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?

You’re wasting a lot of money somewhere. Get to the bottom of it.

Obviously depends on what you count as decorating. My husband earns around £30k but I’m a student so we have £30k between us and we decorate. But by decorate I mean we spent about £30 on paint about £20 on brushes and rollers and literally painted the walls. The floors stayed the same. The furniture usually stays the same sometimes we grab reduced or secondhand bargains and the pictures are mainly family photos. We don’t have rugs as I have allergies to a lot of things. Curtains are the most expensive part, we got our newest bedroom ones from ikea and my mum and I made the rest of them.

We bought second hand for a lot of things. Paint was Wilko's own and we did everything ourselves. We replaced out skirting boards, stripped off woodchip, plastered, fitted carpets etc. We only bought sale and off cuts, I even made my own curtains. Where there is a will, there is a way.

Be creative. Check out DIY ideas on Pintrest. Style and taste aren't expensive, they are an acquired skill. I am perfectly happy to skip dive, Freecycle, Gumtree and either love the existing patina, or change the item with paint. Use things you have in a new and unexpected way and make the best of what you have. I remember Kirsty Allsop saying have no more than thee colours in one room. It's a fab idea, I ran about the house moving out stuff and the rooms definitely looked instantly more stylish and co-ordinated.
It's perfectly possible to have lots of money and a house which still looks....

I think you can decorate for very little if you have time and are good at DIY/crafty stuff.

Facebook selling is great for 2nd hand furniture. I've got stuff for £5 or free before.

Most of our stuff is my parents old stuff tbh.

Corrective is your friend. And I've found that if you let people know you're happy to accept second hand things, people will offer you stuff.
I'm sitting on a free sofa, which matches an Ikea one I actually paid for, and then dyed the covers to match. The carpet was an old one from my mum, recut to fit my front room, covered by a rug from a neighbour who was moving. The dining table was my mum's, some of the dining chaos were my grand, and the others bought from Ikea with covers dyed to match the older ones. Carpet in small bedroom was an offcut leftover from neighbours redecorating - I knocked on their door and asked for it when I saw it left in their garden. We've sanded a few floors and refurbished them, and got rugs friends were chucking out.
I've painted up old wooden furniture from second hand shops, and made cushions and curtains from fabric either donated or discounted. I put a request out on Facebook when looking for brocade fabrics for a project and got amazing responses from people I didn't even know.
Older people in particular are happy to give away stuff they no longer need if they think its going to a good home, you just need to let everyone know you're happy to accept it!

@Blelibo Yes Mumsnet can be a nest of nasty vipers. They are quite grumpy today and clearly feeling venomous. They must be dissatisfied with their own lives to be so mean on forums.

Congratulations on your new baby and be kind to yourself. Is there a friend or family member you could invite around for a cuppa and a chat.

Now go and enjoy your new baby

I offered a leather 3 piece suite for free on my local Facebook selling site. Nothing wrong with it at all and only a few years old but for personal reasons I wanted it gone.
No one wanted it and in the end I had to pay the council to take it away.
Even my local charity shops and the local recycling shop refused it as they have a glut of furniture already and no space to store more.
I live in the south east where the cost of housing is high so you would assume people would be looking for bargains and free household goods but still it seems people would rather do interest free for 4 years with DFS than have second hand. Then they wonder why they have no spare money.

this is freaking ridiculous! We earn 17k joint and our house is fab. We've still got stuff that needs doing but most people walk in and say 'wow!'

what are you spending your money / time on?

We can't afford a new bathroom or kitchen worktop but we have do what basic DIY and decorating we can ourselves. Paint and elbow grease don't cost much.

First of all on your wage, unless you have big debts you can populate a house with some furniture and carpets and I think that is important. You don't have to go mad, just get some curtains up and some sort of floor covering.

Decorating is done in my house when it's absolutely necessary, not just because I "fancy a change". I paint and paper myself (not difficult, just a faff), and look in BHF furniture shops for tables chairs units and wardrobes etc. I'll spend new on mattresses but even a John Lewis basics single mattress is only about 60 quid so you can put that on a cheaper frame (wooden and sturdy avoid metal ones like the plague as wobbly as hell).

You can get away with cheap white paint over crap white paint but if you're covering a colour you really do need a thicker one, like a Dulux. I've never ever been in the position to agonise over Farrow and Ball shade sheets.

And never ever buy wardrobes from Argos. Go for IKEA if you are determined to buy self assembly otherwise your high street or one near you might have a factory seconds shop with ready assembled versions of the same. A tad more pricey but not always and you don't have to build the fecker.

My kids have a room each (luxury I know) with decent beds and places for their things and non-shite floor covering and blackout curtains. Nothing's expensive. But it is comfortable and practical.

I can't be arsed "home making" but making your home decent for your children is worth it I think. And it can help bolster you too. You don't want them to grow up and wonder why they didn't have curtains or a wardrobe to hang their uniform in. Sort the basics, doesn't mean you have to be mad about interior design.

There are loads of places to get second hand furniture. Got most of mine off Facebook selling sites and eBay. As a single parent I have very little spare cash but I've bought second hand furniture and have hand painted it to make it unique. It can be done and who doesn't like picking up a bargain.

We did ours by taking hand me downs, local charity furniture warehouses and buying basics cheap. For a couple of years nothing matched.

Then we started a room at a time, plan it, paint it, make the most of what we had furniture wise, (hate the word) upcycled pieces we had, decided where to target our money (e.g. throw cushions were extortionate in the sofa place but we bought ours cheap, but we spent money on nice lighting).

Small changes can have a big effect e.g. we bought cheaper Ikea units and then ordered nice vintage handles online.

Personally, I wouldn't be spending money on a nursery if the rest of the house wants doing. A baby isn't going to know or care. Whatever money you have for the nursery I would put into the lounge or kitchen.

DH & I earn more than you & I agree that furniture is soo expensive. I refuse to buy chest of drawers/wardrobes etc new. I buy 2nd hand & repaint/switch handles myself. Sofas, chairs, beds etc John Lewis/Laura Ashley/Loaf sales/price match. I want a new sofa so looking on ebay & will upholster myself. Shutters got with 20% off. Not a fan of Ikea but fine for the kids, buy great little trading company either during a promo or on eBay. Thinking of redoing my bathroom & will get a lot 2nd. I like a bargain!

I splurge on fabrics, lighting (although I look in vintage shops but still £££) & things like taps. Oh and I always buy 2nd hand mirrors.

I do splurge on wallpaper.

Buy second hand furniture, it saves a fortune and is good for the environment. Also nobody knows where you got something from. I always look in charity shops for knick knacks, picture frames, art etc. You can print of art from sites such as Etsy pretty cheaply and frame them up.

I have had some lovely curtains from terrys fabrics online.
Very reasonably priced and the quality has always been excellent.
I like to have plants about but nice pots are silly money but I have found so lovely bargains in charity shops.
I have a mix of hand me downs, bargain finds and furniture I have had for years. My corner unit i bought cheap over 20 years ago and it is still going strong. I never replace just for the sake of it and stay away from fads. A few of my friends bought into the everything grey fashion that has been about for the last few years. They are now sick of it and redoing their decorating.

People can afford to decorate and furnish their houses because they buy houses that they can afford to decorate and furnish with their current income and outgoings. It's not rocket science.

My first tv was £10 and I bought a 1930s cocktail cabinet for £30 apart from the bed everything was secondhand, be creative you'll surprise yourselves. Who wants to live in a Next/M&S replica home anyway

Don't understand why you got quite so much of a hard time initially! But I'd recommend posting stuff like this in chat for a more helpful response.

We've got a similar household income- no kids but DH has large US student loans and lots of money going towards house deposit fund, so probably similar outgoings.

We've furnished our apartment slowly using charity shops, Facebook marketplace and hand me downs from family and friends who were throwing stuff out. We've focused on one area at a time to make it more affordable so some places still look a bit bare/slapdash but at least there's somewhere nice to relax in.

We both have reasonable wages and in our fifties ( young at heart), but I think the general cost of living eg; food, electricity, council tax etc has all gone up so has a knock on effect at home.
So I would say buy a couple of buckets of white paint and maybe a colour for a feature wall - grey is really nice & neutral.
Shouldn’t be too much, just shop around - even trade paint is ok.
You can do it, honest. Plus I’m sure other folk have been in the same boat.
Good luck! x

Some nasty responses here and totally uncalled for.

You have done well to buy a house but as you say if you are on maternity leave, have a high mortgage and saving for childcare costs it is unsurprising you have no spare money at the moment. Just think of it as minimalist living and take your time over furnishing it. All you really need to start with is a bed for you, cot for baby and a sofa/armchairs for you to sit in. Freecycle or BHF are great for getting furniture. Store stuff in plastic stacker boxes until you get some furniture. Ask for items for Xmas from relatives or perhaps borrow stuff your family and friends don't need. My daughter went back after her second baby two months early as they were struggling on maternity pay. Is that an option?

Your house can't be completely empty.

Oh man YANBU. Different boat; we are affluent enough but I feel every ‘it’ Mum in the area has the most amazing house; fuck off huge kitchen, no clutter, gorgeous décor etc. Our house is so motley by comparison; I’d love to get an extension and build my own fuck off huge kitchen, but there’s no way. Well there is I guess: I get a proper job. And I could stop spending time on art and sewing projects that stop me doing DIY and properly de-cluttering the house. I just nibble away at it. I guess at some point I’ll have cleared out enough boxes and drawers to notice a transformation.

I totally unburdened myself on your thread... but it was crossing my mind too the other day 😂

But decorating and furnishing a room as you want it can cost a lot of money.
My first flat was painted with emulsion, I hired a sander and did the floorboards myself and varnished them, furniture came from myparents and granny or auctions.
Auctions are really cheap at the moment - you can get very nice dining tables and chairs for less than £80 in total in Newcastle. I saw a lovely one from Barker and Stonehouse last week - went for £80- and a B and S large sofa and armchair in excellent condition that went for £120.