This is my spare room as it looked last week. It used to be E’s bedroom before he moved into the bigger bedroom with T hence the bright colours and Early Learning Center posters. Since then it has basically been used to store the mountain of ‘stuff’ that just seems to come from nowhere and fill our house.
I had been putting off the boring task of sorting it all out in time for my brother to come and stay over Christmas when I heard about the HomeServe Winter Blogger Challenge which was just the kick I needed to get on with it. The challenge was to use £50 of B&Q vouchers to make a room in your house more cosy and, let’s be honest, the spare room could certainly be improved.
Decorating on a budget for warmth
We live in an old house so trying to keep the heat in is a bit of an obsession of mine. These are my top tips:
- Insulate any pipes you can get to.
- Get thermostatic radiator valves so you aren’t paying to heat rooms you’re not using.
- Fit shiny reflectors behind your radiators to stop heat being lost through the walls.
- Old sash windows (like ours) are never going to be the most heat efficient but they can be renovated to ensure they seal tightly and lose the least possible heat.
- Draft excluders and heavy curtains over the back door are easy fixes for drafts.
With all of those things done already I thought the best way to cosy up the room was to redecorate and make it feel more comfortable. I’ve previously written about decorating on a budget (you can find that here) and put my bargain hunting skills into action at B&Q where we picked up two rolls of lovely wallpaper with silver birch trees on, a tub of paint in a chalky gray and some wallpaper paste for just under our £50. I liberated some accessories from around the house including half of a pair of curtains that used to hang in our bedroom (I knew they’d come in handy!), cleared out all the junk and then set hubs to work on the wallpaper while I painted. The great thing about having a little spare room is that you can decorate the whole thing in a weekend.
Getting that cosy feeling
Here are my tips for getting a cosy feel when decorating on a budget:
And here are the results. What do you think? The only extra we spent was a new mirror from Ikea for £15 as everything else was sitting around the house and it’s amazing how you can see items in a new light by moving them to a different room.
If you have any hints for making your house cosy at this chilly time of year do share them in the comments. Maybe I’ll start on the boys room next…
anna says
it looks lovely 🙂
Thanks Anna, I can’t get over the difference with just some paint and wallpaper!
Gosh, what a difference you’ve made to the room, it looks fantastic!
Thank you, this is a great time of year for a change.
That is amazing, it makes such difference. Well done you. x
Thanks Susanna, we’re really chuffed with it.
What a transformation, I love it. Are you available for consultations?
Ha ha, I think Hubs would be very glad if I planned DIY for other people’s houses!
Oooh great tips!!
Thank you Maggy, I just want to go and sit in there now!
I love it!
Thank you!
OMG you’ve done an amazing job.
Thank you, hopefully it will persuade my little brother to come and visit more often.
What great tips. Looks lovely. Good storage is key IMO.
Absolutely! There’s a dresser in there that you can’t quite see in the photos and the combination of cupboard to hide clutter and shelves for pretty things is very handy.
I really must stop popping over to other people’s blogs and realising how appalling I am at doing these makeovers. Stop you are making me feel inadequate *as you were*
You’re too kind Helen! x
Radiator valves are a must, we don;t have them at the mo, we’re having our heating replaced in a couple of months but I can just feel how much money we are wasting!
Love natural materials, so gender neautral and calming x
TRVs can make a huge difference.