Make the best with what you already have!
One of my top sayings is ‘do your best till you can do better’ and ‘do the best with what you have, till you have better to do better with’ goes hand in hand.
A few years ago we moved the kitchen in our house, into the main room of the house. The sitting room was huge in relation to the rest of the house. Every dinner party growing up, we would be huddled around a table which barely fit in the old kitchen. Laughing the night away while the huge main room of the house lay empty. Next time your at a dinner party, I bet you won’t move from the dinning-room table to the sofas. Unless it’s arranged by offering ‘after dinner drinks in the drawing room’ etc. Modern living, mainly happens in the kitchen. Let’s face it, the kitchen is the heart of the home! Anyone with young children will understand my struggle of a tiny kitchen away from the main room of the house. I would have to rush to the kitchen, rushing to make dinner while listening and checking on the minis in the sitting-room. It was stressful.
Don’t get me wrong, open planned living has its down sides too! When my son was shown a photo of an oven and asked what it was called at school, he replied with ‘hot!’ A kitchen in your main living space really leads it’s self well, to kids helping at dinner time, a real family space.
Before you go knocking down walls, check their load baring....I remember the joy of watching my mother with a sledgehammer....only to later find out a large crack had started to grow..... I 100% know that my zist for getting on with the DIY was watching and helping my amazing mother. Only this evening, hammer in hand sorting out the sound system for the sitting-room. Having plumbed in my replacement dishwasher earlier (having lifted/moved the old one out onto the drive the day before and moving the new one into place.) I smiled and giggled to my self, remember those late nights being woken by my mother to check out the rearranged living room.
I live in a house build in 1972. Having lived here since 1999, (moving away for a number of years and moving back about 8 years ago.) (Its my family home.) I know the house and the space very well. There are many of the same style house around me, and knowing my neighbours well, it’s interesting to see what people have done to improve the flow of the house and make the most of the space.
The large sitting room before moving the kitchen
Like many houses built in the 1970’s it has an internal garage. Only now do I own a car which may have had a chance of fitting inside this very thin and not very long garage. Needless to say, most have converted this space into a living space. Most have go for a fully open planned. I felt though that you lost quite a lot by doing that. It’s good to have separate spaces. We all do need our own space, and sometimes just adding a small office in the back of a garage can make a space feel much bigger than if that space had been opened up.
By moving the front kitchen, we gained a laundry room and a much bigger hallway/entry space.
Giving a far greater bigger feeling space. It also made the space we have much more useable.
If your looking at your home, and wondering how you can improve your time living there. Think about not only how you use the space now but what you already have. Adding a laundry room, has been amazing, not something we all factor in. Where do you sort your washing? Mine was pilled onto the sofa, attacked my children, and often took up lots of space. Now even thought its a very small room its all contained.
Something which made a huge impact was changing the windows to french doors. I was staring the windows one day, thinking they where the same size as doors. We had a single door in the middle and two large windows each side. I was right they where the perfect size so we put in french doors and changed the centre door for a window. This now opens up the whole of the back of the house in the summer is amazing.
So I knew I wanted to improve the kitchen situation. I looked at where all the current supplies where coming into the house. Costs can get out of control very quickly if you are talking about moving kitchens where there is now no gas, electric and water supply. That’s where you start. I was moving the kitchen but only to the other side of the kitchen wall. Also very lucky, there was an old gas fire in the sitting-room. So I knew we could use that for the oven. Being that it was within about a meter to where I wanted to put the kitchen. Also part of the old kitchen was to become the laundry room. So it would be very easy to plumb in a sink and the stack for the loo was right inside the new laundry space. Down the line I knew I could add in a very much needed, downstairs loo!
Moving the kitchen, adding a door to the back of the garage
Am not going to lie, it was hard-work around small babies/toddlers. Really good builders made it easier and being able to cook in the old kitchen while the new one was being built was a god send!
Look at your space, what works, what drives you a little nuts due to not working, what do you all ready have?
A little note here that often old style fittings, kitchens, bathroom suites can be worth some pennies. Don’t go throwing and smashing up what you already have. If your working on a budget, re-use as much as possible. Also you can get some work done for you, but offering things for sale as long as they remove it! (Make sure though, you disconnect any services and do this at your own risk!)
So, being a single mother of three adorable minis, am on a low budget. After my husband left, the space didn’t feel like it reflected me. I had made a start over the years and was very happy with my bedroom but the main living space felt like an after thought. It was really, as we ran out of money and other projects came first over finishing the house.
How did change my sitting-room on a £0 budget??
This is also how I did up my bedroom too, a £0 budget!
Big tip, big, big tip. Have any Ikea units in your house? Where I am, they sell second hand really well! Using Facebook market place (many other things out there you can use, gumtree, eBay, preloved, esty, local paper, etc) I love that Facebook market place, has no selling fees! It’s also quick, but you do have to give up a lot of information, ie, mostly collection only, so when selling you do need to give out your home address. The difference is that they also have your full name, and public profile information too. So just keep that in mind, when selling on Facebook. Also, your friends and family, will see what your selling. That many not seam like a odd thing, but people did comment to me, when I was doing up my living-room, ‘your selling loads on Facebook Alice.’ Erm....not really no but erm.
With my £0 budget I used items in the space I was wanting to change to fund replacement items. I sold the sofa, side units, all sorts. As I was selling I was also searching for a replacement item or idea. So I didn’t sell the sofa and buy other sofa. I brought this unit-
This was my most expensive item, this G-Pan unit with hairpin legs cost £60. Thats really not a lot of money when thinking of new items of furniture but on a 0 budget, that was a big chunk! I sold the Ikea white unit, which I brought at a discount in the clearance area at Ikea a few years ago. This is still one of my favourite items I brought, it fits all the virgin bits and bobs, the surround sound/bass too! On top is my record player which is plugged into the surround sound as well as the new projector. So you don't have to change over any plugs or switch between the two.
I wanted to not only change the look of the space but use the space better. I have a very small kitchen. No over head cupboards. This was on purpose, as it’s an open space and I wanted to keep as much feeling of space as possible. This means that I only have an under counter fridge and the freezer is in the garage (soon to be moved to the laundry room.)
So for quite some time, with no lovely display units, I used what I already had. Some Ikea bully bookcases, just put on the counter space to store my china and all the other stuff....
It worked but it looked really messy :(
Then I found this unit, and it makes the perfect larder! It fits everything and more which the on show bully book cases housed. (In a much nicer, clearer way too!’ This unit was £25 delivered! I had looked for ages for something to fit this space, trying out lots of different things in it over the years! Selling the bully book cases and getting this unit, made the space more useable, a place for things but also freed up the kitchen. Giving back that wonderful big space !
The unit at the centre of the photo is the 'larder' Using Kilner jars I already had on the open shelves for things like pasta and flour, and in the closed cupboards is loads of food storage! (Unfortunately the original sitting room door was smashed and for a long time just removed due to safely. Its been replaced now with this lovely oak door. You can see the white door leads to the office and this unit 'the larder' couldn't have fit into this space any better!
People say that walking in this room is like walking back in time. I love it! It’s such a calm space and so relaxing with the record playing playing and the units lit with my beautiful objects. I was so happy to get things down from being boxed up in the loft and at last on show.
This is one of my favourite units. It was £10. I think that due to its size many had been put off going to get it. It’s about 8ft wide! The bottom half fit in the back of my amazing 1980’s Volvo ‘Ditto.’ The top half, my wonderful friend drove over with her motorhome van and the two of us moved this huge, huge unit! I was so proud of us two girls, moving this huge thing just the two of us. It is as heavy as it looks. We pushed it into place, it had been a guess it would fit there. We stood back and my friend said. ‘Wow, it looks like it has always been there. Made for that space.’ I agreed. I later, after the flood, had to move this unit on my own, am not going to lie, it was hard but I managed!
So many of these where just thrown out, for the modern look. They are amazing. I wish I could fit more of these in the house. They are built to last. The lights all still work, it has a cocktail bar built it and the bottom fits my record collection in perfectly. Also a cutlery drawer, a place at last for my family items I have been given over the years. Also huge drawers! Filled with all the grown up things like spare batteries, paper, envelopes etc. It’s a real statement bit of furniture. It cost me £10!!! It’s got a few marks from when we had the building work done but bet this will be passed onto my grandchildren and still going strong!
This huge bit of furniture just fits so easy into the space, it hides how big it is. I brought a few paintings from the same lady and a lovely 1970’s lamp. (Which I love.) The paintings are not what I would run out to buy but I love how kitsch they are. They look amazing in the space, and work really well with the look I was going for.
By selling my huge 8+ seated sofa I opened up the space to being able to fit so much more into it.
The 8 seater sofa was in an L shape taking up this whole space!
Remember me saying, make the best of what you already have? Well, am very lucky to have my Great Grandparents sofa. It’s 50/60’s and my favourite sofa to sit on! It had been hidden away in the front of the house and mostly used to dump washing on while sorting. Now it takes center stage in the living room. I was sat on my huge Ikea sofa, thinking about how I didn’t find it all that comfortable to sit on and that it was only me sitting on it. Why on earth did I need such a huge sofa!
I do need to find the budget or a free chair, as a three seater sofa is a little limiting but still workable.
We did have blinds but they had become battered over time, mostly by toddlers running in and out of the French doors. There where large windows and a center small door to the back garden. I remember staring at the windows thinking that they looked the same size as French doors. So now, we have two French doors and a center window. This makes the space wonderful in the summer months. Pretty much opening up the back of the house! I had a lot of fabric given to me, which was vintage and the type of fabric which doesn’t need to be hemed! So one night I set to work making very easy curtains. The same as I would make for a caravan. With curtain wire, boom! It made such a difference. Warming up the space and making it feel so much better than the broken blinds and sheet up at the middle window. Is it the fabric I would have picked for the space? No, mostly likely not but I don’t think I would change it now.
You don’t need to make big fancy expensive curtains, curtains wire and a little time and the space feels so much better! You can also use old sheets, check out charily shops for old curtains. New to you curtains make a huge difference to a space!
THE FLOOD....
Its taken a long time, just after I had started to get this space sorted, the dishwasher flooded. It was a very hard three months, my children where amazing at living around, builders, drying machines, repair men. It was mega stressful. Finding asbestos.....
At one point the insurance company where talking about removing the whole ceiling....The whole of the ground floor had to have the floor removed. That one dishwasher made such a huge mess of the whole ground floor of the house, the water traveled under the flooring, soaking into the floor and walls! We still have to save up to replace the floor in the hall and front room but at least the main living area is finished. This room, had £1000's spent on cleaning up from the damage. So my 0 budget only covered the furniture not the paint, plaster, new flooring etc. Which all had to be replaced due to the damage. I completely changed the look of the room, just by changing the furniture and blinds to curtains. We saved up extra pennies to do extra things like the projector (Starting prices are around £50.) If your looking for the Mid-Centry Modern look, I highly recommend a projector, its fun at parties, I have youtube playing music in the background when I have put the records away. I have linked up a apple tv to the projector, this means I can link my phone to the projector, and watch Prime and Netflix. A retro room in a modern world!
I think I only ended up (after the money I made from selling the units I didn't like) spending £5 over my 0 budget. I already had the dinning room table, I found that on the side of the road. The chairs are G-Plan, and I found them in a shop in Portsmouth for £20!!
Here is the dinning room, all ready for 'girls night' dinner. Love my 1960's painting for £5, its so quaint!
An extra chair from my bedroom and the table set with all my vintage bits and bobs. The unit at the back was a gift!
I love having a dinner party and getting out all my vintage things. Lots of charity shop finds on this table, and check out the old jam jars for glasses ;)
Not only does the space now reflect my style, its relaxed and homely. Its mid-century modern, yet retro. Its still very minimal in its feel, yet the warm colours of the curtains and units make it feel cozy.
Me in my 1960's cocktail dress, one from my mothers collection
Now my house is starting to look like its my house :)
Check out my first item for the hallway. I have been looking for a retro telephone table with chair for years and years! My friend tagged me, as the lady was throwing it out! Huge thanks to that lady and my friend who tagged me. Working on a budget doesn't mean you can't have lovely things! When I have saved up some pennies and start work on the hallway I will let you all know how I get on.
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