DIY-savvy woman transforms home with clever upcycling tricks
A DIY-savvy first-time buyer has revealed how she completely revamped her tired, dated home using clever upcycling hacks, which enabled her to stick to a tight budget.
Megan Cameron, 27, bought the 1920s home in Durham with her fiancé John, two years ago and immediately set about transforming the space.
But forced to stick to a modest £3-4K budget to overhaul the entire home, the couple decided to get creative upcycling furniture and taking on most of the work themselves to make their spend go further.
“I’ve been obsessed with interiors ever since I bought my home," Cameron tells Swyft Home. "I have always been creative and loved designing, so decorating my own home was a dream for me.”
Cameron used her DIY skills (along with some much-appreciated help from her future father-in-law) to renovate every room in the house without breaking the bank.
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“We stuck to the budget by doing 90% of things ourselves including ripping out wardrobes, building the units and shelves in the living room, ripping up and laying flooring, and replacing doors and skirting boards," she explains.
As part of the money-saving makeover, Cameron managed to turn her bland, magnolia living room on a budget of around £100.
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“The units and shelves we built didn’t cost much more than £100 and once painted it really made such a dramatic change to the room," Cameron says.
"I feel it makes it look like more expensive and means I have been able to add more decoration and plants to achieve that dramatic, maximalist finish."
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The graphic designer, also shopped secondhand, upcycled an old chair and made her own cushions to keep costs down.
“To stick to the budget I’ve made a lot myself or used items gifted to me," she explains. "I painted an old chair I got for free from my dad in black and gold, used cushions I made myself and throws knitted from my nana.
“I also bought most of my furniture from second-hand shops and have done them up myself - painting or adding gold leaf. I've even wallpapered some of my furniture!
"I’ve recently started creating my own prints to put on the walls to save money as well!"
To give her home a unique look Cameron decided to get adventurous with paint colours, using a luxuriously deep charcoal hue on many of her walls and painting the guest room ceiling pink, which is now one of her favourite rooms.
“Painting the ceiling pink was the scariest but the best thing I’ve done," she says of the bold choice. "I remember sitting with the paint for about an hour thinking, should I do this?"
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Cameron believes adding a pop of colour on your ceiling is an instant way to elevate a room and make it more exciting.
"Every time we have guests over we always get comments on how amazing the room is," she adds. "I wanted to create an interesting space for my guests, by adding eclectic prints and furnishings it feels like you’re at a crazy museum. I’ve considered making this my bedroom a few times as I love it so much.”
To create her vision for the project Cameron used mood boards to help her design each and every room in the house.
“When I first started decorating I knew exactly what I wanted each room to look like, I did this by creating mood boards for each room which I found really helped," she explains.
And as the makeover continued Cameron describes getting bolder with her decorating decisions.
"I would definitely describe my taste as eclectic, moody and maximalist. I know it’s not everyone’s taste but it’s mine and I love it," she adds.
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Since undertaking the project Cameron has acquired almost 2,000 Instagram, impressed with her transformation of the bland house into a moody, maximalist dream.
"I don’t understand why everyone wants their house to look like everyone else’s, it should be personal and reflect who you are,” she adds.
While the couple came across a couple of nasty surprises while they were undertaking the makeover, including uneven floors, random holes in the walls taped up with cereal boxes and dodgy plumbing, which threw up unexpected costs, they still managed to keep their house spend to a minimum.
"It was a lot of hard work and we spent around six months doing everything before we could move in," she explains. "It was a lot of late nights and strenuous tasks but it was worth it in the end.
"Looking back at previous photos of the house it now looks completely different and knowing we did it ourselves makes it feel like the house is more our own!”
