Pound Place reveals 35 cheap ways to transform your home

From dull dwelling to dream home! Thirty-five VERY easy ways to transform your living space without spending a fortune (from DIY toilet holders to re-purposing jars)

  • Personal finance website Pound Place asked Brits to reveal their least favourite feature in their home 
  • They then identified how to fix them with simple home improvements spanning every room in the house
  • The stunning before and after renderings show how simple changes can completely transform your home
  • Tips include moving your curtain rail and placing furniture at different angles to create illusion of space

As the decluttering craze continues to sweep the nation, increasing numbers of Brits are looking for purse-friendly ways to transform their homes. 

Now a study has identified 35 easy ways to spruce up your living space without breaking the bank, with tips including moving your curtain rail and placing your furniture at different angles to create the illusion of space. 

Personal finance website Pound Place identified Brits’ least favourite features in their homes, and revealed how to fix them with simple home improvements that cover every room in the house.

The stunning before and after renderings, by CGI designer Omar Aqil, include the transformation of a cluttered kitchen, a gloomy hallway and a messy bedroom that’s converted into a Marie-Kondo-worthy space. 

Living Room


Simple ways to transform your living room include moving furniture away from the walls, creating a ‘gallery wall’, removing clutter to make your room feel calmer and creating a reading corner by moving pieces of furniture around (seen above)

‘It’s all too easy to associate value with the idea of adding more,’ says Barbara Davidson of Pound Place (poundstopocket.co.uk/pound-place). ‘But the classy look often comes from taking things away. There’s nothing like creating space and order to make a room look well-designed.

‘When it comes to your living room, put everything you see on trial to check it earns its place. Magazines? File them. Toys? Put them in a box. Even the pictures on your wall should be chosen and placed with care – making a feature of one wall while leaving the others bare can give your living room a focal point.’

  • Move furniture away from walls to create the feeling of space.
  • Create a gallery wall to provide an interesting focal point.
  • Remove clutter to make your room feel calmer.
  • Create a reading corner and make a feature of your furniture.
  • Place furniture at angles next to each other to break up predictable lines.

Kitchen


Easy tips for making your kitchen appear more expensive include making a ‘pot lid organiser’ to arrange chaotic looking cupboards, keeping counter tops clear, hanging mugs on hooks, and repurposing jars as spice holders for a uniform look

‘The kitchen is a “doing” place where making things look tidy and ordered feels like an uphill challenge. But if you use the dynamics of the kitchen to help you, you can make it a special place to be.

‘Think of how often you use and throw away jars of the same product. Keep matching jars that you like, and use them for spices and dry goods such as pasta (and recycle the packets) to create a consistent look and minimize the presence of ugly packaging.’

  • Make a pot lid organiser to organise chaotic looking cupboards.
  • Keep the counter tops clear to give the room a more open feel.
  • Hang mugs on hooks to create order and clear cupboard space.
  • Re-purpose jars as spice holders to create a uniform and organised look.
  • Use adhesive pockets to keep messy piles of coupons, recipes and takeaway menus out of sight.
  • Remove clutter from the fridge to reduce visual ‘noise’.

Bedroom


If you’re looking for purse-friendly ways to give your bedroom a spruce up, making your bed is a simple first step. Other tips include moving your curtain rail higher, hanging laundry behind the door, and using bowls to clear clutter (pictured above)

‘We tend to ignore one of life’s simplest lessons because it comes to us when we’re rebellious teenagers: make your bed! A made bed not only orders the mind and makes going to bed a pleasure, it instantly neatens up the biggest feature in your bedroom.

‘Learn how to make your bed like they do in hotels, and you’ll really take the discipline to the next level.’ 

  • Wash, dry and plump up bedding to give it a more luxurious look.
  • Make your bed hotel-style to give a well-maintained appearance.
  • Move your curtain rail higher to make the room feel taller.
  • Hang laundry behind a door to create space and keep the floor tidy.
  • Use bowls to clear clutter like watches, earrings and other knick-knacks.
  • Use hanging baskets as storage to relieve overflowing drawers.

Bathroom

Easy ways to transform your bathroom without splashing the cash include hiding spare toilet rolls, rolling up unused towels, making a toothbrush holder and making a DIY toilet paper holder to ‘add an engaging and unexpected flare’ (seen above)

‘Towels maketh the bathroom. Just as your bed is the centrepiece of your bedroom, your towels are the mischievous spirit of the “smallest room”. When they hang limply, or slip from their rail to the floor, they say: this room is not loved.

‘To show your bathroom some love, think through the way you position all the things that belong there. Roll your towels instead of folding them. Use a shelf for your sink things instead of leaving them on the rim. Keep your back-up toilet rolls out of sight. Suddenly, your bathroom is the place to be.’

  • Hang a towel bar on the door to keep walls clear and open up the room.
  • Make a fun toothbrush holder to add brightness and a fun feature.
  • Roll towels instead of folding to save space and give your towels a spa-style look.
  • Make a DIY toilet paper holder to add an engaging and unexpected flair.

Hallway


Want to give the illusion of more space in the hallway? Cheap and easy home improvements include stripping your coat rack back to basics to reduce clutter, hanging artwork at eye height, and using a ladder as a shoe rack (seen above)

‘Everybody’s exhausted when they get home. You drag your feet over the threshold and drop everything where you stand. Over the weeks and months, as seasons change, stuff accumulates there that you rarely use.

‘Take two minutes a day (after your just-got-home cuppa) to run an eye over your hallway and put things away that you won’t use tomorrow. Chances are you won’t use them the next day either, so why let them clutter the first space you see when you come in?’

  • Strip your coat rack back to basics to reduce clutter and create a less stressful entrance.
  • Hang artwork at eye height to create interesting visual lines.
  • Repurpose a ladder into a shoe rack to clear floor space and organise shoe piles.
  • Create a home command center to prevent often-used items from overpowering the space.
  • Add a hallway mirror to make the space feel more spacious.

Home Office

If you want your home office to look more spacious, move items off your desk to reduce clutter, go paperless to clear your room of random papers, and hide charger cables and plug extensions in a box to keep them out of the way (see above)

‘Cables: can’t live with them, can’t connect without them. Yet you never see that web of computer cables hanging in banks, hotels, or luxury home magazine spreads, despite their prevalence in daily use.

‘Of course, it’s possible that the luxury home magazines simply remove the cables for the photo shoot. But everyone else hides them, using clips, cable-tidies, adhesives, and any space where wires can be tucked so as not to be an eyesore.’

  • Move computer tower and other items off your desk to reduce clutter and make your desk look spacious.
  • Go paperless to clear your room of random papers.
  • Hide charger cables and plug extensions in a decorative box to tidy wayward cables.
  • Tidy cables behind your desk to create visual space which will make the room appear more open.

Outdoors


Simple ways to transform your garden include making a ‘recycling centre’, lighting up paths to create a warm welcome, decorating plant pots, adding cushions to seating areas and creating a decorative bird feeder (pictured above)

The secret to a classy garden is that nature is the classiest of all. Plastic looks cheap in a garden. Instead of plastic bins or garden furniture, try upcycling stuff that would normally get thrown out.

Old wine crates become recycling containers. Old cushions become… outside cushions. Unused – even broken – crockery becomes a plant-holder or birdbath. Who knew what treasure you’d find waiting for the next trip to the tip? 

  • Make a recycling centre to brighten up and organise and uninspiring refuse area.
  • Light up paths to create a warm welcome even on the coldest of nights.
  • Decorate plant pots to add extra colour to your outdoor space.
  • Add cushions to seating areas to make them cozier and more welcoming.
  • Create a cute bird feeder to attract birds adding colour and life to your garden. 

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