When she was 14 years old, Mel Ritchie spray-painted a mural of her name onto her bedroom wall in the style of New York City’s metro graffiti.
Now a 35-year-old solicitor, Mel, who lives in Croydon, has taken her love of DIY to the next level, as her savvy skills have helped to increase her home’s value by £100,000.
‘I developed a real interest when we bought our house as before that, we had been in rental accommodation and I was always itching to redecorate,’ she said.
When she purchased her four-bedroom terraced house in 2017, Mel, along with her partner, Oli Gardner, decided to make their own mark on the then-£450,000 property.
Their first step was the kitchen. While it was one of the more costly rooms to renovate, with expensive plumbing, reinforcement work and the installation of a new sink and tap set costing £700, the pair only spent £213 on other work in the room.
For £25, they repainted the walls, and used two grey grout pens to update the tiling (£4 each). After stripping their laminate covering from their kitchen cabinets with a hairdryer, they primed and painted them for £75.
‘We try to do as much of the DIY as possible on a budget as this then allows us to spend on special items for the house,’ Mel said.
To add her own touch to her glass kitchen cabinets, Mel spent £75 on reeded glass effect window film along with new handles. She then covered the worktops with DC-Fix vinyl (£30) to give them a wood-effect finish.
‘Vinyl converted worktops won’t last forever, but they will definitely last a couple of years. Our worktops cost around thirty-pounds and look brand new,’ she explained.
When it comes to home revamping, Mel has two main sources of inspiration. As well as getting ideas from social media — she’s especially a fan of Instagram, and has Pinterest boards for each room — she says her parents helped to stoke her DIY ambitions.
She explained: ‘Mum was always making something. She is a talented stained glass artist and made beautiful windows for our old house. She was also forever upcycling furniture, even before it was fashionable to do so. Even in her seventies she spends most weekends decorating or gardening.’
Inspired by her mum, Val, Mel is an avid upcycler — and gave several items in her bedroom a new lease of life as a result.
Through beading and a fresh coat of paint, Mel transformed her bedside tables. For £45, she also boxed in her Ikea PAX wardrobes with some MDF boards and upholstered her Ikea headboard with blue fabric.
‘I am a big fan of upcycling; not only do you avoid throwing something into landfill, but it’s really satisfying to give something old a new lease of life,’ she added.
‘You can paint literally anything with the right primer and there are all sorts of amazing ways to dress up items. I’ve created stained glass effect windows using lead tape and coloured window film, for example.’
While the couple managed to do most of their DIY on a budget, there were a few more costly elements to their work — a lot of their walls needed replastering, and they installed two new bathrooms into their home.
In total, Mel estimates that they have spent £20,000 on home renovations. But with a recent valuation revealed that their home’s value now stands at £550,000.
Comparatively, their home cost £450,000 when they first bought it, meaning that through their thrifty decorating endeavours, their house’s value has shot up by £100,000.
The couple have spent four years on their DIY endeavours so far, but Mel says she has no plans on slowing down. Her current project involves giving new life to the garden, and in the future, she wants to convert her conservatory into an office.
The solicitor has been juggling her DIY projects with caring for her baby son — and has big plans for his own bedroom one day.
‘We are also going to turn our spare bedroom into our son’s bedroom as he will soon need more space than there is in the nursery,’ she said. ‘This will be great fun. I imagine it will involve blackboard paint and a secret den.’
Want to get stuck into some of your own DIY projects? Mel’s main advice is to just have fun with it!
She said: ‘DIY should be fun and if you want to try your hand at something, have a go. Personally, I wouldn’t do our own plumbing or electrics but any kind of redecorating, making furniture, upcycling etc. I will turn my hand to.’
You don’t need to be an expert to do your own DIY projects — sometimes, Mel says, all you need is a little bit of paint.
‘A fresh coat of paint makes a huge difference to a room and if you don’t like the colour, it’s not the end of the world. It can be repainted,’ she said. ‘I think it’s worth being brave and just having a go. It really is immensely rewarding to transform a space yourself.’
Ultimately, although DIY can be a big task and involve a lot of upheaval, Mel advises aspiring DIY-ers to not take it too seriously, and to keep it realistic and lighthearted.
‘Try not to take on too much at once and don’t be too demanding on yourself,’ she said.
‘Things simply do not go to plan when you are DIY-ing but it’s better to just have a laugh about it, adapt the plans a bit and move on. I really do believe it should be a fun and enjoyable process, not a stressful one.’
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