HOW TO PAINT YOUR HOUSE ON THE CHEAP

Imagine just pointing at a Farrow & Ball paint chart and then on the appointed day, a qualified painter and decorator arrives with said paint and re-decorates...

Walls in Farrow & Ball Plummet no 272

Imagine... but until that glorious fantasy of a day arrives,

here are five ways I have found to paint my house with usually, less than the cost of a F&B tester pot. £4.50 for a small tester pot, that's the price of a bottle of wine!

Walls in budget 'Plummet', a unique mix of junk shop and old left over paint.

Second hand furniture/junk/charity warehouses.

This is the main thing that has saved me £££££'s on paint.

Some professional painters and decorators regularly donate their left over paint to charities to sell on.

Usually at the big charity warehouse type places, and it's usually housed in old metal office cupboards or piled up in a corner.

If you find one of these, you have hit the jackpot.

Half tins of trade paint (the good stuff) can be picked up for about £1 or £2.

I have some garden chairs painted in the same specially mixed, tasteful blue as a nearby stately home, I know this as the order label was still on the tin.

Paint mixing sticks - clean found sticks, old bamboo canes, anything will do. 

Mix your own.

Apparently you can't do this and only one of those jiggly machines will mix it properly.

You can, you just need a long stick.

Have a route through what you have and combine.

I have thrown half tins of different, neutral shades into a bucket and mixed until I have a rooms worth of paint.

For a room that needed 10 litres of a neutral paint, I bought 10 litres of standard white paint for £10 and mixed spoonful's of left over grey and brown paint until it was the kind of very light, warm, putty colour I wanted.

For warm white satin wood paint, I have added a small bit of cream wall paint to a hideous old tin of bright white gloss I found lurking in the cupboard.

I have seen people add coloured printer ink and all sorts into paints to get the colour they want.
Just add a bit at a time and keep stirring.

Abigail Ahern, the Queen of dark interiors.

Dark walls, add an undercoat of a different darker paint.

If you want a very dark coloured wall and only have enough for one coat,

paint the wall first with any old dark paint and then you might get away with just one coat of the correct colour top coat.

(test a small patch first).

Appallingly photographed masonry painted stairway.

Masonry paint.

This is the king of paint if you find some cheap.

It sticks to all walls and wood and nothing budges it.

I have painted, with an off white masonry paint ( £5 from a junk shop)

bathroom walls,

hall and ceiling walls

a pine clad ceiling

an outside wooden garage door

internal brick work 

internal wooden doors, it was slightly more matt than the ideal satin wood paint on them, but it worked and looked a lot better than what was there before.

My budget bathroom makeover
using every painting trick in the book/this post.

Wilkos

Possibly the best quality and cheapest paint on the high street.

The tile paint can't be beaten on quality never mind price.

Their deep coloured paints are rammed full of pigment.

They have some really cheap tools too, such as cutting in/precision  brushes for £1 which I would highly recommend, as they save you ages and give a better finish.

Happy budget decorating.