Tell Direct Line what you would do to your home to create your ultimate Home Plus. Three lucky Mumsnetters will be given £1,000 to fulfil their creative urges. NOW CLOSED

[MichelleMumsnet]

Direct Line have asked us to find out what Mumsnetters would do to their homes to go the extra mile to make it a "Home Plus". What would you do with £1,000 if you had the choice?

Here's what Direct Line say, "We know that a home is more than just a house, that’s why our Home Insurance Plus policy has additional benefits to cover more of the things you love. And right now there’s 20% off when you buy online!

(Discount applies when you buy buildings and contents together. Minimum premiums apply. New customers only. Underwritten by U K Insurance Limited)

We want to hear what your ultimate Home Plus ideas are – what would you love to do to your home to go that extra mile and make it a Home Plus Home?"

So, what is the craziest idea you've had about renovating your home, but just haven’t been able to justify the cost for? Perhaps you have always wanted to have a jungle themed bedroom? Or mimic the beach complete with beach hut, sand, 'sea' and palm trees in your back garden? Whatever it is, we'd love to hear it.

Three lucky Mumsnetters will be selected to carry out their idea and will be given the £1,000 they need to do so! The winners who are selected must be willing to provide before and after pictures of the area of their homes they choose to renovate with the £1,000 prize. The renovation work must be done and the pictures must be provided by Monday 11th August. Photos will be posted on Direct Line's hub on Mumsnet and may be used in further marketing material by them.

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

[Pencilmein]

I have a lobby area next to the garden. Since the house is cosy and very compact this doubles up as a laundry and boot room. I'd love to pay a carpenter to install wood clading, coat hooks and a lovely seat with storage. This could all then be painted light grey and provide a blank canvas for our colourful wellies,umbrella's and laundry essentials. I might even hang some bunting up to celebrate! x

[Drunkendonut]

We have 5 children and the two smallest ones currently share the box room. I'd love to pay someone to create something wonderful like a kiddy, smaller version of the image I put up.
Then make it into a magical area with spotlights and wall murals.
They never sleep in there now, probably because it's so dull. They're 3 and 4 and our bed is getting very cramped!
Please help us get our room back!

[FanFuckingTastic]

Ooh, I love imagining what I would do if I could afford it.

I'd have wooden floors put in so that I could use my wheelchair inside, I'd get it painted in greens and natural colours, with some purple accents and have a big canvas of a path into the woods with purple flowers going in to the distance so I could feel like the outside was brought in for the days I can't get out. I'd love to get a comfy corner sofa big enough for me and the kids, I'd get the corner bit so I could have the choice to spend time with the children on those days I can't get out of bed.

Then I'd have special bunk beds put in for the children for when they come to stay with me, so they had their own wonderful space of their own in my bedroom. Like cabins on a ship, with their own curtains to pull across, their own light if they fancied reading and I was sleeping, and decorated inside and out to the theme they wanted.

Then I just make sure everything in the house was well organised and easily accessible, to cut down on clutter. A huge custom spice rack in the kitchen would be great as I have a whole cupboard full as I love to cook.

[FanFuckingTastic]

I forgot to mention the many fairy lights I would have, all year round, for their whimsical prettiness.

[PancakesAndMapleSyrup]

We have a shed and lean-to attached to the back of our kitchen, im saving up to get it all sealed, a upvc door and window and to turn it into a new workroom so that i can start my new cake business. It would effectivly be the size of a small utility room butnsomewhere to store all my bits and have a worksurface to decorate! But wenhave a wasps nest up there that i cant afford to get rid of at the moment, so hopefully that would go too.Oh and id buy a small heater so that i can be warm!

[BornToFolk]

On a practical note, I'd love to re-do our hallway. It's always a mess as there's just not enough storage for the shoes, bags and assorted crap that ends up there. I'd love a whole set of shoe racks, hat racks and plenty of hooks!

The big dream, when I can afford is to the landscape the garden. We have a big old shed (complete with an asbestos roof!) and lots of random concrete foundations. I'd love to take all the concrete out and replace with raised beds for fruit and vegetables. The big crappy shed would be replaced with a smaller shed plus a greenhouse (for more fruit and veg!) I also need to replace the fences on both sides as due to some quirk of planning, I apparently own all the fences bordering the garden.
All fences and greenhouse would be football proof! And slugs and snails would be banished

[Nouseforausername]

oh I didn't even think of the garden or furniture..... logically it should be decorating and furniture ax its all hand me downs from others hand me downs and then the patio is a bit dangerous as the tiles are all uneven and D's is just getting to a walking stage so a flat patio would be lovely

[frogsinapond]

First impressions count, so I would like to re-design the front door and drive area of the front garden to both smarten it up add some colourful plants and to accomodate an extra car off the road (dd has just bought a car).

[telsa]

we have no room to do anything big and new sadly, but what I would like to do to our amazingly cluttered house is to put fantastically designed slider door wardrobes int he bedroom to get all the clothes and shoes off the hangers and floor. That would look marvelous - floor to ceiling. Also I would have it re-papered and painted in lush strong colours - as we have not touched the greasy fingered drawn on wallpaper for 19 years. Oh dear!

[hyperspacebug]

a treehouse and swing bench specially fitted in a not very big garden (37ft)

[mjmooseface]

Ooh, okay, how fun!

I would love to make our garden a bit more toddler friendly. We lost some fence panels to the storms last year and haven't replaced them yet. I would love a garden shed for my son to play in and to create some shade in the garden as we have none!

Anything else is just painting and decorating related. I HATE the colour in my bedroom. It's pink AND red who does that?! but this is how we found it and still haven't got round to repainting it! I would love a themed room to make it like the sea side as I live no where near one and really miss it! I'd give my son a themed room of his choice that I would love to do for him. In my head, I can totally do the whole 60 minute makeover thing! ;) I would also buy a 'big boy' bed for my son!

I would also get a little dining table so we can eat meals as a family and get a bedside table for my room as I am currently using a (cutely wrapped) nappy box as one and a high chair box as a bookcase!!!

With £1,000 I would get all of those little bits and bobs that help make a house a home and make the house a bit more full of our personalities and tastes! Hang up pictures. Allow for a space for my son to be creative in his room, that sort of thing! :)

[Holfin]

I would like a conservatory so the children have somewhere downstairs to play and I can reclaim the living room for the adults !

[lpbarton]

I would love to make a the play room a real knights there. A castle fort they can climb up stairs in and hide some toys away with a slide to come back down in. Maybe a little fort too on the other side of the room for those all important battles! :D I could never justify the expense so until then it will stay cream!

[sharond101]

I'd like an island in my kitchen, it's always been my fantasy. I'd like wallpaper in my living room but DH says NO. I'd like more storage but then when is it ever enough?

[GatheringRequirements]

I would love to make the spare room into a play room

[StillNoFuckingEyeDeer]

I'd love to create an outdoor space for the girls to play in safely. Maybe build a little house for them.
I'd also love to decorate their room to make it more of a child's bedroom. Some wall stickers or painting the walls like the sky would be a bit improvement. I'd get a proper blackout blind and a bookshelf.

[StillNoFuckingEyeDeer]

Oops. Wrong button.
I'd love to decorate their room so it was fun, instead of just plain walls and carpet. A really bright carpet or foam tiles for the floor, brightly coloured bookcase, drawers and wardrobe etc. A bit like softplay meets bedroom.

[Hooliesmoolies]

This feels shockingly decadent considering the various small jobs that there are to do in the house, but my home plus idea, which would turn my home into a palace, would simply to put real, original art on my walls. For some reason, when ever I am in someone else's house and I see proper (no disrespect meant but not IKEA) art on the walls, it makes the place feel properly finished and made. I have always dreamed of going to an art fair and being able to choose real, proper art for my house.

[Juliebmo3]

Although we live in a relatively new house, we would love to change the flooring in our kitchen and dining room. Lovely grey slate in the kitchen, and wood effect flooring in the dining room and hallway. The previous owners carpeted everywhere. Dining room + 3 young boys ( who love playing football in the garden)+ carpet = a very grubby looking floor which just won't come clean!! Would be great to replace it with something that at least looks hygienic ??

[lottietiger]

I would love an oak front door. Ours doesn't fit in the frame properly, probably because I have painted it so many different colours:) just a plain one with a little glazed panel that I don't have to paint.
OR
A new bedroom for my toddler as he is ready to move to a bed but I haven't got round to sorting out his new room. Some funky paint colours, curtains, a cool light shade and rug..and lots of bookcases as he has millions.

[MontysMum22]

We have done most of the essential building work we needed to do in our house and now most of what we have to do is cosmetic. My bedroom needs decorating and I have a beautiful french style bed from John Lewis and want to carry the theme on with mirror glass dressing table and bedside tables like the etched glass mirror we have and wallpaper in a teal blue bird pattern that I have seen with coordinating and sumptuous bedding, throws, curtains and lots of cushions. Also want to build in bookcases and strip the Victorian fireplace. I want to create a sanctuary for me and my husband away from the madness of the rest of the house (4 young adults & lots of pets). In short I want a boudoir not a bedroom.

[Kveta]

oh, there are sooo many things I'd like to do to our house!

I'd love to update the hallway - it's bland and messy at the moment, with a MASSIVE mirror left by the previous occupant and coat hooks that are taking over one wall. I really want to repaint it (purple! DS and DH want magnolia, but I want COLOUR!), and put in a shoe bench and a cupboard for coats/hats etc. And get rid of the huge mirror, and put something more to our tastes in its place!

I'd also love to make over the garden. At the moment, we have a raised bed (made with old concrete slabs, it is not pretty. it's full of grape hyacinths and ant nests at the moment, no matter how much I try to destroy them!)at the back, between two sheds. the sheds are shambolic, so I'd love to get rid of one, and the raised bed, and make the whole area a sort of patio with a wooden gazebo over it - I want to grow grape vines from the gazebo, and have decent wooden furniture, so we can sit outside in the summer in some shade! The neighbours got rid of all of their tall trees and bushes about 2 months after we moved in, and our garden feels very exposed now, so some shade would be fabulous!

I also want to get rid of the raised bed (another concrete affair) down one side of the garden, as it is overgrown with random viney plants which come in from next door (their garden would not look out of place with a mattress and fridge in it, it is a disaster area!). I attack the bloody viney things every few weeks, but they just keep coming back, and strangling any plants I try to grow. Ours is all very square and straight lines too, and I'd like it to be a bit more organic shaped, so more rounded beds and a curved rather than straight line. I have numerous drawings of my ideal garden, but no funds or knowledge to do much with it!

[MichelleMumsnet]

Thank you everyone for all your posts so far, keep them coming! This is just to let you know that those who are selected for the £1,000 prize will need to be willing to share before and after pictures of the renovations they carried out with the money and will have to complete the renovations and provide the pictures by Monday 11th August. If you have already posted but would no longer like to be considered, please PM me.

[OwlCapone]

Ah. No point sharing my ideas then as we'll be away for two weeks beforethe deadline.

[iK8]

H well that rules me out. We are very unlikely to get listed building consent through in time.

But Direct Line won't insure a listed building so I suppose that's fair enough!