I spruced up my drab house on a budget – I added £80k to its value, now people say it’s like walking through Pinterest
A MUM has revealed how she managed to add a whopping £80k to the value of her home by making small changes.
Tamzin McGillen, 33, and her husband Donovan McGillen, 36, live in a four bedroom house in Bristol with their two children Ross, four, and two-year-old Olive.
The pair bought the property in 2021 for £550,000, but Tamzin felt “disconnected” from the house and, according to the Mirror, initially saw it as a “drab”.
So the mum-of-two, who did textile studies at University, took it upon herself to transform the space with little help from the pros.
The first step in her plan was to remove the wallpaper from the living room, explaining that she installed a new light fitting and then painted the space.
She then put some wallpaper where she felt it was “needed” and tile stickers “on the hearth”.
“Then came the fun of adding the shelf and the required decoration. For the kitchen I removed the glass splash back and replaced them with patterned tiles,” she shared.
Tamzin resprayed the kitchen units and painted the walls to bring a new lease of life into the space, too.
When it came to the family room and the master bedroom, the savvy mum said she “got rid of the wallpapers and removed the lights that didn’t fit into our style”.
She added a new vanity unit in the washroom on the ground floor and added accessories to uplift the overall look of the house.
“From adding panelling to getting timeless decorative pieces, little things did much to transform my home,” she told the publication.
While she did the majority of the work herself, she was not one to shy away from getting help where she needed it.
“We have changed tiles with the help of a tiler,” she explained before going on to add that the kitchen was sprayed by a professional.
They hired a plumber and electrician for “minor alterations”, too.
Tamzin has already been at it for two years and it appears she has no plans to stop in the near future.
And it seems her and her husband’s hard work has paid off as not only has the value increased by £80,000 but they receive loads of compliments from their friends and family.
“One of the best comments we’ve received is when someone told me that being in my house is like ‘walking through Pinterest’,” she said.
Tamzin added that Pinterest is a platform that has given her much inspiration over the past years and she was flattered by the compliment paid to her.
“You really can transform a space using colour and different paint techniques,” she added, rejoicing in how well her work has turned out.