to wonder how people afford to decorate their houses?

[Blelibo]

Me and DH both in late 20s, both on 30k a year, own our own house, we have one child together and DH has a daughter from previous relationship... we hang NO money to decorate our house with. We've lived here a year and it's completely empty!!

Anyone else in same boat?

Ikea and second hand, we got everything we needed furniture wise for under £1k, which sounds a lot, but this was for everything. Also keeping an eye on offers on paint even if you aren’t planning on doing it straight away.

there is only so much money to go round. you are earning a lot between you, maybe you have decided buying a bigger house is the priority? if so, own that decision. you can not have everything you want when you want it.

you have to live within your means. that means prioritising. enjoy the things you are prioritising, or swap around the budget.

maybe you enjoy a coffee everyday from the coffee shop, but that means you can not afford to save up for a new sofa for example.

I do take your point, because we earn a lot more than that and redecoration is a substantial amount. If you’re getting by every month then a spare £300 a room is hard to come by.

In terms of decorating yourself, we don’t do it as I don’t think it looks good done by non professionals (unless you happen to just be very good at decorating) but you might just have to. It’s a problem of time though isn’t it? We both work FT and the children are around when we’re not at work, and they’re small enough to Make it impossible. I’m all out of annual leave too! So it isn’t always easy to find time/ space

Op your going to need to be more specific do you mean furniture or renovation such as painting walls or doing bathroom and extensions

We are in our mid 40s, make very good money, and our house is still under decorated. There are moments it is frustrating, but I would rather be frugal. We do have a few interesting things that aren’t purely practical but that is because I took the diy route.

I think you need to prioritise what you want to do. Tins of paint cost very little in reality.

Plus, Ebay/Gumtree/Shpock are excellent places to find things. People often turn their noses up at second hand but I love finding a bargain. When we first moved in I bought a leather Laura Ashley sofa for £160 in excellent condition. They still go online for upwards of £1500.

It's about deciding what you want and working out a budget.

When me and Dh bought our first house we had been living in a furnished flat until then.

We slept on an air bed for 3 months.
We used packing boxes (with a lovely throw over the top!) to rest our TV on for over a year.
We had a 20 year old sofa from my in-laws that had been living in their loft room for nearly a decade for about 4 years. (Everyone admired its fashionable retro look!)
Our dining table also came from in law’s loft room.
Dining chairs were my parents’ old ones.
Our “wardrobe” involved an old broom handle.
Flat pack desk from Argos for me as I was doing exams.
Flat pack desk from Argos for dh as he sometimes worked from home.
Flat packed bedside tables.

We couldn’t paint as house was a new build and you are supposed to let it dry out for six months.

And we didn’t give a toss! (Except the air bed - that wasn’t fun when it got a slow puncture and had to be re-pumped up at 4am every night.!)

Slowly, slowly, we replaced and upgraded everything and now have some lovely stuff.

Full of clutter.

But lovely.

1. Gumtree
2. eBay - second hand, ex-shop display
3. sales at normal shop especially local independant ones
4. Charity shops - though lots have waiting lists so prioritise those on benefits

If you have a car, it is fuel efficient, and are willing and can get up early on a weekend then you have a wider area to collect things from then you think.

Lots of people when they move house if they are moving abroad or going over 50 miles will sell stuff as it isn't worth moving to their new house.

Btw I have got stuff from shops like John Lewis and Debenhams cheap either because they were on sale, or they were ex-display and put on eBay.

I developed a style based around cast offs - so we looked like we were really into mid-century modern as we got given a few things and then found charity shop stuff to match.

We found charity shops good for picture frames and then put our own pictures in the frames

We were in a position to afford paint though.

No one can really afford it-they're accrued through savings, loans, presents, sales, deals over years(11 years married and we're still not there!!) every year my dm and aunty's give us a duvet/painting/covers/throws or Cutlery for christmas which helps!

Second hand furniture is fab, eBay, local auctions and gum tree are great for getting furniture.

I have stripped all the wood chip, sanded the walls ( hire or buy a sander) used filler and sanded again, then painted off white. Kitchen and bathroom I had to save up for and have workmen in to complete refit as it was beyond me.

Furniture I’ve sourced second hand. Cream leather sofa £20 cream leather chair recliner £60 lamps from tkmax etc

Furniture, artwork, paint, soft furnishings etc can be easily found on freecycle and freegle. Charity shops are also a good source.

Oh and I think there's websites for people who are relocating and want to give stuff like couches and pianos for free to people who will look after them!( never checked it out so this could be a myth!) good luck op!

£60k pa and you can't afford tins of paint?? Come off it !!!

Pretty much all our furniture we've bought since having kids has come from ikea.

Sorry, I mean decorate, furnish etc. Everything.

Our outgoings are high. Big mortgage as we didn't have a bug deposit. Nursery is over £1200 a month on its own and we are saving to put towards this, DH pays child maintenance, I have a career development loan, and I'm on maternity leave so earning statutory pay for the next 9 months.

It's not a stealth boast at all. Amazing people jump to that conclusion without having any clue about outgoings!

@TheBigBangRocks blimey who upset you today?!

But surely you can see that other people can afford it because they don’t have the outgoings that you have? Or that they earn more? Or that they accumulate things over the years from family/second hand shops/freecycle etc?
We were lucky in that my Dad downsized when we first moved in together, and not long after DH’s parents moved abroad. We got a lot of furniture that way. Not to our taste but perfectly functional. We’ve replaced it bit by bit as and when we could afford it.

🤔 I guess it depends on your expenses and what you're expecting.

Our first house we went to Argos in a sale and bought loads of the value stuff, we had a coffee table for like 7.99, our sofa was used. Almost everything was used, dirt cheap or gifted. We decided rather than spend a lot of money on a honeymoon we would get bedroom furniture, so we did.

By the time our second house came along we had a lot of stuff and we just replaced with higher quality items as we needed to.

Currently in our third house, hopefully our forever home, we don't have the money to do our major renovations so we have just left this for now.

So I guess a mixture of being patient and buying what you can afford at the time. At different points we have prioritised certain things over others, so last year we didn't a lot of holidays and breaks. All in the UK but we have a large family so was still quite expensive.

A friend of mine furnished her entire flat with things from the charity shop - and it looks amazing.

Look on Pinterest for ideas. Sometimes you can custom pieces of furniture with paint, recover it, change the handles, stain it or you can get something similar at IKEA or a cheap shop for less money. Quite often less is more. Check out the sales, salvage yards ebay, TKMAX, Wilko’s etc it really depends on your taste. Also some people might learn a skill like recovering an old chair or they maybe have good taste and have one or two items strategically placed that don’t necessarily cost a fortune. Or scrimp in some areas so the overall look doesn’t cost a fortune. Maybe ask one of your friends for some style/shopping tips or to come with you.

One room at a time. Scrap stores often have paint pots, usually quite cheap. Facebook marketplace/gumtree/car boots/ebay often have bargains (ebay can also be good for discount paint etc). Charity shops.

If you are on Mat leave why are you paying £1200 nursery fees!? I’m confused

I meant to say keep an eye out in your local
paper especially if someone is going abroad or downsizing. Some people work in places that have selling sites ask them to kee an eye out for you. Car boot sales, it really depends on your tastes. Emulsioning is cheap if you do it yourselves but much more costly if you get someone in.