Consumer Corner: Doing up your house on the cheap — with a little help from the kids

A lick of paint transforms a room and the kids will enjoy helping.

The summer holidays are about to begin, which for many parents could mean more free time to focus on things like doing up the house. It could even be a nice time to get the kids involved in some home improvement projects.

With the wait time for builders now averaging around 40 years, doing up the house could be something we think about bringing in-house, and there are cheap, budget-friendly ways to go about it. There are some fantastic social enterprises in Ireland that can help with cost-efficient ways of doing work in the home. Colm O’Connor of furniture revamp social enterprise, IRD Duhallow has seen incredible transformations with old furniture.

“Often people drop old furniture off and they aren’t really sure if they will keep the item or bring it to the dump, but when they see the item after it has been reupholstered with new fabric, sanding, and painting — they usually end up keeping and loving the piece.

“I’m always amazed at the quality of old items of furniture; they are usually well-made but just need a little attention to look like new again. Reusing is better for your pocket, better for the planet, and better for the community,” he said.

A fresh lick of paint is a great way to transform a room. The Paint Reuse Network was set up to normalise paint reuse and the network sees people bringing old paint to recycling centres, where it is then collected, mixed, and coloured according to the customers’ needs.

Claire Downey of the Paint Reuse Network said: “The ultimate first impression is from the front door, so don’t forget to pick a paint colour for the hall door to instantly give that fresh, updated look to your home. Paint is so versatile, and people often forget that you can paint the floor. If carpet is out of your budget, then take a look at the floorboards and go for traditional wood colours, or the current trend of whitewashed flooring, or indeed a bright-coloured floor to suit the room’s personality. It’s a really cost-effective way to freshen a room with a few euros worth of paint.”

When it comes to revamping your home, don’t forget outdoor spaces. Perennial flower bulbs can be split year on year, to create more plants from existing ones. Taking seedlings and shoots from other plants yields more foliage and flowers for your garden. Pocket Forests sells recycled garden tools and provides cost-effective design advice.

These social businesses will showcase their services at a national conference for social enterprises, called SocialiSE, on June 29 at the F2 Centre in Dublin. This summit is free to attend and aims to create
awareness about social enterprise models in communities, from Meals on Wheels to local bike shops.

If you need to get work done on a bigger scale, don’t be charmed by the first builder and their quote. It is always worth getting a number of quotes so that you can get the best value. By shopping around, you will be more informed about the going rate for jobs, and this is useful when choosing a provider or even deciding if it is worth doing it yourself.

De-cluttering is always a great way to free up space in the home too. Not only does de-cluttering create more space but it helps by making your house feel bigger and more airy. It could also help uncover old treasures that may still have lots of life left in them.