Thrifty DIY fan creates stunning kitchen for £182 saving £6,000 on average budget refurbishment by using pound shop bargains, upcycling and repainting

An eagle-eyed DIY fan has created a stunning kitchen for just £182 – saving £6,000 on the average budget refurbishment – by scooping up pound shop bargains, repainting and upcycling.

Occupation data manager Louise Honeyman, 42, has turned the £140,000 three bedroomed detached house she bought with her project manager husband Nick, 42,  in 2013 into “a little palace” on a shoestring.

Inheriting a talent for home improvements from her dad, Kevin, who worked for Ford and died from lung cancer in 2012, aged 60, she caught the DIY bug after watching him transform the family home and even go to woodworking classes to learn to make furniture.

While Louise,  of Swansea, South Wales, who has twin daughters, has given the whole house a facelift with her impressive talent, she says it is the kitchen she is most proud of, adding: “I’ve completed the whole room for £200.

“That included the floor tiles, paint for the cupboards, vinyl for the worktops.

“The only thing we bought new was a sink for £70.  Everything else I’ve upcycled or improved.”

She added: “My dad was very handy, so I used to watch him around the house and I guess it must run in the family.”

With the average budget kitchen refurbishment in the UK in 2022 costing  £6,200, according to Checkatrade.com, Louise’s big ideas came in at a fraction of the price.

She spent just £12 on nine packets of wall tiles from Poundland, £28 on 14 packs of floor tiles from Home Bargains, £9 for a roll of vinyl for the worktops from Wilkinson’s, £40 for paint – which included a couple of tester pot –  £70 on a new sink, £20 on a tap and £3 on a grout pen.

Using her DIY skills, she then replaced the old marbled worktops and the worn out floor with enviable expertise.

There is one particular item in the house that holds a special place in Louise’s heart – her pink dresser in her kitchen.

She said: “This dresser belonged to my late grandmother Margaret and was made by my dad when I was a child, so it means an awful lot to me.”

She added: “Originally it was a dated orange pine colour with old-fashioned handles, so I did worry that painting it might ruin it. But I’m pretty sure that my dad and my gran would prefer for it to be given a new lease of life, rather than have it sitting there unloved because the colour did not match the rest of the house.”

And she did not stop at the kitchen.

She said: “The whole house is constantly being restyled in some shape or form.”

Other items to have received her Midas touch include a headboard she made for the spare bedroom for just £15.45, using four packs of £1.29 canes from Home Bargains, a 50-metre roll of raffia for £4.39 and 3m of conduit – a bendy plastic tubing which has a similar effect to a concertina -for £5.90 from eBay.

She then spent an hour using a glue gun to stick the conduit and canes together, then used the raffia to fix them into the desired shape and now has a gorgeous, individual headboard that, if bought new in a boutique furniture shop, she estimates would cost £200.

She said: “I decided to make my own headboard when I saw that they were all around the £200 plus mark and I knew I wouldn’t be paying that much, especially as I could probably make my own.”

She added: “With my kitchen design, I saw some on Instagram that had pink in them. So, I was inspired by them and developed my ideas as I went along.

“It was never meant to be blue and pink. It was going to be black and cream to start off with and then I found some paints in the house and thought that might work.”

But Louise only ever uses designs she has seen as a starting point for her creations.

She said: ” I let things evolve organically.

“I’ll start off with a small idea from looking at Instagram and what we have in the house, but I never really stick to it rigidly.

“It kind of grows as I move along and that is what makes the process so enjoyable.”

She added: “The kitchen was in such a sorry state to start with that I just wanted to make it look presentable.

“I’m really pleased with how it turned out.”

While Louise has a magpie-like ability to find treasure in second hand shops, she likes to mix old and new items.

“Not all my stuff is vintage and I don’t buy everything new either,” she said.

“I think mixing it up a bit means that you end up with something that’s completely unique.”

One of her favourite cut-price finds is a giant ceramic leopard which she bagged in a charity shop for £100, but  says can retail for upwards of £400.

She said: “I found it in a charity shop. I was driving past, saw it in the window and immediately stopped and went and bought it.

“It’s vintage and from the 1980s. The charity shop owner was telling me that it was his mother’s. She bought it new originally and he was finally passing it on.”

The leopard, named ‘Teefies’ by Louise’s twin daughters – Lily and Jess, 12, sits in his favourite spot – at the side of the sofa in the living room, with his ferocious teeth on display.

Big fans of their mum’s eye for interior style, both girls have benefited from her talent.

Louise said: “I gave Lily’s bedroom a makeover. She has a 90s/Y2K style room.

“Think pastels, cow print, a photo collage wall.”

She added: “Lily also has some of my old stuff in there from the 90s/00s – my old lava lamp, fibre optic lamp and fluffy cushions.

“We did the wood panelling behind the beds for about £60 from B&Q. We fitted that ourselves.

“A lot of the furniture was from our old house.”

She added: “There’s a chest of drawers at the side of the bed which I got for free from Facebook marketplace.

“The wardrobe in there was from an auction and then the rest of the furniture  we’ve kind of just pinched from other rooms in the house.”

And Jess is currently having her pink and grey room completely transformed.

“The current colour scheme isn’t her at all,” said Louise.

“We’re in the process of adding some black and just changing the whole dynamic of the room to more of a Goth-style look.”

Even Louise’s husband is now finding it hard to resist the pull of DIY.

She laughed:  “I tend to be the one that picks up the paintbrush and comes up with the ideas.

“But sometimes he will help me to execute them and get them finished to a really good standard.”

Time and effort, rather than money, should be the main investment if you are looking to spruce up your home, according to Louise.

She said: “For bargains, I’m always looking in charity shops and eBay can be a great place to look, too.

“You just need to think a little bit differently. You don’t have to go to the high street all the time.

“You can get ideas and just come up with something similar that you can achieve on a lower budget.

“It’s just being creative and slightly clever with what you’re using.”