Rather than making banana bread, this mum spent her lockdown completely revamping her house.
The makeover cost RSPCA eBay Manager Sarah Haigh, 38, from Huddersfield, over £20,000, but the results are worth every penny.
Before-and-after images of this radical refurb show a transformation from bland, cream interiors to eye-catching dark maximalist walls and furniture.
But working on her four-bedroom, semi-detached house, wasn’t all plain sailing for Sarah – especially when lockdown sent her well-laid plans spinning.
‘When we took the tiles off in the kitchen to replace them with the new ones, but all the plaster came off with them,’ she said.
‘You could see all the breeze block underneath, I was almost defeated. The bones of the kitchen were there already, but we couldn’t afford to buy brand new.’
Explaining the learning curve, Sarah continued: ‘When lockdown hit us, I saw an opportunity to give that room the facelift it needed, but in order to do that, we had to learn how to tile and plaster.
‘We couldn’t go out and look at showrooms and get inspiration. It was hard work and took up a lot of our time, but we love it.’
Sarah decided to go for a botanical feel with the decor, with dark green walls and natural greenery to create her unique style.
She managed to make savings on the home makeover too, being gifted items such as the mural in her son Woody’s bedroom (which was valued at £150).
‘A lot of people think I’m brave going so dark on the walls,’ she said. ‘However, due to the large windows, I knew they could carry colour.’
Sarah explained how she first ever became interested in becoming an interior decorating Queen.
She said: ‘The house was lovely when we moved in, but didn’t represent us at all. My attitude towards it was, if I don’t like it, I can always change it.
‘So, I played around with a few colours and textures and just hoped my design idea would come together.
‘I get it wrong sometimes, but it’s how I learn. I need to make mistakes in order to get it right next time.’
The mum-of-two’s work didn’t stop inside the house either. She also got the outside of the house rendered, as well as laying a new patio and driveway to complete her vision.
‘Internally, I try and source items such as furniture as cheaply as possible, so I can allow myself a splurge in certain rooms,’ she said.
‘It’s a happy hectic home, but dark with pops of colour and full of personality.’
Looking forward, Sarah has a plan of action for the one remaining room, ‘the dreaded utility’.
She said: ‘It’s going to need careful design planning but I’m up for the challenge.’
What Sarah spent on the home transformation
- £384 New kitchen tiles (£96 per sqm)
- £2100 on new sofas for the living room
- £250 on a kitchen island
- £4,000 on a new driveway
- £7,000 on a new patio
- £8,000 on the house rendering .
£21,734 total
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