If you’re planning a home makeover, take inspiration from this money-saving mum-of-four and her incredible living room transformation.
Cheryl Hargate, 41, an office manager from Sheffield, reckons she has saved £3,000 doing up her lounge.
She saved cash by getting her boyfriend and a friend to take on the bulk of the large DIY jobs, with the transformation costing her £2,500 in total.
Cheryl also kept costs down by shopping in budget retailer B&M and purchasing plasterboard from DIY chain Wickes.
The money-conscious mum wanted to do a huge revamp of her living room after deciding she wanted a new sofa.
Cheryl told money-saving Facebook group DIY On A Budget UK : "Honestly, I wasn’t planning on doing such a big job.
"My old sofa was 18 years old and I was desperately needing a new one. I have four kids and four dogs so I wanted a large corner sofa.
Have you transformed your home on the cheap and want to share how you did it? Let us know: mirror.money.saving@mirror.co.uk
“That meant my bookcase had to go so I needed somewhere to put 'pretty things’.
“Suddenly it turned into a massive job. I kept finding things I hated so I thought if I’m making a mess I might as well do it properly.”
Cheryl started by gutting the room, taking the ceiling down and knocking the main wall back to brick, then removing the old radiators.
She then had electrics put in place, the radiator pipework sunk into the walls and the ceiling plasterboarded.
After this, Cheryl had the shelves built and the whole room skimmed so the light fittings could be drilled and attached to the wiring.
The next step was skirting boards and painting everything.
"To be honest the worst of it was the mess and finding somewhere for everything to go while it was done," she said.
"I really struggle with dirt and germs so I found the hardest bit. All the things in my room I had before so they didn’t cost me anything extra.
"I used loads of plasterboard and timber from Wickes, and we got new radiators, new carpet and blinds and had the whole room plastered. I had all the other bits so I revamped them, for example painting the TV unit.
"I also added insulation in the ceiling before plasterboarding. Hopefully, this will help with energy usage."
Cheryl said the most expensive purchases were two radiators that cost £340 each from Best Heating.
She also bought a mirror for £100 from William Wood Mirrors, blinds for £300 for English Blinds, paint for £90 from Farrow and Ball, throws from B&M for £60, and carpet for £300 from a local carpet fitter.
The sofa was from Sofology.
"Everything else I had already that I had picked up over the years," explained Cheryl.
"I am very proud of my boyfriend: he’s a self-employed mechanic and did all the ripping out for me and then all the building work such as building the shelves and doing the plasterboarding.
"A friend did the plastering and I did the painting. My boyfriend did it without any complaints but got me to promise never to pull a ceiling down again.
"Excluding the sofa, the whole transformation cost around £2,500, with the radiators being the biggest expense.
"We saved at least £3,000 by doing most things ourselves rather than getting professionals in."
