Super frugal remodeling ideas

[PenelopeJune]

We're moving into a rental next month, one that we may purchase in the future. It's pretty dumpy. It's small and old, and has been wonkily "updated."

I need some ideas for making it cute that won't cost much and that we can do slowly over time. I really like bright color, vintage-y stuff, and have kind of a funky old lady style.

1) There is a wall in the master bedroom that is bare plywood. Sheetrocking it really isn't an option, due to how it was done. How could we cover this up to make it attractive? I thought about beadboard paneling, painting, wallpapering...what would be best?

2) The carpet is awful. I want to try to pull some of it up and see if there are hardwoods under there, but what do I do if there isn't? Or if they are revolting? The house IS 100 years old.

3) The backsplash in the kitchen is an old, country-blue and flowers wallpaper. What would be the best and absolute cheapest way to put in a new backsplash? My guess is that tile is too expensive, but I know there are other options.

So far, I have a few ideas for prettying the place up that won't cost a lot. Obviously, painting. We already have a good deal of the paint we need. The kitchen/living is all one small area, and I'm going to paint it all a light yellow-cream color to brighten it up. I want to paint the kitchen cabinets a medium grey color, and then inside them, I want to paint a really funky color, like orange or turquoise, because they are pretty grody inside right now. Then I want to get new handles for the cabinets.

I'm going to paint all the trim in the house white. It's white now, but looks dirty and dingy.

The kids' room is SUPER small. There is no closet, just an old wardrobe. There's also an exterior door, which makes me a bit nervous, but we're going to put a second lock on it up high. I'm going to paint the walls a fun bright color, and maybe do a chalkboard wall for fun.

Because we are renting from my mother-in-law, and because it's very likely that we'll be purchasing it in a few years, I don't mind putting in some work. Unfortunately, I just don't have much money to put in.

[karne]

Just quickly, plywood walls can be primed and painted. We've also done this w/horrible old fake beadboard, and the result was OK for a short term fix.

I would definitely pull up the carpet. If the wood is at all OK, you can sand and re-finish yourselves. If it's horrible you could think about click together flooring, or stick on tiles.

[Ola_]

I don't know if you have a Habitat Re-Store in your area, but if you do that would be a great place to look for supplies as I hear they tend to be quite affordable. I think paint is a great idea for many things and inexpensive. I'd consider priming and painting the plywood, or maybe do a basic paint job and hang a pretty quilt/throw on it? I don't think paint will give you a very even result on plywood but that may be ok.

For the carpet, I normally take out one of the heating vents and pull up an edge of the carpet to see what's underneath. That only works if you have forced air heat though, sorry. In a house that old it is likely that there are wood floors underneath, but maybe not in all rooms. You can rent equipment to refinish floors yourself I believe (try a place like Home Depot?). It's messy but doable if you are handy. If it's just one or two rooms without hardwood you could get some cheap carpet or maybe paint the subfloor and put down some area rugs?

For the backsplash I'd probably go with paint for cheap. You can remove the wallpaper or paint over top of it (less work but less durable). Go with a more glossy finish and something durable so you can scrub it. We redid our kitchen last year but still haven't gotten around to a backsplash - right now it's just painted drywall and looks fine. We used BM Aura paint which is super scrubbable - it's pricey though but for just a backsplash you would only need a tiny amount.

Or see what you find at home improvement stores - sometimes they have neat items that aren't meant for a backsplash but can be used for one with a bit of trimming and imagination. If you have an IKEA nearby they also have some affordable kitchen reno stuff, plus they usually have a returned/clearance/as-is area that you can find gems in.

I'd see if your MIL will pay for the cost of supplies if you do the labour or something like that. Or at least split them with you or reduce your rent for the equivalent amount. You'll be improving the value of her property so it's only fair.

[wombatclay]

We DIY rehabbed a house a few years ago, and we're doing it again in our current home. Minimal budget, all that!

Plywood wall... well, you could cover it with fabric if it's a short term thing. Find a fabric you like, pull it tight, and staple it into place! You can add wood molding to make "panels" or hang framed pictures over it to add depth, and a vacuum with an upholstery brush can keep it clean/dust free.

Stick on tiles (the really inexpensive 50 cent/tile variety) might make for a funky look and could be slapped right on the wall. You may need to anchor a few tiles with nails or screws but that could add to the fun/funky look.

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carpet- the floors underneath will probably be wood, and probably be in not so great shape. But getting rid of old carpet and the unbelievable ick that it holds is worth almost anything! However, depending on the trash disposal guidelines for your area you may need to pay extra to dispose of the carpet. Once it's gone you can either live with the floor as it is, put down those cheap stick on tiles, rent a floor sander and refinish the floors (we did it, it's not rocket science but it can be tricky so start out in a room/spot you wont see everyday in case your learning curve has a bump), paint the wood without sanding, or put down lots and lots of throw rugs (which doesn't always work with children/pets).

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backsplash- tile isn't really all that expensive. I guess it depends on how much you need or what look you're trying for but you can find basic tiles for a dollar each (12x12 size). You can do a lot by having just one or two "spiffy" tiles worked into a basic tile feature. For example you could have a fancy tile above the sink and frame it with regular tiles. Or have a confetti tyhpe pattern with colorful/fancy tiles scattered through a plain tile background. And I've seen some amazing accents that are super inexpensive...

For example, you could go to the thrift shop and buy old plates or glassware, break them into bits, then create mosaic patterns on the wall. And one person I know took the mortar, slapped it on the wall, and pressed those colored glass beads from the dollar store (sold for putting in vases?) into the mortar. She put on the grout and then clean clean cleaned/wipe wipe wiped the extra grout off. The glass beads look really neat and it cost about twenty dollars for the whole thing.

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children's room- could you find an old door or large piece of wood at a salvage shop (reStore, architectural salvage, build again, reuse center, historical center, etc) that would cover the exterior door? It could be fastened to the wall and the inside face covered with blackboard paint, or hooks to hold clothing or bags of toys, or fitted with shelves for books/toys/clothing. That way you'd have storage and/or art space while also blocking the door.

Good luck! Rehabbing and remodding can be lots of fun... the trick is to really look outside the box and just brainstorm. Even if you decide that 99 of the 100 ideas you come up with are crazy, there is still that one perfect idea left! So think about hanging rag rugs or a quilt on a wall until you can fix the plaster, paint or wallpaper the floors (just cover with a layer of poly to preserve the paper/paint), screw bathroom shower caddies to the kitchen wall for all sorts of shiny steel accents that are the perfect size for spice containers or cookware (and the hooks are great for aprons, keys, potholders). Check salvage supply stores and dollar stores and craigslist and freecycle.

Hope you have fun!

[EFmom]

You can get oops paint various places for very little and if you have small rooms, a gallon or two may be plenty.

If you can tile yourself, it can be pretty inexpensive. Tile places often have fun odd lots that they sell cheaply, and you won't need much. The basic field tiles at HD or Lowes aren't expensive.

I would avoid stick on vinyl tiles at all costs. I finally got rid of what was in my kitchen and I can't believe I stood them for as long as I did.

We have a Habitat Restore, and I've been several times, but it's been a washout.

Lurk on gardenweb.com. Some of the stuff is incredibly high end, but there are also people on serious budgets, and you can get some good ideas.

[PenelopeJune]

Thanks guys! I knew posting here would get me some good ideas!

I can't believe I didn't think of painting the floor if it turns out to be ugly. Yay! Awesome suggestion. I think that sanding/refinishing would get to be expensive, but painting is cheap. I guess you just use outdoor paint, like for decks and porches?

I will definitely check into 'oops' paint, too. I don't even know what color I want to paint the kids' room, the bathroom, or the master bedroom, so that's a good place to start.

I love the glass beads for the backsplash idea! That sounds like it could be really cool. I might check into that.

We don't have a Habitat Re-Store in our area, but we do have a really good flooring/tile place. They seem to sell stuff really cheap, I might check and see if they have tile or anything on the cheap. If not, and if the walls are okay behind the paper, I might just paint for now.

Would you all mind helping me with colors for floor paint? The walls in the main room will be a soft butter yellow color. I have a big cabinet that is painted a turquoise/green color. The kitchen will have grey cabinets. The accent colors are red and orange. What color would you paint the floor? White seems all-purpose, but likely to look dirty fast. If I didn't have the cabinet, I'd paint the floor turquoise. (The cabinet is my favorite thing I own, so can't get rid of it. It's a china cabinet, but it holds books.)

[Ola_]

When we were replacing our floor we learned that for hardwood the materials are the most expensive part and for tile it's the installation. So if you can do the backsplash yourselves (lots of resources online and you can probably get some good tips/troubleshooting from the local store staff) it will be much less expensive.

For painting floor I'd go with a medium tone as both very light and dark colours tend to show dirt fast. I'd go with a light-med brown, or perhaps a grey that's a couple of shades lighter or darker than the cabinets?

[crittersmom]

I just saw blog post the other day about a lady who was tired of her yucky floors but didn't have enough to put new flooring in at that time.They were plywood and she sanded them down painted them and stenciled them so they looked like tile and then coated them with several coats of polyurethane.They looked really nice.

[SleeplessMommy]

please test for lead paint asap. also test varnished floors, which you will find under the carpet. A 100 year old house + wacky upgrades that you describe means a fairly big risk of lead paint exposure.

for renovation, fresh paint will do wonders! where you have plywood on the wall, consider a sponged or other subtle multicolor paint job - it will hide the wierdness.

nak

[ms.shell]

Here's another idea for floor covering. A previous renter did this to our kitchen floor. She covered the floor with pieces of brown paper (like grocery bags, although she probably used a big roll of the paper). SHe did it in just largish irregularly shaped pieces, with each piece overlapping, and then covered it all in...i guess polyurethane. It looks interesting and a lot of visitors comment on it. I have always thought that if I did this, it would be cool to either paint the brown paper or use something already colored, and instead of irregular shapes, I would use squares or rectangles and lay it out in a colorful pattern, like a quilt, or like tiles. The nice thing about the brown paper is it never looks dirty! I think this was done MANY years ago, so it seems like a pretty durable option, believe it or not. That said, we have tiles sitting in our garage to redo this floor, because F-I-L and dh made a tiny tear when they were bringing in our huge new fridge, and then the puppy started pulling at the tear and now there is a pretty good gash right in the middle of the kitchen. DP gets AMAZING deals on tile at Lowe's by shopping the clearance stuff. Such great deals that in my garage is enough tile to do the large kitchen in my choice of either natural slate or shiny white MARBLE (uh, NO! thinking this might become my backsplash, tho, and I actually used some of this to cover the plywood floor in my garden shed). Anyway, he paid less than $20 for each of these loads of tile. SO I definitely recommend stalking the clearance bins at Lowe's, and also making friends with the department manager so he can let you know when good stuff is coming up (for example they do "resets" regularly, and when they do is when there will be a lot of tile and awesome big rugs on clearance- it would be nice to know when this will be (they do it quarterly).
Also, you can buy the oops paint in a light color, and have them add tint to totally change the color. So a $5 can of yucky grey, for example, could be changed to a lovely darker blue, etc, for the same $5.
You would not believe the AMAZING deals that you can get at Lowe's by stalking the mark downs. Cabinet handles are the perfect example- we have a LOT of cabinets, and so doing this could have been pricey. But we waited and found perfectly suited (stainless to match our appliances) handles for only a quarter a piece. Good luck with your new house!

[karne]

Make sure you are washing up w/TSP in such an old home.

A final thought: check out Craig's List for items you are looking for, or inspiration. Specifically the free section and the materials section. It's amazing to see what you can find there!

[Deefodil]

Originally Posted by ms.shell

Here's another idea for floor covering. A previous renter did this to our kitchen floor. She covered the floor with pieces of brown paper (like grocery bags, although she probably used a big roll of the paper). SHe did it in just largish irregularly shaped pieces, with each piece overlapping, and then covered it all in...i guess polyurethane. It looks interesting and a lot of visitors comment on it. I have always thought that if I did this, it would be cool to either paint the brown paper or use something already colored, and instead of irregular shapes, I would use squares or rectangles and lay it out in a colorful pattern, like a quilt, or like tiles. The nice thing about the brown paper is it never looks dirty! I think this was done MANY years ago, so it seems like a pretty durable option, believe it or not.

I know someone that did this as well, only she also painted sketches on the paper after covering the floor and before sealing it. It looks amazing.

[PenelopeJune]

Make sure you are washing up w/TSP in such an old home.

What does this mean?

Now I want to go to Lowes! Do they have better deals and clearance items than Home Depot, usually? (that's where we usually go)

[wombatclay]

I've seen the "torn paper" thing done (on Interior Motives or Trading Spaces maybe?) only they used tissue paper on a wall. They had paper in a bunch of similar shades and they used a thin paste... wet the paper and slap it on the wall with the ripples and crunches and overlaps adding interest. I'd forgotten about that but as long as it wasn't sopping wet it could be a fast/funky cover for the plywood wall.

We're slowly building our current home and after a season with just plain old dryply floors I grabbed all our bits and almost empty cans of paint, dumped them in a bucket, and rolled them on the floor! It's a sort of deep cream color that does show dirt, but it's better than the plain ply and we're going to cover it up soon anyway so it's not something I worry about. If I'd wanted a better look though I probably would have gone with a deeper cream with darker browns and heathers sprinkled on it. Maybe a few area rugs painted on and the whole thing covered in a layer or two of poly (they make water based versions but they are not as sturdy, in our last hosue we used water based upstairs and the heavier poly downstairs where there was more traffic). Think about carpet colors you like and then look for that in a paint.