Dear Fiona,
We’ve been renovating and enlarging a terraced house in south London to make it work for our family, for which we saved and planned and budgeted. We extended the kitchen last year, and now are excitingly only two weeks from finishing the loft conversion, which we did so that my daughter actually has a bedroom and can stop being put in a cot in the bathroom overnight. (Meanwhile, we’re all – me, my husband, our two children under five – sleeping in the sitting room.) However, largely due to building costs going up, we’ve got nothing left in the pot for actual decorating. We’ve got insufficient furniture, no curtains, no carpets, we’re still living within the magnolia walls our predecessor potentially chose to facilitate a sale, still sitting on the two-person sofa that I had in my pre-marriage flat, and we definitely can’t currently afford the built-in storage I was hoping to put into the sitting room for toys, books and the television etc. Even more depressingly, we’ve had to borrow money to finish the loft (there was an unforeseen structural issue) so it’s not even a question of “wait six months” - but rather “use whatever we can spare from day-to-day living costs over the next however many years.”
I know that one answer, often written about, is to go around antiques fairs, but that strikes me as being extremely time consuming; my husband and I both work full time, only have childcare for when we’re at work, and I don’t think anybody’s idea of a good time is going to an antiques fair with a four-year-old and an eighteen-month-old. There’s the high street of course – but that’s so huge I almost don’t know where to start. Finally, I don’t think either my husband or I are capable of DIY such as tiling or running up our own curtains (also probably not a fun job to do with the children.) So do you have any other affordable solutions? For I do want to make the interiors feel a bit nicer even if we can’t have everything straight away. My style is pretty standard English country house, though not frilly, and my favourite colour is blue.
Thank you so much
Love
All-Out-of-Cash XX
Dear All-Out,
Hi! From a carpet-less house (with a considerable draft that whistles up through the floorboards in the winter) where one bathroom is still not done, because we too have run out of ready funds. It probably won’t surprise you to know that your issue isn’t rare – but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating, or, at times, depressing. And I hear you on your point about the many articles that tell the reader they can decorate their house on a shoestring if only they’re prepared to trawl niche antiques fairs – indeed, I wrote quite a few of them, which is why I know just how time consuming that solution can be. For instance, when I interviewed Pandora Sykes about her house, which is charmingly furnished with antiques and vintage variously found in real life and online, she estimated that “every piece probably represents eight hours of looking.” (Notable is that these were hours when she was pregnant with her first child, not when she was responsible for a toddler’s welfare.) However – also because I wrote quite a few of those articles, and because I am doing up my own home with next-to-no cash – I happen to have come across some valuable tips, and a number of people who have made an impressive success of their interiors, despite distinctly unpromising budgets. Interior designer Lucinda Griffith, an alumni of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, spent less than £7000 furnishing her cottage in Wales – largely via auctions, Ebay, finding abandoned items on pavements (to which end, my desk came out of a skip), accepting cast-offs from friends (my aunts would testify to the fact that I seldom turn down even a threadbare rug), and – vitally - knowing where to allocate what little budget you have for maximum impact. Now, she offers a service for people who cannot afford an interior designer but what to make the most of their space – and her advice is gold. So, let’s explore your options:
Where to start
Lucinda suggests beginning by spending time thinking about exactly what you’d like each room to do: “whatever the price point of the contents, the absolute must for a home is that it works.” Take your sitting room: that might mean toy storage that can be easily accessed, space for playing, a spot for the television, side tables for lamps – and somewhere to sit, whether that’s on a corner sofa, or a sofa and armchairs. If you can, says Lucinda, “draw your room to scale, cut out card shapes for the furniture, and work out what size your pieces need to be so that you don’t accidentally fritter money buying things that look to small or don’t work hard enough – and scale up; buy fewer, bigger things. A scale ruler is under £5 but could save you hundreds of pounds in mistaken purchases, for there’s danger in buying because of price, when you want to buy because it works with your scheme as well as your budget.” So also think about the colours you’d like to use, and perhaps request samples (they’re usually free) of any fabrics that you’ve long lusted after. Now, with a plan in place, you can start.
Fast and affordable? Or slow-growing via prioritising?
One of the things that anyone in your position needs to decide, says Lucinda, is whether you want “fast and affordable, or slow growing.” As you said that your style is English country house – which is in many ways the epitome of slow-growing – I’m going to assume the latter. Because yes, you’re right that there’s a lot out there at the affordable end of the market, and that’s fine if you love whatever it is and know that the quality is good enough to last, however we all know that some high street brands are better at supply line transparency than others.
The slower approach does takes patience – though you’ve implied you’re prepared for that – but happily, “you don’t need very much in a home to make it feel really wonderful,” says Tamsin Saunders of Home & Found. That said, there are certain things that you do evidently require sooner rather than later, and one brand that consistently delivers on everything (price, style, and sustainability) is Ikea – whether that’s for a larger sofa than you’ve got now, or, says Lucinda, their Kallax shelving, “which honestly doesn’t take much in the way of DIY skills to assemble, and gives flexible storage, a good clean look and surfaces” - especially, she points out, if you purchase woven baskets for your children’s toys at the same time. The best thing is that further down the line, if and when you return to your idea of bespoke cupboards, the Kallax units have re-sale value – which also means that it might be worth having a look on Ebay, Facebook Marketplace or even Freecycle before taking a trip to Croydon (assuming that’s your nearest branch of the Swedish superstore.)
The best sites and accounts for second-hand furnishing and fabrics
Those sites – Ebay, Facebook Marketplace and Freecycle - are also good places to look for other furniture, including a sofa (Lucinda found hers on Ebay, and one of my sisters has acquired several via Facebook), as too is The Saleroom, which is essentially a mega online antiques auction house (and where I found mine.) When buying anything that is second hand and upholstered, key is “to go to with shape and style that you love, even if you hate the fabric,” says Lucinda, explaining that you can recover it later, and use a throw for now.
Then there are the Instagram accounts, for country house style I would specifically recommend @nataliavioletantiques, @amb_antique_and_vintage, and @marlandhome – they often have curtains too. For more in the way of second hand curtains, the Curtain Exchange is worth browsing, while Alexandra Tolstoy found her bedroom curtains from @tradchap.antiques. Incidentally, while for furniture the appropriate dimensions are paramount, you’ve got a bit more wiggle room with curtains; here, a fabric you like and that goes with your scheme is what matters more than anything, for if they’re too long they can be cut down, if they’re too short they can – within reason – have a contrasting bottom added to them (my sitting room curtains have a foot-high ticking border at their base) and even if they’re too narrow they can be given a different edge, similar to the curtains at Charleston Farmhouse – though this does involve some ability with a sewing machine (or acquaintance with an affordable seamstress.)
Finally on the pre-loved front, don’t rule out popping into a vintage or antiques shop if you find you’re passing one, whether with or without children, for you never know what you might find. It helps to have measurements noted in your diary or phone, and perhaps photographs of fabric swatches and paint colours.
Where to go for low-cost new
But there are things that you might want to be new, or that need to be new – or it may simply be that you don’t want to have to spend aeons trawling through the sites mentioned above (though do know that you can set alerts with some of them, which is a significant time-saver.) Back on the high street, the great Nina Campbell has done a brilliant collection for Next – I particularly love the upholstered beds – and the quality is extraordinarily high. Fitted carpet can be expensive, and so you may want to wait (as I am) – you don’t mention what state your floors are in and whether what you’ve got is liveable, but Ikea have got good large rugs, and Lucinda recommends La Redoute, too, for the same. And, more curtains - Lucinda suggests looking at John Lewis, Ada & Ina, The Pure Edit, and, for blinds, the catchily named blinds2go. Do remember that you can customise even off-the-peg varieties, by adding a trim or leading edge, which often only involves very basic tacking.
Why you should reconsider some DIY (I promise it’s easier than you might think)
Alongside all this, and as soon as the loft is finished, you should plan to paint (unless of course you like the magnolia, which is showing signs of making a come-back.) “Colour,” says Lucinda, “is a way to get lots of look quickly,” especially if you like the idea of colour drenching, or doing contrast woodwork or even “painting the bottom half of the wall a different shade to the top.” In other words, paint is a quick and inexpensive route to the ‘nicer’ rooms you desire, and – although I know you hinted that you’re not up for DIY - painting a wall is something that even those who otherwise cannot do DIY can manage. The longer daylight hours of the summer are going to help, for if you’ve got the energy, you can devote a couple of hours to it after the children have gone to bed, on as many evenings as you can bear, and if you and your husband do it together, it may feel less of a chore. (Whenever I’m painting a room I remind myself that Virginia Woolf painted the sitting room at Monk’s House, and that the dullness of the job might just inspire comparable genius. It hasn’t, yet, but I live in hope.)
If you master that DIY job you might just find you get a taste for more, which would help you for it truly is one of the greatest cost-reducers there is. Katherine Ormerod’s Your Not Forever Home is ostensibly a book for those making the most of a rental property, but contained within it are a number of really doable projects from making a café curtain (the lack of lining or complicated heading makes it so easy) to customising a basic lampshade. She acknowledges that “doing something for the first time can feel like you’re on a knife edge,” and that it can be exhausting, particularly when you’re juggling small children (she is too) and her advice is to manage expectations and give yourself leeway to “accept that projects are probably going to drag on a bit because you will not be operating in optimal conditions.” But gosh it’s satisfying when you pull it off, and thus in the same vein I’d also propose a couple of Create Academy courses: Tess Newall’s An Introduction to Decorative Painting is hugely enjoyable, and Tess points out that painting a mural “is much more economic than wallpaper” and that you can do it “in occasional time.” Then there’s Micaela Sharp’s A Complete Guide to Modern Upholstery – which will be particularly pertinent if you do find second hand sofas and chairs that need recovering.
Making a little go a long way – and where not to scrimp
Finally, know that not everything has to be vintage or budget. You’re in the trenches now, whereupon nothing feels possible, but going forward you’ll reach a time when you’re paying less in childcare and are no longer in dept to the loft conversion – and even before that, there are clever ways of making more expensive items go a long way. A cushion made up in a fabric you love might just be what makes a room sing - and is much more affordable than curtains or a chair (particularly if you’ve found the fabric on Ebay – people often sell left over stretches that they no longer need.) Similarly, a headboard does not necessitate multiple metres; Lucinda’s is in a Jean Monro print. Then, I had seat pads made up for my dining room chairs with a Susan Deliss weave on one side and standard ticking on the other, the bonus being that I can have them ticking-side-up for small children. Tiling too can be planned in a way to give bang for your buck, and is another DIY job that is genuinely as easy as it looks, especially for a small run; I’ve got five Balineum Lioness & Palms tiles as a splashback to the basin in my bathroom - the rest of the room is painted.
And, says Lucinda, there are certain things on which you don’t want to skimp, specifically, curtain poles, and lighting. For the former she recommends Merrick & Day, and for the latter, tells us that “a cheap, too small lamp is a false economy” – and again recommends scaling up. “Remember you can have them forever.”
So here we are. I hope that in between all of this there are some tips you can use; it’s not going to be immediate, and it is still going to require some work from you (though I’m hoping that online is more manageable than an actual antiques fair) but I do believe it can give you really lovely results. I also believe that there are benefits to going slowly – and to the budgetary challenges that you’re facing. Not only because by the time you can afford to reupholster your sofa and install fitted carpet, your children will be older and less likely to squish banana and hummus into them (assuming yours are anything like mine, that is) but because in your diligent searching, you’ll be developing and honing your taste; you even might find that, on occasion, you surprise yourself. Indeed, there are those who would argue that your situation – while a challenge – is also an opportunity.
Good luck with it all!
Love Fiona XX
