 I love to visit antique shops and junk yards because you find amazing furniture at fantastic prices. I found this table at a place called Aladdin's Cave in London. It cost £20 (just over $30). I thought it was a bargain. The base of this stool is beautiful! I would have liked to paint the bottom a creamy colour and the top parma gray (by Farrow & Ball) but I didn't want to buy lots of paint so I decided to settle for just parma gray. I didn't use a primer at all and the spent about 60 seconds sanding the table. It didn't seem to need it. I just slapped on two layers of paint on the base and three coats on the very top. It was very quick and easy and the result is a sight for sore eyes. For more money saving tips see Build Super Savings: 
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 I wanted to buy cushions that matched my curtains but they cost £21 ($33) per cushion. I almost fainted when I saw that price! In the end I decided to just make my own cushion covers to match chairs I upholstered rather than the curtains. I had some left over material but it was only enough for one side of the cushion so I bought one plain patch off eBay at £1.24 ($1.92) including shipping (seriously, who can beat that?!!!). The zip cost me £0.55 ($0.85). I'm not even going to count the cost of the thread because it's negligible. Anyway this is how I went about it:
I got a pretty cushion that matches my chairs for less than £2 ($3) - now that's what I'm talking about. I had never sewn a cushion before, in fact I don't sew generally but it turned out alright. It's pretty amazing what you can do when you decide YOU WILL do it. If you like to save money like I do check out my ebook at katsonga.com and build super savings! 
 What a lucky find! I was walking down the street about a mile away from my house when I saw this solid wood bookcase dumped outside someone's home. I liked it immediately and I saw potential but I was on my own and it was large so I decided to leave it. A minute down the road I thought, no way man, that baby's coming home with me! I walked back up, knocked on the door and asked if they were throwing it away. The lady said yes so I took the shelves, as that's all I could carry and walked home to ask my hubby to come and help me collect it. Luckily, it fit in the car. I decided to paint the book case white and the legs Farrow and Ball's Parma Gray. It took two coats of primer and two coats of white wood paint to get the bookcase as white as I wanted it to be. When I was done painting I thought it looked a little boring. It needed some life so I thought I would wallpaper the sides fully but the Cath Kidston wallpaper I wanted was £25 ($40); I wasn't prepared to spend that kind of money on a full roll of wallpaper that was mostly going to be binned. I started trawling through eBay to find other people's left over wallpaper and stumbled upon an eBayer who had already cut flowers off Cath Kidston wall paper and sold the pieces to people like me that wanted to decorate furnitures. She cuts around the flower in a circle and leaves it to the buyer to cut neatly around each flower and leaf. So, that's what I did. Cutting around the flowers took a fair amount of time, maybe two hours because I wanted it done neatly. Then, using wall paper paste, I stuck the flowers onto the bookcase. If you want similar wall paper pieces just search "wall paper decoupage" on eBay. A pack currently costs £6.60 ($10) including postage. To be totally honest, I wasn't sure if I would like the outcome but once it was done I loved it. It's probably my favourite piece in the house because it took so much love, creativity and effort. I share a tonne of savings tips in Build Super Savings:  I don't know where it's suddenly come from but I am beginning to love upcycling. In addition to saving a tonne of money you also end up having very unique pieces of furniture in your home. I'll do a video later on showing where exactly we choose to put these chairs but for now, see how I created this awesome look. Obviously the fabric you like and choose is personal to you. I got this shabby chic patchwork cloth from Rolls & Rems in Lewisham, London. They have a huge collection of awesome fabrics. I bought the victorian chairs from an antique shop in Birmingham for just £36 ($55) for the two. Tried to get it down to £35 but the shopkeeper was not having it!  |
By Heather
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Heather Katsonga-Woodward, a massive personal finance fanatic.
** All views expressed are my own and not those of my employer ** Please get professional advice before re-arranging your personal finances.