love them!  
The stairs are so wide that I had to patch every one as the papers weren't wide enough but we made a good team.  OH cut them to size and i glued them in place. A coat of varnish will protect them.
Total cost of this makeover altogether is under £80, well worth it and I will no longer be ashamed to let people in at my front door as it looks so bright and welcoming.
The floorboards will be finished at the weekend whilst I am away down south collecting the Grandchildren to bring them back to ours for a holiday.  Looking forward to a hectic but happy few weeks.

Terri X

Comments

  1. The stairs look absolutely fabulous Terri, just perfect xx

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  2. What an impressive makeover. Amazing, I love your choice of papers, beautiful.

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  3. Love it. What a fantastic idea. X

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  4. You have done a superb job. I love it! Decorating on a budge brings the best kind of satisfaction eh? congrats!!
    Best x

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