Renovating your bathroom is notoriously costly but one mum-of-two has shared how she saved around £4,500 on her bathroom makeover by using budget buys from Facebook Marketplace and taking on some of the labour herself.
Interior designer Jade Simpson, 34, pulled off her dream bathroom renovation for £3,500. As reported by LatestDeals, Jade shared her tips on money-saving Facebook group, DIY On A Budget UK. She said: "The bathroom looked okay when I bought the house, but once we started using it the shower was an old electric one and hardly worked - we ended up showering at the gym most of the time.
"The taps didn't work very well and were falling off and the toilet kept getting blocked. I found out from the plumber that the soil pipe wasn't tilted enough so it kept flooding the back yard. So it had to be done, I really didn't have much choice."
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Jade used her interior design knowledge and affordable items from IKEA and Facebook Marketplace to keep the cost down, along with reworking an old scaffold board. She said: "I started with getting a free bathroom suite from one of my clients and it was hardly used.
"I then found eight meters of grey hexagon tiles on Facebook Marketplace for £80 and the design started from there. The tiles would have been around £300 if bought from a tile shop. The black shower was £80 new from Marketplace and would probably cost around £200 from a shop. As the bathroom was so big, I wanted to create a stud wall so that the shower was separate.
"The shower door was £130 and the stone tray was £90, both new from eBay. I had an old scaffold board outside, so I created a window sill and a shelf. The shelf brackets were from IKEA for £5 each.
"The bath and sink taps were bright chrome, so I sprayed them with a cast iron effect spray for £10. I found the towel rail for £30 on Facebook Marketplace so I sprayed that too. I also sprayed the bath feet with the same can.
"The plastering was around £500, the tiling was £500, the plumbing was £1,500, the wall and floor tiles were £180, the towel rail was £30, the shelf brackets were £10 and the sign I already had.
"The panelling was free from a job where I had some left over, the waterproof paint was £15, the rug was £30 from eBay, the mirror was £60 from Next, the wall light was from B&Q for £30. I already had the plants, I had the blind leftover from a project too so it was free, and the bathroom sink, toilet and bath were free.
"I used and organised different trades myself to keep the cost down. Me and my friend took the old bathroom suite out, took the flooring up and took all the tiles off the wall so it was ready for the first fix plumbing, then the stud wall was built and the whole bathroom plastered as it was a mess under the tiles. The tiler then came and tiled the shower and floor before the plumber came back in to do the second fix."
Overall, Jade couldn't be happier with the end result of her bathroom transformation, and she highly recommends scouring for affordable second-hand finds on Facebook Marketplace. She said: "With the free bathroom suite I probably saved about £1,000 and then all the little savings of individual items maybe another £1,000.
"I wouldn't have been able to afford a new bathroom if I didn't make those savings and find those bargains I did. My main tip is to definitely use Facebook Marketplace, the bargains are amazing."
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