100 under £100: affordable interiors pick me ups

So, if you had £100 for an interiors pick-me-up, what could you afford? This year, a great deal — as we prove here in the first of our two-part series on 100 homewares under £100. We’ve also included simple DIY fixes for extra satisfaction.

A surprising number of smallish items of furniture are within reach, including the astoundingly cheap Knopparp sofa (£75 at Ikea) and smart side tables from French Connection and Rose & Grey. There’s funky wirework storage, too — a key trend this winter — while Habitat is launching some remarkable, and remarkably priced, designs aimed at the stylish but space-starved urbanites of Generation Rent.

Yet this is not a case of price tag over content. Contemporary luxury is a central theme in all the autumn ranges. High-street stores are vying to define what opulence looks like in 2014, and to offer it at a price point we can afford. Aside from copper and brass, the materials and colours that will make interiors look of the moment this autumn are a classic combination: indigo and white china. The best collections are selling out fast, so pounce as soon as you can on the outstanding M&S Blackberry and Nomad tableware, and the By Sainsbury’s Indigo range.

20 DIY ideas

The Tussock patterned paint roller gives a similar effect to wallpaper (£20; the-painted-house.co.uk)

Roll on pattern
Using a patterned paint roller can give a similar effect to wallpaper, without having to cut around door frames and light switches. For large rooms, it will be cost-effective, too.

Clare Bosanquet, an ardent upcycler, stumbled on patterned paint rollers at a market in Romania, where they had been used for decades to decorate walls. She bought the lot, then spent the next two months of her hiking trip regretting the heavy purchase — but she hasn’t looked back since. In the past two years she has sold 16,000 rollers, with designs from delicate seedheads to artistic birds, florals and ferns (from £15, plus £12 for an applicator; the-painted-house.co.uk).

Use on a feature wall, then repeat the pattern on a cushion or lampshade — the rollers can be applied to fabric, too — to bring your scheme together.

Upgrade light fittings
You’ve found your dream pendant — but that plastic light fitting on your ceiling doesn’t go with the new shade. Help is at hand: Urbancottageindustries.com has a good selection of fabric cables, vintage ceiling roses and filament bulbs. Its technicians can also build a light to your design (from £41). For stylish ready-made fitting sets (from £25), try rockettstgeorge.co.uk. You can fit the light yourself using B&Q’s guides at diy.com/advice, or hire an electrician, which will set you back at least £40.

Brighten up a bedroom with Jardin Boheme wallpaper by Harlequin (£59 a roll; wallpaperdirect.com)

Make a statement
Don’t get carried away with flamboyant wallpaper — it can overpower a living room, but a feature wall in a bedroom is fine, and an entire downstairs loo ideal for a bold flourish. You’d only need one or two rolls, and wallpaper is easier to fit under a sloping ceiling than tiles. Surprise guests with this folksy boho pattern in emerald green (Jardin Boheme by Harlequin, £59 a roll; wallpaperdirect.com) or Kelly Hoppen’s indigo and white take on ikat prints (Kellys Ikat, £26 a roll; grahambrown.com). Amplify the effect with a large mirror on one wall.

Display your treasures
“Shop” your home for forgotten treasures. To create a vignette, or ornamental display, you need layers and height. Start with a piece of art or a mirror propped up on your chosen surface — this is your base layer. Place something tall next to it: a lamp, an old bottle or a pile of books. Add one or two smaller accents in front, such as grandma’s crockery or a wooden toy. Build your vignette around one colour, theme (teacups, say) or story (wedding mementos would work well).

The wallpaper maker Michael Angove painted this chest of drawers with chinoiserie artwork for Farrow & Ball’s Find it, Paint it, Love it campaign (James Merrell)

Paint old furniture
When Farrow & Ball asked young designers to revamp old furniture in its Find It, Paint It, Love It campaign, the results were remarkable — from drawers with chinoiserie artwork by the wallpaper maker Michael Angove to a laser-cut camouflage sideboard by the A-list stylist Harris Elliott (farrow-ball.com).

Save on elbow grease with Erbauer’s detail sander (£30; screwfix.com). Annie Sloan’s chalk paint can be applied without primer (£18.95 a litre), then waxed (£8.45 for 500ml; anniesloan.co.uk). Failing that, try the Treasure Trove’s custom painting service (£40 for a dining chair; www.thetreasuretrove.co.uk).

Get your windows cleaned
Scrubbing up the glass lets the whole house sparkle for a few pounds. Unless you have acres of glazing or a conservatory, the window-cleaning bill for a three-bedroom home should be less than £20. You can find a professional through the Federation of Window Cleaners (www.f-w-c.co.uk).

A gallery wall can add interest to a stairway (prints from £2; Art.co.uk)

Curate a wall
Turn a dead space such as a passage or stairway into a gallery that will wow visitors. Dig out the family photos: Photobox.co.uk does enlargements from 17p. For cost-effective colour, frame greetings cards or pieces of giftwrap. Caroline Gardner’s quirky die-stamped cards start at £2.50 (carolinegardner.com). Even fabric or wallpaper offcuts can become art.

For cheap frames, try Ikea, Dunelm or Sainsbury’s. Larger pieces can be mounted via eframe.co.uk for far less than at the local framing shop. Or choose wood-mounted prints: “Not only are they less expensive, they can be hung to overlap, creating a three-dimensional effect,” says Lisa Temple, manager of content and curation at Art.co.uk, which sells prints from £2.

Plan the composition on graph paper, with the biggest frame near the middle. To calculate the hanging height along stairs, measure 5ft from the centre of each artwork to the step below. Instead of nails, use Command Strips, a superstrong double-sided tape, to hang prints (from £2.70; diy.com).

Update an old chandelier with PlastiKote spraypaint (£8.79 for 400ml)

Do a mini makeover
Look beyond the garish prints or colours of unloved belongings; spray paint can transform them. PlastiKote Twist & Spray (£8.79 for 400ml) can turn a cheap chandelier into a statement light, a white fridge into a stylish silver one, or an old ornament into something that ties together your colour scheme. Get inspired at plasti-kote.co.uk.

Clear the cupboards
Get rid of everything that you haven’t used in a year, that’s past its sell-by date, is a duplicate or is kept out of guilt. Donate appliances and furniture to reuse charities: find a centre at frn.org.uk. Sell valuables via Preloved. co.uk (free) or eBay (10% fee). If that’s too much graft, Stuffusell.co.uk can do it for you at 33% commission on sales below £1,000.

Create your own pattern in a shower enclosure with Motif tiles (motiftiles.com)

Tile a splashback
Glam up your kitchen with some accent tiles. Create a pattern with Motif Tiles’s geometric designs, handcrafted in the Lake District. Experiment with colours and formations using the company’s website app. You’ll pay about £75 for a 58cm x 42cm area (motiftiles.com). Tiling a splashback is fairly straightforward — suitable for beginners.

Plant a window box
They brighten up your home’s exterior, but window boxes also soften a harsh view from the inside. Start with an evergreen base of box or bay and a small-leafed ivy trailing in front. Heucheras, in a wide spectrum of colours, are attractive year-round. Ease seasonal bloom changes by cutting the bottoms off the pots of your plants — then you can plonk them in and out, rather than having to replant every time. Feeling lazy? There are ready-made window boxes from £70 at thebalconygardener.com.

Replace door handles
You’ve heard the one about changing knobs to transform your kitchen cabinets. Extending the treatment to other rooms — wardrobes, desk drawers, even internal door handles — can make a big difference. Screwfix, loved by tradesmen but open to the public, offers sleek handles for less than your average DIY store, including faceted glass mortice knobs at £29.89 a pair (screwfix.com). Want rustic? Try e-boutiques such as nkuku.com, grahamandgreen.co.uk and anthropologie.eu.

Use Sugru, a new silicone rubber, to fix just about anything, including toaster feet (£6.50; diy.com)

Fix that thing
Broken fridge drawer? Leaky washing machine seal? Loose computer cable? Fix it with Sugru, an ingenious silicone rubber that sticks to just about anything. You mould it like dough, then it hardens while staying flexible, even when hot, cold or wet (£6.50; diy.com). Be inspired at sugru.com — it has worked on North Pole ski poles and a camera sent into space.

Frost your windows
Pining for shutters to screen street-facing windows, but lacking the budget to buy them? Frosted film offers the same look with less loss of light. Brume has made-to-measure frosting in contemporary designs (from £38 for a 45cm x 50cm panel; brume.co.uk). For more ornate patterns, including vintage maps, try surfaceview.co.uk (from £85).

Revive your front door
Add class to your entrance with a Victorian-style knocker ring (from £19.08; doorfurnituredirect.co.uk) and French enamel numbers (£19; willowandstone.co.uk). To reduce swelling in winter, finish it in gloss or satin paint: shades in Sandtex’s 10 Year Exterior range include pillar-box red and bay-tree green (£18 for 750ml; homebase.co.uk).

Paint a room
The right shade can work magic, but where do you start? Visualizer, Dulux’s augmented-reality app, lets you picture your room in any hue (dulux.co.uk/app). It’s a false economy to buy cheap paint: coverage is often poor. Dulux Trade paint has better opacity than its retail equivalent, so requires fewer coats and less work (£9.67 for 1 litre; duluxdecoratorcentre.co.uk).

Bloc Blinds’s system lets you swap fabric by hooking it out of the roller bar (from £28.16; blocblinds.co.uk)

Tailor your blinds
No more sawing down roller blinds to fit — Bloc Blinds’s award-winning Fabric Changer system lets you swap the fabric by simply hooking it out of the roller bar (from £28.16; blocblinds.co.uk). Measure up, order and drill once to install your blind. You can choose the colour of your brackets and the finish on the bottom.

Treat timber tops
Oil your worn wooden worktops to restore their natural sheen — this even repairs water damage. Unlike varnish, Danish oil is easy to apply and won’t flake (£12 for 500ml; diy.com). Use a nonmetallic pan scourer to gently rub down in the direction of the grain, then rub in the oil using an old rag. It will also work wonders on bare floorboards.

Update the kitchen tap
Fitting that butler sink you lust after would involve serious work; a new tap can refresh your kitchen for less. Take a leaf out of a plumber’s book and visit tapsuk.com for surprisingly stylish mixers such as the minimalist Caple Washington (£56). Ikea is also worth a look. But you need to know what you’re doing to fit a tap. Expect to pay a plumber at least £50.

Maximise storage
Organise the cupboard under the stairs properly and you might even be able to wheel in the pushchair. Ikea’s Algot wall-hanging shelves can be configured in a multitude of ways to suit just about any space (£40 for five shelves; ikea.co.uk). Include the shoe-rack extension (£4), and you can banish footwear from the entrance hall once and for all.