21st January 2017

Living room DIY update

Interiors - By Alexandra Stedman

Quick Read

DIY update: Living Room

The Frugality Living Room

We have decorated one room in our house to a liveable standard, and I couldn’t be happier.

It isn’t ‘finished’ as such, it needs plastering properly and all sorts but in under a week we made it liveable and it cost us nothing.

The Frugality DIY mode
Letterboard: Old. Buy similar from Trouva
The Frugality House Renovations on a budget

The Reality

To be really honest, I don’t think we undertook the extent of building work in this house when we bought it. It was already the top end of our budget without any extra cash for works (we have barely managed to pay for the central heating to be put in from leftover mortgage money). We thought we’d have this easy, bohemian lifestyle where we lived in one room and it’d all just work out…

And then reality hit that we both kind of work from home, I need to take pictures for a job and no heating, hot water and no room to actually sit down in might cause a bit of disturbance.

Alex Stedman DIY

So we got to it.

Obviously we had all our old furniture, so we picked a room that needed least maintenance (not too much pipe disturbance, no damp, solid walls) and started there. We pulled up the carpet, sanded the floors (we borrowed a sander from my dad but you can hire them), filled in holes, pulled out an existing cupboard from the chimney alcove and painted and painted and painted.

Paint wise, we used bog standard Brilliant White wall paint on the walls and then dark undercoat on the floor before using the rest of the leftover tin of Farrow & Ball ‘Downpipe’ floor paint from our last flat.

The Frugality DIY painting wooden floors

We haven’t picked the new fireplace tiles yet…still a work in progress.

The Frugality House - Living room

It’s not the finished article but for now (and the next few years at least), it’ll do.

For more DIY updates in The Frugality House click here.

By Alexandra Stedman

Fashion Editor, Blogger, Realist

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Comments

  1. Keep going Alex! We went through something similar when we moved into our house and it’s so draining but will all be worth it in the end! I love the floors in downpipe – we bought it for our front door and hallway coat hook after seeing it used on the steps in your old flat (along with the Ikea mat that you have, which I also love). Good luck, play lots of music and don’t forget to have some downtime too x

  4. Thank you! I know it will be worth it in the end! Love a bit of Downpipe – and the plumber have totally ruined our front mat, needs replacing amongst most other things! I’ve been away this week for work and can’t wait to get back and see the progress – we should have a bathroom by the time we land! xxx

  7. It’s looking fab – hang in there! I know what you mean about building works though, everything takes so much longer than you think it’ll be. We’re looking to sell this year and all the niggly details we’ve ‘lived with’ over the last 5 years suddenly need to be brought up to scratch and I’m realising it’s a BIG JOB. But a great predicament to be in all the same 🙂