Ideas please for sprucing up a new house with no decorating budget!

[Bakein]

We are hopefully moving into a new house soon, and it's not in a terrible condition but we will need to repaint (inside and out), put down carpets and curtains.

We also have next to no furniture of our own so the place will look empty! Does anyone have ideas for sprucing up somewhere new on a budget?

My first thought is to paint everything white and do without carpets and curtains for a while. I would have to put blackout blinds in the bedrooms but we could go without in the living rooms.

What have you done first when moving in somewhere without much to spend?

Freecycle.

Charity shops have great stuff for not too much. I agree with painting everything white. It will feel clean and brighter.

My first thing is always to clean, clean and clean a bit more. Then the place is yours and you can start filling it.

Freecycle, Ikea and direct flooring.

Where I live we have a local fb page that is buy swap sell and give away. It's worth seeing if you have similar

if it has nice floorboards, hiring a sander and getting some stain/varnish will mean you don't need carpets (and it's easier to change rugs in the future when you want a new colour scheme)

keep a note of the window sizes in your purse, so that when you are in a charity shop etc you can see if there are curtains you like that fit

get on gumtree and free cycle etc for cheap furniture (and pinterest for ideas how to 'upcycle' it)

Another vote for Freecycle, plus local forums (some on FB), Gumtree, eBay and charity shops.

Have recently managed to revamp my dining room and replace all the furniture for a total of £30

See if there's a local depot which sells preloaded furniture cheaply. Quite often they're run as a charity.

Buy lining paper instead of expensive wall paper and paint it. You can get some pretty decent second hand furniture from gumtree. If you're on benefits I've heard the council can help you get basic furniture too. Ask family to give you b&q vouchers for Christmas instead of gifts. Charity shops and car boot sales can be good for lamps, light shades, mirrors, etc. Good luck.

Charity shops and "recycled" furniture shops, freecycle, car boots, friends and family. Start out with second hand, and you can then at your leisure replace things as you go along if you'd like.

As far as decorating, make a list of everything you want to do. See what prep work and DIY stuff you can manage on your own and do that in order of what is important to you. I started out with a few inexpensive DIY things so that I could see the changes as positive and motivating to keep working. I'm still slowly working through my list. It helps to have an approximate amount you plan on spending on each item on your list, then you can budget for it as you go.

Low wattage light everywhere. Evening visitors only. The gloom is very forgiving.

Agree with freecycle and other places.

But don't go for white... your local (whatever it is) will do colours for the same price, so slop glorious colours on your walls and it'll brighten the place up no end. Our living room is orange. ORANGE. I hate orange, but I love our living room!)

Plants are good for filling spaces!
All my furniture other than mattresses has come from charity shops
Research factory shops local to you for budget curtains bedding towels etc
Agree with previous poster - coloured paint often just as cheap

I get my home decorations bit by bit.

Are you artsy at all? Actually, you don't particularly have to be for this. Get some canvas and use the color theme that you have planned for the room and make an abstract painting. Wide strokes, splatters. Anyone can do it.

As others have said paint the walls fun colors that will go well with the furniture you picked out from charity shops. It isn't more expensive to add dye to the paint, you're paying for the paint itself not the color.

And... look up dollar store tutorials on pinterest. They have some interesting ideas that might work for your home, and your pound store will likely have similar items.

Age concern have furniture warehouses, where you can get pretty much everything cheaply. There are places that do recycled paint, fairly basic colours but may give you a rest from the White. IKEA muslin curtains. Cheap as chips but dress a window nicely.

I've seen gorgeous next furniture going on eBay for pennies.

I think comfort has to come first, along with some joy if possible so spend any money you do have on making sure it is warm.

That will probably mean thick curtains and if it has carpets, try and hire a cleaning machine for them or borrow one or just give them a good hoover and spot clean if that's not feasible.

You don't need much furniture if you have nothing to store so new mattresses will be worthwhile, and very cheap bed frames to put them on, and you can get away with cushions for the floor if a sofa is too expensive.

Saying that, I got an Ikea sofa from our local charity warehouse, for £30, and took off the old covers and got some lovely red ones on gumtree that were hardly used. They are also washable.

Most of our stuff has been second hand and because it's solid wood it is far better quality and stronger than new flatpack stuff.

Paintwise, I agree that white isn't necessarily cheaper (don't buy value white paint, it's normally shit) so go and look at the discount paint shelves in B&Q or Homebase, they have heavy discounts sometimes. See what they have got.

Curtains I agree charity shops are the best - often older patterns but they can be gorgeous and will make a huge difference to the feel of the place.

Go for aluminium rails rather than poles as they are better, stronger and easier to attach as well as cheaper usually.

Chinese lantern ball lampshades all over the house to take away the harshness of bare lightbulbs. You may be surprised how long they stay there. One place we lived in still had them when we moved out!

White walls and floor boards. Then go for brightly coloured accessories - rugs, pottery etc, the colours look lovely against the white. Ikea and charity shops are great.We Have a shop in our town called Tiger - It sells lots of ikeaish type homewares for peanuts. I picked up some great bargains there for a few quid.

My friend recently painted all her floorboards a really glossy black - much less labour intensive than stripping them down. It looks fab against her pure white walls.

I'd go for magnolia instead of white. It's a much warmer and more forgiving shade, but you can buy massive trade tubs of it just as cheaply as white.