DIY: Designing Your Student Digs on a Shoestring Budget

Buying new furniture is going to blow the budget pretty rapidly so you have to be a bit creative and savvy with your furniture choices and design options if you want to design your student digs on a shoestring budget.

There are plenty of second-hand furniture outlets and family cast-offs to use when putting your collection together for filling your student digs and they can soon be spruced up with some nifty refurbishing ideas.

Most students have to do things on a shoestring budget and that means thinking about everything you need to spend your money on, from deciding to replace HP ink cartridges online to save money to giving an old piece of furniture a makeover.

Giving furniture a new lease of life

One of the quickest ways to transform the appearance of a piece of furniture is to stain or paint it.

It is not always the easiest of tasks to stain or paint an item of furniture to a good standard if you have not done it before, but it doesn’t take too long to get up to speed and it is always satisfying to stand back when you have finished and admire your work when it turns out well.

Preparation is the key to a successful finish, so make sure you strip the old surface down and sand it, so that it is smooth and ready to be painted or stained.

If you are painting your wooden furniture, it is a good idea to apply a primer first as this will give you the best chance of achieving a decent finish, but do make sure you work in a well ventilated area as the fumes from primers, stains and paints can affect your respiratory system if you don’t follow safety guidelines.

Turn your furniture into a work of art

If you want to try something a bit more artistic with your furniture and don’t fancy facing the prospect of priming and staining, try decoupage as a viable alternative.

Decoupage is a technique which involves arranging paper cut-outs into a design of your choice and then gluing them in place to cover your furniture.

An old chest of drawers is a good choice for trying out your creative talents with some wallpaper or images of your choice which you have printed on to thick paper. Once you have your artwork ready, apply it to the surface using a suitable glue and you have a piece of furniture which is unique to you, having been transferred using your creative decoupage skills.

Fabric makeover

It is not too difficult to reupholster an old chair and it shouldn’t be too expensive either, if you shop around and visit some market stalls where you might be able to pick up some attractive fabric at a bargain price.

You will need a staple gun to apply the fabric to the seat and you might want to get some foam which you can cut to shape for extra cushioning and put underneath the new covering you have chosen.

You can have a lot of fun personalizing some old furniture that you can fill your student digs with and hopefully you will end up with something unique that hasn’t busted your budget.

John Sollars always has one eye on the printing industry. When he finds something interesting, he likes to share it by posting online. Look for his informative articles on a variety of websites and blogs.