Collaborative Post¦ When we think of redecorating, the first thought is about the amount it’s going to cost – which is enough to put anybody off starting! Thankfully, no matter your budget, there are ways that you can redecorate your house and make it feel more like your home. In this article, we’ve looked at our top tips to redecorating on any budget to give you some inspo.
1. Outline your budget before you start
The biggest mistake that you can make is not outlining your costs before you begin your redecoration, resulting in going wildly over budget and not managing to finish the job. There are plenty of ways to keep costs down if your budget is low, but you need to know what you’ve got to spend from the start. It can be easy to focus on the project itself and forget little things like what happens to all the old stuff! So don’t forget to hire a dumpster from somewhere like Waste Removal USA or a skip to put all the debris and fittings you no longer in.
As well as planning your spending limit, you need to know what improvements you want to make – you may realise that the things you want to do on the budget you’ve got is unrealistic, and it’s important to know this sooner rather than later. You can get quotes to find out the rough costs and decide if this fits within your budget – if not, you might want to delay all improvements until you’ve saved more or choose to change what you can for now. Budgeting is extra important for homeowners who are asking themselves “will redecorating help me sell my house quickly?” and are keen to get things moving without overspending.
2. Don’t settle on the first price you get
Doing research is key to getting the best price, and no matter what improvements you’re looking to make, your first offer is likely not going to be the best one. Try and get at least three quotes, especially if you’re looking to have renovation work done, but remember – if a quote seems too good to be true, it probably is.
While you do want to save money doing your redecorations, if you go too low you can end up having to pay a lot more in the future to have the work redone or rectified, which is the last thing you want. Look into reviews of previous customers, and speak to friends or family who may be able to recommend companies that they’ve used in the past. Do your research, and ask around, but do so smartly.
3. Do what you can yourself
While you’re not going to be able to build and wire a full extension for your home, you can do some preparation to save yourself money before bringing in professionals to do the things that you can’t. This will depend on your confidence and skills as well as the work that you want to do, but there’s lots that you can do to lower the costs and get more for your money at the same time.
If you’re planning a renovation in the kitchen or the bathroom, rather than having your builders rip out the current one you can do this yourself, saving them time and you money. If you decide to do this, remember two things:
- Make sure you know what you’re doing. The last thing you want to do is cause damage and end up creating more work
- Your time is also worth something, so don’t forget to consider that. Saving money is all well and good, but it isn’t always worth the amount of time put into it, especially if it’s going to take you three days to do something that would take a professional one day, and you’ve got other pressing responsibilities.
There is still plenty that you can do yourself to keep your costs down, so look at your capabilities and experience and make the most of it where you can.
4. Look for bargains
There are big sales multiple times throughout the year, so utilise these to save some money on supplies, especially those that can add up quickly like paint and wallpaper. We often underestimate just how much a roll of wallpaper costs and how many rolls we need to fully decorate a room, so measure carefully and always get more than you think you need. This gives space for any mistakes and also gives you some extra if you need to replace it down the line – if you’ve ever tried to match old wallpaper, you’ll know just how hard it is to find the same pattern after a few years.
You can also look into cheaper alternatives if you want to keep costs down. With some wallpaper costing over £40 a roll, especially designer brands, look for similar patterns at a lower price which are essentially dupes of the originals which tend to be dramatically cheaper. You can also look at only wallpapering one wall as a feature rather than the full room which will use much less, keeping your costs down, or move away from wallpaper and choose to paint and add a stencil over the top instead to design the pattern that you want.
No matter what your budget you’ve got to redecorate, you’ve got plenty of options – do your research, make a plan, and don’t forget some before and after photos to show just how much you’ve done!
Disclosure: This is a collaborative post.