How much money will I need to have saved to decorate a flat?

[TrippingEgg]

Fairly large, 1 bedroom

Depends if you are just painting or doing carpets/shelves/fireplaces...do you mean buying ornaments, curtains and rugs?

Oh sorry of course. Just painting and then all furniture

If you need bed/wardrobe/table and chairs/sofa/tv/coffee table/lamps and chests of drawers and/or sideboard...depending on where you shop, I'd say appx 3.5k should cover it. Obviously if you like IKEA cost will be different from HEALS. Paint should be about £50.

Tbh you may find people you know will have bits they will give or lend. I've got friend's who gave an old sofa to a friend for £100 because they quite fancied a new one!

Tbh you may find people you know will have bits they will give or lend. I've got friend's who gave an old sofa to a friend for £100 because they quite fancied a new one!

How long is a piece of string?

Second hand furniture or new? Heals or Ikea? Does 'all furniture' also include white goods?

Own brand paint or F&B? Do you have paintbrushes, dust sheets etc or will you need to buy these too? Are you doing the work yourself, or will you be paying a decorator?

Depends on what you want to do.

I just painted my whole house for 75 EUR but there was no glossing as I have wooden doors and door frames, plus my bathrooms are completely tiled. So I only had to emulsion the walls and ceilings but it's a big house, 3 bedrooms.

I'm not in UK and wallpaper is not a thing here. Me and my Mum did it over 2 weekends.

Depends if you're doing the painting yourself? Painters will charge at least 120 a day MINIMUM.

If you are concerned about your finances, there are ways to cut costs;

Decorating - borrow whatever you can. On the face of it, a tin of paint doesn't cost much, but it does get expensive when you have to buy brushes, rollers, masking tape, a ladder.
You could paint all rooms the same colour, that way, you won't have lots of half empty tins.

Flooring - I have found that independent carpet shops are much cheaper than the big chains. They often have cheap off cuts. We had our dining room, hallway and landing done for £600 and this wasn't an off cut.

Furniture - Ikea is cheap and cheerful, particularly if you are starting out.