Renovating your first home: how one couple transformed a small London flat with budget buying and clever DIY ideas
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Buying your first home and fixing it up just as you want it is likely to feature paint stains, accidentally hammered fingers and lots and lots of YouTube videos.
New-build homes are all kitted out but expensive.
At the other end of the scale ex-rental properties are usually run down, grotty, cheaper and the perfect hunting ground for a first-time buyer.
Marlène Fao, 33, was one such first timer in 2017, when she and her boyfriend spent a shade under £500,000 on a two-bedroom Edwardian maisonette on the borders of Wimbledon and Merton.
"It was horrible and the layout was difficult to navigate," says Marlène, a French marketing manager who moved to London 10 years ago. "The bathroom was behind the kitchen and you had to walk through it to get into the garden."
Despite this the couple moved in with their two Bengal cats and have tackled the work one job at a time, spreading the cost of their renovation.
Big-ticket items included a new kitchen from Ikea which was professionally installed. The kitchen, including cabinets, appliances and a quartz worktop, cost £5,000 and the installation added £1,800.
"We used an offer of interest-free credit to buy the kitchen so we could spread the cost," says Marlène. "To help pay for it we didn't take a holiday that year, stopped buying lunch at Pret and started having home-made sandwiches."
Marlène previously worked for a bathroom company and was able to get an employee discount on upscale bathroom fittings from Villeroy & Boch (villeroyboch.co.uk). She used three-dimensional tiles from its monochrome magic collection in the kitchen.
How they did it
One of the most useful tricks in her repertoire was free. "I use 3D software to design a room in advance. That is how we did the wall panels in our living room. I use Sketchup (sketchup.com) which is free unless you get the professional version."
Marlène redecorated the flat herself, including applying faux panelling in the living room, and sanding and painting laminate floors white.
The garden was a mess. Now it is an elegant courtyard "room" with the repaired fencing painted grey, and white-stained timber decking. The couple built space-saving raised timber planters — see Marlène's website mymindfulhome.co.uk for a tutorial on how to do it.
A recent project was to build a restaurant-style banquette booth in the kitchen to create space-saving seating.
DIY hacks that paid off
When a quote to make and cover the banquette came in at an out-of-the-question £2,000, Marlène made one herself, building the pine base with planks bought from a local timber merchant.
Her boyfriend is an engineer, which gave her an advantage when it came to working out the base and fluted seating. She covered it using upholstery foam, a staple gun and velvet in a dramatic shade of teal. In total the materials for the bench upholstery came in at just over £300. "It took us ages but I am very happy with it."
Perhaps the biggest challenge in this renovation has been agreeing on how to do it. Couples do not always see eye to eye about how interiors should look.
"There is always a lot of discussion about all the options, but at some point we have to agree. When we do, I write it down and whenever we talk about it again, I can say, 'Actually this is what we agreed — it's in the document. I wrote it down!'"
The contacts book
One-off finds: Marlène's go-to source is small companies website Etsy (etsy.com), where she found the couple's Moroccan-style rug. As her white-on-white home suggests, she is also a fan of laid-back Scandi style and rates Nordic Nest (nordicnest.com) as a one-stop shop for Swedish and Danish furniture and homewares.
Home comforts: for linens, Marlène recommends the high-quality yet reasonably priced Secret Linen Store (secretlinenstore.com), while for something special on the wall, The Poster Club (theposterclub.com) has a curated collection of art prints and photography.
Cross-Channel chic: as a Frenchwoman, Marlène naturally turns to La Redoute (laredoute.co. uk), which is as much of a staple as John Lewis is in the UK. For more of a boutique experience she recommends Fleux concept store (fleux.com) which has an inspiring range of furniture and furnishings and ships to Britain.
High street staples: Marlène's home is full of pieces from Ikea and mid-range stores — her living room table is from Habitat (habitat.co.uk) and storage is from Muji (muji.eu).
Reuse and recycle: before buying something new, sell what you already have on gumtree.com says Marlène — it's the sustainable way to renovate your home.