Would you like to give your unloved room or garden a makeover? Have a look at MNers' revamps for inspiration and you could win a £150 B&Q giftcard NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

We're working with B&Q, who so far have helped lots of MNers revamp their unloved rooms and gardens. You can check out the video of their room revamps here, and you can see their before and after room and garden photos here and here. Once you've checked out out all of the info mentioned, please come back to this thread and answer the Qs below to be entered into a prize draw to win a £150 B&Q giftcard.

• Are there any Mumsnetter room revamps that you'd take inspiration from? Has looking at the room and garden revamps spurred you on to tackle your unloved room or garden?
  

• If you've revamped a room or garden of your own over the last few months, we'd love to hear about how you did it. Who was involved? How long did it take? Did you have to overcome any disasters to get the job finished? What top tips would you share with other MNers about how to make revamping a room or garden fun and not stressful?! Please share an image of your revamped room or garden on this thread if you'd like to.
  

• If you haven't revamped a room or garden, but would like to, then we'd love to we're from you too! What's keeping you from doing up your unloved room or garden? What would you like to do to your unloved room/garden?
  

Everyone who posts a comment here will be entered into a prize draw to win a £150 B&Q giftcard.

Please note that any comments you post here may appear on the B&Q pages on Mumsnet and potentially elsewhere.

Thanks and good luck,
MNHQ

[YourHandInMyHand]

Can't figure out how to add a picture not done that before! :-/

[AlmostPerfect]

I'd like to do up my front room, to make it cosy for all the family. Whats stopping me.... The usual money!

[Cherrygrape]

• Are there any Mumsnetter room revamps that you'd take inspiration from? Has looking at the room and garden revamps spurred you on to tackle your unloved room or garden?
  

I loved Londonseye's room vamp, I loved the walls and how well it was accessorised. I loved the tree and I would take some ideas from this one. There were quite a few in the room vamp I liked. In the garden section I liked Haughtys and lissy's and I loved the rock wall someone did :). I think the adverts on tv, and applying to revamp my own room and garden has spurred me on.

• If you've revamped a room or garden of your own over the last few months, we'd love to hear about how you did it. Who was involved? How long did it take? Did you have to overcome any disasters to get the job finished? What top tips would you share with other MNers about how to make revamping a room or garden fun and not stressful?! Please share an image of your revamped room or garden on this thread if you'd like to.
  

Well we were going to re vamp our very very unloved room, but the weathers been great so we have started on the garden.

We had grass, then behind that a flower bed, then a large shed, and then a veg plot which barely had any sun, as it had 8ft high 3ft deep fur bushes and 2sides and the shed on the other. The veg plot became a dumping ground on the bits that had no sun.

So dh has chopped down all the bushes, took quite a few days, and we now have fence there. We have laid paving stones down in the corner where it was the dumping ground and moved the shed onto it.
We are hoping to now make a patio with table and chairs where the shed was before and make a raised bed for veg where the rest of the bushes were before. We now have sun in all our garden which is ace.

When we are finished it will be - small lawn, flower bed with a pathway through, patio with raised bed to the left- then veg plot with shed on the left- then fence.

We have had no disasters yet we have been lucky! My tip would be to expect the garden to take longer than expected, especially with british weather, and have the right tools. Also make sure you are strong enough, I could never have done it without dh.

• If you haven't revamped a room or garden, but would like to, then we'd love to we're from you too! What's keeping you from doing up your unloved room or garden? What would you like to do to your unloved room/garden?
  

It's money that has stopped us finishing ours or starting the spare bedroom.

[AGnu]

- Are there any Mumsnetter room revamps that you'd take inspiration from? Has looking at the room and garden revamps spurred you on to tackle your unloved room or garden?
They've all inspired me in one way or another. Quite a few have given me some encouragement to step away from just using pastels & consider injecting a little colour into our house! It's a scary thought but I'll try to be brave!

- If you've revamped a room or garden of your own over the last few months, we'd love to hear about how you did it. Who was involved? How long did it take? Did you have to overcome any disasters to get the job finished? What top tips would you share with other MNers about how to make revamping a room or garden fun and not stressful?! Please share an image of your revamped room or garden on this thread if you'd like to.
We're in the process of having our garden re-done. We originally hired the bloke at the end of March on the understanding that he'd be starting mid-late May & the job would take 7-10 working days. He finally started just over a week ago & it's going to take 'about 3 weeks' because he & his team are doing it at the same time as another job! My main tip would be not to hire our gardeners be a pushover get too het up about the timescale. There may be delays, stresses etc. but it'll all be worth it in the end! I hope!

- If you haven't revamped a room or garden, but would like to, then we'd love to hear from you too! What's keeping you from doing up your unloved room or garden? What would you like to do to your unloved room/garden?
We've been wanting to do the garden up since we moved in so our DC will have somewhere safe nice to play. We've waited 3 years because we couldn't afford to hire anyone & DH didn't have time to do it himself. DPILs insisted on paying for it so we can finally get it done! DGPIL gave us some money when DS2 was born to buy something for the DC so once the garden is sorted we're going to get a shed & convert it into a playhouse.
My next project is to paint the dingy bathroom. I'm going to be brave & use some bright(ish) paint to do a few of the wooden things. We bought the paint this weekend thanks to B&Q's 3 for 2 on Dulux. Also bought a few other things cheap since I'm a member of the B&Q club & they had a good offer on. I like B&Q! Although I get very easily lost in their stores! We've spent so much time there recently that DS1 (nearly 2yo) has learnt the word 'dowel' & shouted it the entire time we were there on Saturday! We weren't even buying any! ... Sorry, tangent... The reason we've not done it previously was the cost of paint but with the deal & some birthday money I've reserved we were finally able to afford it! I'm just about to put the DC down for a nap & I'll be removing & starting to sand a cupboard door! V excited!

[littlemonkeychops]

Our unloved room is our conservatory. In theory it should be a lovely family space, useful for DC to play in or for us to relax with a cuppa. The rest of the house is pretty tidy, so the conservatory has become the place where we plonk clutter we don't have a use for, and had mis-matched furniture. So we don't really use it and it's more of a corridor we walk through to
Get to the garden.

Would love to tidy it up, repaint it and get some new lighting/coffee table/houseplants to make it into a little sanctuary. It's on the (long!) list of things to do!

Enjoyed looking through the other thread!

[mrscumberbatch]

I loved SweetestThings fireplace revamp. It looked great. I am jealous of her lovely fireplace now!

We have revamped DD's room recently as it was all white and very boring. We have wallpapered an entire wall in a Dora The Explorer Mural. Neither of us have papered before. What a mess.
The easiest way to keep it fun and non-stressful would probably be to do it all at once. I wish we had but we ran out of money so need to keep adding to it as we go!

Next on the list is our futility cupboard. It's a dusty spiders den that I dive in and out of to retrieve the washing. I'd love for it to be a clean and airy space.

[lottietiger]

I loved looking at the gardens, lots of ideas. I always try to do some sort of revamp over winter, even if its just one room. Its good to sit out in the summer months with some home magazines & a glass of wine and make plans. Otherwise i find that come winter i sit and watch tv or something just as useless.. i need the motivation on a dark night. Spending all our time outside in the summer stops the indoors getting done but when the clocks go back its time for a blitz!

[WowOoo]

We have recently revamped a section of our garden.
We needed a lot of time and energy to do it.
It involved pulling up and digging out a load of bushes and some small trees. They were overgrown and messy.
It took 5 days to do it all.
So worth it as we have lots of extra space in the garden and it looks so much neater.

There were no disasters. If I did it again I might hire a van to take all the garden waste to the dump. It took far too many journeys!

[threepiecesuite]

- If you've revamped a room or garden of your own over the last few months, we'd love to hear about how you did it. Who was involved? How long did it take? Did you have to overcome any disasters to get the job finished? What top tips would you share with other MNers about how to make revamping a room or garden fun and not stressful?! Please share an image of your revamped room or garden on this thread if you'd like to.

We revamped the garden this summer. We researched and bought the materials ourselves (from B&Q Trade!) but got a landscape gardener to do the work and design a plan. Our garden slopes away and had an awkward set of turned steps through the centre - not child friendly at all! We had the garden levelled off (took 2 tons of hardcore!), the steps resited and the lawn returfed. A few tubs of flowers dotted around and it looks brand new, we love it. Cost about £1000 in total.

[EeTraceyluv]

Are there any Mumsnetter room revamps that you'd take inspiration from? Has looking at the room and garden revamps spurred you on to tackle your unloved room or garden?

All of them Just desperate for our kitchen or bathroom to be nicer!

• If you've revamped a room or garden of your own over the last few months, we'd love to hear about how you did it. Who was involved? How long did it take? Did you have to overcome any disasters to get the job finished? What top tips would you share with other MNers about how to make revamping a room or garden fun and not stressful?! Please share an image of your revamped room or garden on this thread if you'd like to.
  

We haven't ever 'revamped' properly. Sometimes dh gets the paint out, but that's as far as it goes

• If you haven't revamped a room or garden, but would like to, then we'd love to we're from you too! What's keeping you from doing up your unloved room or garden? What would you like to do to your unloved room/garden?
  

Our bathroom is tiny - I keep trying to make it look bigger but it's so difficult - ditto the kitchen - my idea would be to knock the walls between kitchen and dining room, and bathroom and loo, down
and actually have those 'matching' things that grown up have nowadays! We simply can't afford it :(

[Lilliana]

- Are there any Mumsnetter room revamps that you'd take inspiration from? Has looking at the room and garden revamps spurred you on to tackle your unloved room or garden?

Generally thinking about applying for the revamp (but sadly not getting it :( ) has got me off my ass and I've started on the garden. need to look a bit more at what others have done to get some more inspiration but finding it tricky to find time with an 8 month old!

- If you've revamped a room or garden of your own over the last few months, we'd love to hear about how you did it. Who was involved? How long did it take? Did you have to overcome any disasters to get the job finished? What top tips would you share with other MNers about how to make revamping a room or garden fun and not stressful?! Please share an image of your revamped room or garden on this thread if you'd like to.

I've started the garden with some help from DH - we had to buy some decent machinery but have now managed to get the hedges down to a reasonable height and cut down some small trees and bushes which has given us much more light. I've dug out the weed filled flower beds and found there is more root than soil in there! I now need to replant them. It has taken a few months but we have done bits here and there when we have time. The best way to make it fun is do it in nice weather, put a stereo outside and include your children/other people.

- If you haven't revamped a room or garden, but would like to, then we'd love to we're from you too! What's keeping you from doing up your unloved room or garden? What would you like to do to your unloved room/garden?

There is lots I would like to do (our house hasn't been touched for decades!) Kitchen, bathroom and garden primarily.The main problems I have are lack of knowledge (what plants to grow, how to attach things to our walls that shatter when you try to hammer a nail in, how to tackle the damp walls etc) a lack of creative inspiration (no clue about decorating, what looks nice together/will enhance a room so end up with a lot of magnolia!) and funds - even a lick of paint is quite expensive.

[KnottedAnchorChief]

1. Yes! I always feel inspired when I look at things other people have done and the difference it makes. I have done a similar thing to one of the MN ers who recycled wooden frames to make a raised bed in their garden. We have planted a few veg and salads in it for the Dc's to watch grow and it's been a huge success this year.
   

1. This year my main revamp has been the hallway of the house, which was gloss painted wood chip. Total nightmare. Until now there hadn't really been an incentive to do it as we just rushed through the hall trying not to notice it, but I wanted to revamp it before I returned to work after maternity leave and now it's done I'm so pleased. My top tip is to give yourself a deadline and stick to it. Otherwise there is always an excuse to do it another day! I was doing it myself, with minimal tools as I had only the budget for paint. I also had to work round two small DC's so worked mostly in the evening. Took me about 4 weeks altogether. I used LOADS of tester pots from B&Q, as I didn't want to get the wrong colour, I find paint can change colour through the day depending on the light so always best to paint a patch and live with it for at least a couple of days.
   

My hall now is a calm, welcoming space when we return home and displays all our treasured photographs take over the years.

1. The thing that has out me off in the past is not having the time to dedicate to doing a proper job. Having a deadline helps, as do light nights when the DC's have gone to bed so I can get work done in peace!

[HALA]

We revamped our kitchen units by sanding them down and painting them an off white colour. Then we changed the handles, and all of this gave the kitchen and units a completely different and brighter look.

[rlouisa]

well done to all the ladies (and men) who got the giftcards and did a good job on their homes. the pics are beautiful.

my unloved room i guess is my daughters and everytime i try to make a start, it seems to overwhelming, i have packed 3 bags of clothes for charity and yet it seems the clothes are endless, dont know where they all came from, the drawers have all caved in, the purple paint looks pink..no wonder she hates going in there, i do need inspiration and encouragment to embark on that task.

[nextphase]

After not being selected with the revamp for an unloved room, I forced persuaded DH to have a go at the study. He has shifted some of the existing furniture round, and got rid of the second desk in there. So now you can actually sit down in there, if he would shift all the boxes of computer parts! I can't actually find anything now, but the fact that there is loads more space means we are actually using it now, rather than sitting on sofa with work laptops in the evenings.

I though some of the before photos of gardens looked good. So maybe the next thing is to attack the garden - thought the back was OK, but obviously not! We do need to do something with the front, but it faces due N, has appalling soil, as has loads of rubble and sand from the builders in there, which means it goes from soggy to desert in about 20cm. further down the road has just gravelled it all, and put in a little fence, which I'm tempted by. How could I break it up if thats what we did? fancy something that flowers rather than the bay trees in pots that seems popular round here.

[Hopezibah]

• Are there any Mumsnetter room revamps that you'd take inspiration from? Has looking at the room and garden revamps spurred you on to tackle your unloved room or garden?
  

I like the 'doingitourselves' mumsnetters corner picture with the table and chairs and those decking tiles look great.

• If you've revamped a room or garden of your own over the last few months, we'd love to hear about how you did it. Who was involved? How long did it take? Did you have to overcome any disasters to get the job finished? What top tips would you share with other MNers about how to make revamping a room or garden fun and not stressful?! Please share an image of your revamped room or garden on this thread if you'd like to.
  

We had a major extension done a couple of years ago (but still feels really recent as it is quite traumatic!!!). Lessons learnt are that everything will take longer than you think, remember the end result is worth it even though that is so hard to remember when you are living in the dust and mess and rumble each day.

Nowadays with tools like pinterest etc lots of inspiration to be found - so make use of things like that for initial ideas.

• If you haven't revamped a room or garden, but would like to, then we'd love to we're from you too! What's keeping you from doing up your unloved room or garden? What would you like to do to your unloved room/garden?
  

We've not yet tackled our living room which has not been redecorated for years. just the thought of the time and stress is what has put us off.

[violetwellies]

We have a huge arts and crafts house that was unloved to an unbelievable level by its previous family, for nearly sixty years. The project was huge, and then I got pregnant ho hum.

Two and a half years later we are one wage down and most of the budget went on a new roof, I would love to complete the kitchen but what I really really need to do is make the garden playable in for my toddler, we borrowed FIL's lawnmower, but its a huge heavy and quite elderly beast and no one seems to be able to start it.

If I had a decent chunk towards a new lawn mower then I could certainly make a massive difference, and maybe have a toddler friendly lawn instead of a weed infested jungle that gets strimmed on the rare occasion that DP has time.

[poopoopoo]

My bathroom is the original 1950s one that was put in when the house was built. There is always something else to do when we have any money so the bathroom remains old and tired. I put in a new toilet seat and shower curtain, but it is just not enough. The bath enamel is coming of and rust is appearing around the plug hole. The plug has come off the chain..... I just don't know what to do with it. I think the problem is that we put a lot of effort into the bathroom of our old house and the room was a bit bigger, we had a lovely corner jacuzzi bath and travertine tiles with mirrors all round the room. Now we have not got the money or the room. So I need inspiration. What would look good and work well in a small space?

[BreakOutTheKaraoke]

The room with the stripy wallpaper has definitely given me some inspiration- I can definitely see that in my bedroom.

I have recently revamped my garden, it took longer than expected and cost more. My top tip would be: if you're getting gravel delivered, figure out where you can get it delivered too (roadside delivery), and how the hell you're going to get it into your garden from there! Definitely a facepalm moment for me.

[Winnicas]

• Are there any Mumsnetter room revamps that you'd take inspiration from? Has looking at the room and garden revamps spurred you on to tackle your unloved room or garden?
  

I loved NeverGoogle's living room, but all have given me ideas.

• If you've revamped a room or garden of your own over the last few months, we'd love to hear about how you did it. Who was involved? How long did it take? Did you have to overcome any disasters to get the job finished? What top tips would you share with other MNers about how to make revamping a room or garden fun and not stressful?! Please share an image of your revamped room or garden on this thread if you'd like to.
  

DH and I have just revamped our hallway, it was horrible. gloss paint onto bare walls (yes, really) and a poo-coloured carpet. We have painted, wallpapered and laid laminate flooring. The papering was quite tough, one wall is a divider so it sticks out, plus I have arthritis so found it quite draining.

• If you haven't revamped a room or garden, but would like to, then we'd love to we're from you too! What's keeping you from doing up your unloved room or garden? What would you like to do to your unloved room/garden?
  

Our next project will have to be the spare room. Right now its a dumping ground and is just horrible. I'd love to have my niece and nephew to stay, but we can't until we have tackled it.

[SarahAndFuck]

If you haven't revamped a room or garden, but would like to, then we'd love to we're from you too! What's keeping you from doing up your unloved room or garden? What would you like to do to your unloved room/garden?

We desperately need to revamp the back garden, but it's time and money that are stopping us.

The previous owners of our house did a kind of crazy paved patio but never cemented it down. Apparently they thought the gaps would be nice for the worms to pop up through.

Which they might have been, but they then decided to plant herbs between the paving and now we can't move for the three foot tall mint jungle that covers the garden.

That stuff grows faster than bamboo and it's really difficult to remove, especially because of the crazy paving. We are going to have to take up all the paving, dig out the roots, put down a proper membrane and re-lay the paving with a proper cement to keep it in place.

We are working on the spare room at the moment. At the moment it's a purple dumping ground but soon it will be a white and aqua (actually B&Q colours paint shade Water) paradise complete with wall to wall bookshelves, sewing space and vintage 1960's wall cupboard I convinced my brother to give me when he moved house and ripped out the old kitchen that was in it.

[SarahAndFuck]

I said "at the moment" far too many times then.

It would be lovely to actually be able to use the garden though. We really can't at the moment because it's too overgrown and as soon as we clear a patch it grows right back after the first bit of rain.

DS and the dogs can't play outside, we can't even walk down the garden at all, and DH works away through the week and weekends are short and busy. It's a vicious crop circle working in that garden. I really would love for DS to be able to play in it properly at last.

[Tyranasaurus]

Are there any Mumsnetter room revamps that you'd take inspiration from? Has looking at the room and garden revamps spurred you on to tackle your unloved room or garden?

No, I've had a quick look but the long threads and tiny pictures made it hard work

• If you've revamped a room or garden of your own over the last few months, we'd love to hear about how you did it. Who was involved? How long did it take? Did you have to overcome any disasters to get the job finished? What top tips would you share with other MNers about how to make revamping a room or garden fun and not stressful?! Please share an image of your revamped room or garden on this thread if you'd like to.
  

In the process of revamping a whole house. Currently finished a bedroom; floor sanded and stained, wallpaper stripped, painted, new curtains bought. I think having the right type of personality is most important

• If you haven't revamped a room or garden, but would like to, then we'd love to we're from you too! What's keeping you from doing up your unloved room or garden? What would you like to do to your unloved room/garden?
  

Time and money

[VirtuallyThere]

I'd like to revamp our bathroom as it was done shortly before we moved in six years ago but just looks dated with brass taps and cream flowery tiles. We did paint the pink walls and pink ceilings a white colour but it still looks tired. The limiting factor - time. With working, childcare, attempting to have a social life, etc I have no energy. One day ...