Woman Quoted £450 For Hallway Makeover Does It Herself For £120
- Danielle, 40, didn’t want to pay £450 for her hallway transformation
- She bought stair risers, floor tiles and paint from eBay and Wickes
- The project took 8 days overall and going DIY saved her £330
The stairway is one of the first places people see when entering your home, so many will spend hundreds on making it look perfect. However, one woman decided to embark on the project herself and get it done on a budget.
‘I was given a free professional quote for my walls and ceilings to be painted,’ Danielle Duvall, 40 from Nottingham, told money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk. ‘I told him that I would supply the paint and that I was going to do all the woodwork myself but I got quoted £450 for it to be done. Which is a lot of money and I just don't have it to hand out like that, so I decided to just get on with it myself with help from a friend.
‘After browsing eBay for floor and stair tiles I came across stair risers, which looked different but nice. So I thought I would buy some and see how they would go.
‘I did have carpet on my stairs but it started to come away as my stairway is so cold, the carpet wouldn't stay down. Plus it was a nightmare to keep the stairs clean after people would come in and out.
Danielle had some ideas for the colour scheme in mind. ‘I have always used magnolia or white gloss where I’ve lived, but the woodwork always seems to change to a dirty yellow colour after a while or just looks dirty all the time, so I decided to have a change and wanted to do the place cream and light grey throughout.
Sourcing supplies was relatively cheap. Danielle picked up 2.5 litres of Dulux Trade Vinyl Matt paint in Pebble Grey for £46.07 from Designer Paints, and 5 litres of Dulux Luxurious Ivory Lace Silk Emulsion paint from Wickes for £26.
On ebay, Danielle purchased 1 litre of SupaDec Industrial Floor Paint in light grey for £13.65, and a pack of 3D DIY Stair Riser stickers for £27.25. Finally, she got her floor tiles from Studio in the shade Sillia Black, which cost £5.99 for a pack of 11, bringing the total cost to just under £120.
The project took Danielle eight days overall, with a five day break halfway through. ‘The walls and ceilings were painted first, then I did all the woodwork. That involved scrubbing all the stairs clean of paint, then filling in two stair tiles that were broken with grip fill. After that, for four nights in a row, I applied one layer of tile paint on all the steps.
‘Once that was all done, I laid the floor tiles down, which took just over an hour. Then I measured the stair risers and trimmed them down before applying them to each step.
‘There were plenty of challenges along the way, such as covering up paint mistakes and cleaning the dirt off the stairs and woodwork (the people who lived here before me didn't clean much!) I also had to be mindful of dust trapped inside gaps and holes, and there were lots of marks and imperfections on the walls which made the painting more difficult.
‘If I had to do it all again I would definitely give myself more time to get it done, as I feel like I could have done a better job of it. I’m happy with it now it’s done though.’
Tom Church, Co-Founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, said: ‘Danielle’s hallway transformation looks stunning and she should be proud of herself after all the hard work she put in.
‘For projects like this, it’s important to pick the right paint and prepare the area thoroughly. Use semi-gloss paint with primer included in it for risers and spindles, and porch or floor paint for treads and rails.
‘Sand down the stairs before decorating to ensure the surface is smooth and even, and be sure to wipe it down with a damp microfiber cloth before getting started.’
Save More With These Discount Codes