DIY

Quick DIY Fixes to Improve Your Home

December 1, 2021 JayneLeave a comment

If you’ve got people coming over for Christmas but feel like your home isn’t quite looking its best, you may be thinking about doing some quick DIY fixes. However, with time being short and money being potentially being even shorter, you might need to find some quick and low cost solutions. Here are five quick decoration tips for keeping costs down.

Adhesive Wall Tiles

If you want to decorater without having to strip walls or do tricky wallpapering then opting for stick-on wall tiles could be a great solution. As well as giving you a convenient solution to covering walls quickly and efficiently, you can often find tiles with textures to make the walls look like brick or stone. They’re also great for covering walls which are less than perfect, allowing you to avoid costly filling or plastering.

Create a Feature

If your fireplace doesn’t get used take advantage of this natural focal point. A fireplace is any room’s greatest asset, so play it up! Paint the inside of your fireplace in a bright or bold color. Place a large plant, stone bust or other artifact inside the empty space. Create a small scene or vignette using art, coffee table books and other collectibles. Group candles of all sizes together and light them to create a warm and lovely setting. Or store extra books or a large wicker basket with extra pillows here. Don’t let this extra space go to waste!

Hang Mirrors

Add oversized mirrors to your space. Mirrors will open up your space and enhance the room’s natural lighting. Large mirrors need simply lean against a wall or rest on a mantel for a simple and perfect touch. Add one mirror, add several. You can’t go wrong here!

Use Your Corners

We all have corners in our homes that we don’t quite know what to do with. One easy DIY solution: install some simple floating shelves which give you more storage space and look great at the same time. It requires a bit of woodwork, but it’s worth it to take a previously unused corner and turn it into a statement corner.

Upgrade Your Doorknobs

Whether you upgrade your doorknobs to a vintage or contemporary style, the results will be impressive. If you choose to use reproduction knobs, check local salvage yards to help reduce cost. Otherwise, you can check sites like Etsy for some creative designs. New doorknobs can really elevate the look of your rooms with minimal effort and outlay.

Cheap Ways to Give Your Home a Makeover

January 31, 2020 Jayne6 Comments

With Christmas out of the way, many of us are starting to think about ways that we can give our home a makeover for the year ahead. However, the dent that the festive season left in our finances is probably still a factor for most of us, which means that any home improvements need to be done cheaply, or even better, for free. With this in mind I thought I would look at five ways that you can improve your home on a very tight budget.

Recycle

One way that you can improve your living situation is to go room to room and do a full inventory of all of the furniture and fixings that you have in each space. You may realise that one piece of furniture isn’t working for one room, but with a lick of paint or a rub down it might be perfect for a different space. Our TV unit doesn’t really go with the rest of our room, however we’ve been thinking lately that we might mount the TV on the wall, give the TV unit a makeover with a coat of chalk paint and use as a coffee table.

Freecycle

Freecycle is such an amazing place to get things that you need without spending any money at all. If you want to declutter, giving old items away on Freecycle is a great way to do this as more often than not people will come and collect them, meaning you have to make little or no effort to empty a space. Asking for things on Freecycle is also a great way to obtain the resources you need to transform your spaces. We once managed to get hold of enough laminate flooring to recover the floor of a whole bedroom and it didn’t cost us a penny!

Ebay

Finding things cheaply on eBay can be really easy, although sometimes you may need to spend a little extra time seeking out those bargains. However, one trick that I learned years ago is to search eBay with misspellings. This might sound weird, but sometimes you’ll find things with a low reserve and absolutely no bids because they haven’t shown up in anybody’s search results, thanks to a misspelling in the listing. If you can find these listings, these are the holy grail of eBay and often mean that people can get things for next to nothing if you’re willing to put in the time to find them.

Swaps

If you’ve got stuff to give away you might find that someone else has something that you want and is willing to swap with you. Facebook is a great place to find swaps for your items and you may even find that there is a local event where people take their items for swap seats. Hey, if there isn’t a local event maybe you could organise one, if you have the time!

Plants

If you haven’t got the money to do a full makeover of your home, sometimes adding little touches like house plants here and there can make a massive difference to your living spaces. As well as plants giving a burst of colour to a room they are great for your well-being, help to produce clean oxygen and will make your room look stylish and put together.

Business

How to Make a Success of Your Online Business

May 30, 2017January 30, 2023 JayneLeave a comment

Having an online business, be it for selling something or some other service, can give you the flexibility of working from home, dictating your own hours, reducing the need for childcare and saving you money on commuting or additional premises. However, while is may sound like jacking your job in and going it alone is the solution to a perfect life, there are a LOT of things which can go wrong with a new business, not least of all being the lack of security.

We’ve got five tips for you which anyone thinking of starting a new business should think about before taking a leap of faith.

Know Your Niche

Knowing your niche is hugely important, especially if it’s a market which is already flooded. If you plan to start a business which is just like another, already established one, what is going to make people shop with you rather than going to the on they already know? It’s a fact that most new businesses fail within the first year, so planning ahead and making sure you really know your market is hugely important.

Build Your Audience

Online shops are NOTHING without customers. You can have the best products advertised, and register company for VAT, on the sleekest website but if no-one is buying your stuff, it’s all pointless. Social media is one of the best allies that a new business can have because it allows you to build your audience and give your business a personal touch. Remain professional but personable and engaging when you speak to people and your shop will be memorable to them.

Proper marketing

As with the point about social media above, people will only shop with you if they know about your shop! Using some of your start-up budget on proper marketing from a service like Innovation Company will ensure that you spread your message as optimally as possible for your budget, with professionals who really know marketing on your side.

Good Customer Service

Anyone who does a customer facing job knows that “the customer is always right”, and although we all know that sometimes the customer is ACTUALLY a frustrating ass, dealing with people in the right way will really win you support from people. Obviously we aren’t suggesting that you allow yourself to be fleeced by chancers who are trying to get something for free, but being accomodating with your customers will go a LONG way towards making them loyal to you.

Cheapest Isn’t Always Best

When you first start a business, there’s a massive instinct that you need to undercut the competition in order to win customers, which isn’t always the case. Many people are still suspicious of the cheapest shops because they feel that they must be ‘too good to be true’ and will opt for something slightly more expensive for a sense of reassurance. Also, pricing yourself so low that your business cannot afford to continue won’t help anyone!

Do you have any tips of how to make the bets of a new business? Do leave me a comment below, I’d love to hear from you.