I was fed up with my boring, grey new build – I used bargains from Wickes and B&Q to save hundreds on my DIY panel wall
A DIY fan has revealed that she was fed up with her boring new build home, so used bargain buys from the high-street to give it a mega makeover.
In a bid to keep costs low, the savvy woman explained that she used cheap panelling kits from Wickes, saving her hundreds of pounds on her DIY panel wall.
Keen to show off her dining room’s impressive transformation, Sarah Hardy took to social media, posting a before and after look at her dining room.
Alongside the snaps on DIY On A Budget, a private Facebook group with 2.2 million members, Sarah penned: “I posted a while ago asking for panelling advice for my dining room and everyone was really helpful and gave me some sound advice which helped us achieve this result.
“Thank you for all your help.”
Sarah Hardy then told Fabulous all about her DIY project, which cost her just £143 in total.
She explained: “We have lived in our new build for nearly three years and the builders had painted every room grey.
“I was totally fed up with grey everywhere and wanted a change BUT we plan to move in the next couple of years and want to save some money for our new house so needed to do it on a budget.
“We planned to do it all ourselves so we researched ideas on DIY on a budget.”
As a result, Sarah stocked up on purse-friendly finds, as she added: “We used three Cheshire Moulding panelling kits.
“With the caulk, filler and No More Nails this cost us £96 from Wickes.
“We painted the panelling with Limerick Tough and Durable Emulsion and the wall above in Brilliant White Tough and Durable Emulsion both by GoodHome at B&Q.
“We prepared the panelling with GoodHome multi surface wood primer. The paint cost us £47.
“The total cost to transform our dining room is £143 and we are both really pleased with how nice it looks.”
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What was once a very plain room has now been transformed from drab to fab, and we think it looks fabulous.
Sarah also added: “We already had the dining set from Next and light from Dunelm.”
Not only this, but she acknowledged: “We have some panelling leftover so plan to use it in our cloakroom – so getting two rooms decorated for the price of one.”
DIY fans beam
Social media users were left stunned by Sarah’s dining room makeover and quickly flocked to the comments to praise her DIY job.
One person said: “Brilliant job.”
Looks fabulous
Facebook user
Another added: “Very nice. Super fresh and looks classy.”
A third commented: “That looks stunning.”
Meanwhile, someone else beamed: “Well done, looks fabulous.”
At the same time, one DIY enthusiast wrote: “It looks lovely, well done! Share your advice please, I would like to do this on my landing.”
Sarah’s step-by-step guide
To this, Sarah replied and shared a step-by-step process of creating a DIY panel wall.
She expressed: “We used a wall panel kit and just changed the measurements to suit our room.
The total cost to transform our dining room is £143 and we are both really pleased with how nice it looks
Sarah Hardy
“Having done this, I’m confident we could just buy the dado next time and do it even cheaper, although this transformation only cost us £143.
“We used a laser level to get the rails level. I had drawn the lines using a spirit level and later checked with the laser level and found my pencil marks were NOT level.
Most popular DIY jobs homeowners love to do
- Paint walls
- New carpet
- Paint fence
- Paint ceilings
- Wallpapering
- Paint skirting boards
- New light fitting
- Re-grout/replace bathroom tiles
- Hang curtains/blinds
- Paint/oil interior doors
- Paint a shed
- Paint stairs
- New plug sockets
- New hard flooring
- New front door
- Update kitchen sink
- Replace kitchen worktops
- Hang shelves
- Change/update doorknobs
- Paint/upcycle garden furniture
“If you haven’t got a laser level it’s worth investing in one for projects like this.
“We used No More Nails to glue the rails on but found some of the rails were not straight (wood bowed) and the ends came off, we had to nail those parts down and use wood filler to cover them.”
Not only this, but the DIY fan confirmed: “I also painted the top dado rail before sticking it to the wall as it had a nice clean edge and I didn’t have to try and paint it whilst on the wall and risk any paint getting onto the white wall.
“We also chose to paint the skirting boards to match the panel as it completes the look.
“It took us three evenings in total as we did it after work each day and needed to let each coat of paint dry. The white has two coats and the green has three coats. Hope that helps.”