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

[Pickofthepops]

We have a lovely new house but the garden is not level. A fairly minor but enough to make a difference gradient drop. Feel awful that my son's paddling pool slopes and sags. Can't put a teepee up for him. Hadn't realised the implications when we bought the house.

Would love to be chosen so that we could add have a small terrace or step created in the lawn to create a level area. It's a small garden but south west facing and has real potential.

Am imagining some lights strung along the bushes and his summer made fantastic by this.

New baby on way so hope to be outside a lot in summer. Won't be able to justify doing this for a while yet so to win would be great.

[fanoftheinvisibleman]

So much of my house needs TLC...we need a new bathroom and kitchen. But with 1000 I would want to do my hallway. It is the first thing people see and is a nightmare of botched DIY bannister rails and yellowing drippy badly glossed paint work. It is so bad we have never tackled it as it is so badly built it isn't worth the effort in sorting out the bad painting.

I would rip out the bannisters etc and have something nice in its place. Decorate and possible round things off with one of my favourite Pete Mckee art prints!

[HazelBite]

We have a large hose but with six adults living in it there is just not enough storage.
With 1000, I would employ someone to come along and suggest/build more efficient ways of storing things.

I would also love a small conservatory /garden room/sun room leading off the french doors from my lounge to fill with plants and to put my large cage of cockatiels in, with a rattan chair so I can imagine I'm in a rainforest!

[ilovemonstersInc]

I have 2 things I would like to do.

The most important is the kitchen. Would like to kit it out with basics for cooking and baking at least and have a little area with a small table and utensils that the kids can use so they can help cook and bake and hopefully ds1 will try and eat some of the food. His food aversion is pretty bad now and hes fed by a tube in his stomach so any oral eating is a plus. If I could afford to do that I would as if he had fun making and helping then hopefully it would encourage him to eat.


The second thing id like to do is kit the boys room out. A funky bed, a kids table and chairs, them little storage boxs that hang on the wall etc so their room was there den. I can imagine it now! The bed I like is a pirate bed with netting storage at the top iirc. They could both have 1!

[ilovemonstersInc]

This was the bed

[worldgonecrazy]

Our downstairs toilet is small but I want to turn it into an extravagent palatial over-the-top Art Nouveau loo. I've found the wallpaper - 64 a roll, and the tiles. Now I just need the funding.

[idleweiss]

Currently me and my DH are sleeping on a sofa bed in the living room with our newest arrival. We would love to turn our small back bedroom into a little haven for us, utilising all the space, with a loft bed for us, new storage and a cot for our little one. also we would love to transform our two girl bedroom, they really want bunkbeds with a slide!! That would be amazing!! :)

[FanFuckingTastic]

I'm getting all in to designing ideas using Pinterest and Paint. This is fun even if I don't get chosen.

[Purplehonesty]

I would love to do up my children's bedroom. We did up a barn but ran out of funds to decorate beyond white!
They currently share as they won't be parted at night - age 4 and 2.
They have mismatched beds and plain walls with a few wall art things but I have visions of some really cool built in beds, maybe with steps, maybe themed. Then matching bedlinen, lovely curtains and a feature wall with beautiful grown up paper - think lovely bird print or trees etc.

[Purplehonesty]

Oops pressed send too soon. They have an arrow slit window in their room which I would like to incorporate into the design.
Then I would move their ikea toy storage up to the playroom (which definitely needs storage) get them some nicer storage trunks and make better use of their fitted wardrobe with some more shelves.

[RubyRR]

I have spent ages thinking about this. I'd like to pick up the house and put it on a turntable(plan a). Or plan b with the budget and building regs people insist on because the back of our home is south facing and the back garden which was perfect when we purchased it as a couple now provides instant sun burn potential. We'd like a shaded area for us all. I would buy a huge parasol and comfortable outdoor seating and a BBQ so we could enjoy outdoor eating without roasting ourselves and some brightly coloured flowers to add some life to the garden. Our living room is cold too in it's north facing position so I would buy cosy blankets and bright cushions to add colour and make us feel less frozen like even on the hottest days it's cold.

[DottyDooRidesAgain]

I have four children under 11 and crave time to myself. The only place I seem to be able to get 10 minutes is the bathroom.
Mine is very outdated (peach suit but we cannot afford to replace it.
However I dream of a roman bath style bath room with super jet spray shower. A bath big enough to stretch out in ( I'm 5ft 10") with Jacuzzi option. Heated towel rails with the fluffiest white towels imaginable. All the toiletries would be soap & glory or something similar.
And a big fat lock on the door oh and sound proofing
Bliss.

[mamato3luvleys]

If I won I would love to make my garden into a great outdoor space with decking and a new bbq.
I would like the grass to go as my partner is always at work bless him and I constantly nag at him to mow the lawn. So yes something really low maintenance that when it's done it's done! Me and my trio love eating outside and are found playing in our long grass most days.x

[MrsWinnibago]

Without a shadow of a doubt I would use the money to make our flat into a retro haven...a duplicate of a 1950s apartment. I love vintage style but not so much the flowery "shabby chic" stuff...I love Mid-century style and am inspired by Eames and similar designers.

While 1000 might not run to a genuine Eames item of furniture it would run to re-covering our vintage sofa and buying some really fabulous wallpaper in the original style....not to mention all those vintage knick-knacks I need!

[rainbow9713]

I would absolutely LOVE to turn my outhouse into a colourful playhome, I would say a princess house as I have a daughter who is 1 next week, however I am currently pregnant and I don't know the sex of my new arrival yet.
I would do a cat inspired theme as the first word my daughter said was cat.
The walls of my outhouse would need plastering, 2 new doors, carpet on the floor, the gaps in the roof sealed and then the decorating can begin :).
Perfect place for kiddies to play especially when I am cooking dinner in the kitchen which is attatched to the outhouse

[ancientbuchanan]

I want to redo the bathroom. Exit plastic ducks and homemade shower, curtains from the 80's and blown tiling, cracked loo.

instead, sleek modern functional shower/ bath, blinds, loo, radiator and storage with bright lighting for a bright century.

[Alma17]

We live in a little bit of a big house for me, my spouse, children, and sister. My husband has his little office where he do his work while I and my mother do our different tasks. We are to start homeschooling our children. I, and my sister are busy nursing and educating the children while my mother is like our chef and caregiver. The only time we gather together is when it is meal time, snack time or time to go to sleep. My husbandeven when workingloves to see us and talk to other members of the family without leaving his office and going downstairs for when he does, he cannot resist himself but play with the kids. He plans to put tablet gadgets on walls and connecting those to a webrtc app something like videolink2.me so that he doesn't miss a smile or a laugh from the kids without being distracted too much. He is bit of a geek and we understand him for his work. We've tried it with our smartphones and it was fun. I would suggest though that bigger screens are better.

[jacquibrett1980]

Its has to be a kitchen re vamp the house we are buying is Daaaaaated! I love the vintage retro theme, for a thousand id get some cool pastel appliances, lots of decals and accessories!

[chestnut100]

My back garden is crying out for a beech theme! Have plans for a candy striped beach hit surrounded by a sandpit area at the bottom. The rest is already decked so fits the theme. Have already spotted the pots, palms, play pirate ships and gravels I would need to turn our bit of the north into Bradford on sea! Would be amazing for the kids as we don't have a park in walking distance do this would be a fab fun play area!

[chestnut100]

Just realised you suggested a beach theme in your original post, direct line! Woops! Didn't mean to steal it; it's an idea I've had for a while but simply no funds!

[sarahjchristie]

I would really love an american fridge freezer built into my kitchen at the moment my freezer and fridge are integrated but the freezer freezes up constantly, it drive me mad. I would like to rip then out and replace with a lovely black american fridge freezer with a wine rick over the top, to use with all that ice

[serendipity1980]

I'd love to knock down the wall between our kitchen and utility room, including the doorway between the two, to allow me better access with my wheelchair - it's a tight squeeze which I have to negotiate every day going out with the children. I'd love to make my life that little bit easier.

[mrscumberbatch]

Our house is very modern and we have a triple height wall in our living room. I'd love to be really daring and do a giant mural or print on it. The sheer size of it though would make the paint extortionate.

I'd also like disco lights for in the bathroom. I'm not sure how reasonable that is though

[purplemonstermum]

i have no idea if this would cost more than £1000 or not but i have dreamt of doing it ever since we moved into the house 7 years ago. my children have wrecked the back garden playing football etc, but we have a little roof terrace outside one of the bedrooms, which overlooks the back garden, and i dream of making it my "outdoor escape". the flat roof needs reinforcing though and we would need to put up railings and maybe access directly from the garden. it would be my "chillout zone" - no football allowed...

[Hopezibah]

We are very imminently planning on doing something with our outdoor space. Our garden is used most of the year by the kids but it is such a plain and boring space to look at. We'd love to give in a bit of a makeover to make it almost like an extra room of the house with a few (relatively simple but will make all the difference) features like pergola, arbour, path, plants (it is now mainly plain lawn - boring!!!), and just give it a homely feel like the rest of our house. We want to make it somewhere that we'd like to spend time in as well as the kids so we can enjoy it together as a family. We feel confident that we could turn it from a plain green boring space into somewhere with some vibrant colour, shape and texture with the wow factor! The ultimate home plus!