The cheap flooring alternatives if you can’t afford new carpet – and how to make a ‘tiled’ floor with tester paint pots
FORGET splashing thousands on new flooring for your home when you need it, because you can still get a magazine-worthy finish for a fraction of the cost.
And it doesn't have to involve hours of hard labour either as savvy homeowners are showing of their incredibly cheap flooring alternatives that are easy for anyone to do.
From makeshift carpet to a glossy, painted finish, these are some of the ways you can improve your grotty flooring for cheap and give your home a stylish makeover.
Floor-paper
Usually reserved for your plain boring walls (hence the name) one woman proved wallpaper works just as well on your floor when covered in a coat of varnish.
Robyn Westrope-lane was looking for a temporary solution to fix her unsightly carpets and thought to use the brightly coloured timber-effect wallpaper as it was within her budget.
Sharing snaps of the hallway transformation to theFacebook group, she revealed that she'd spent a total of just £23 replacing her carpet - and she was pretty chuffed with the results.
She wrote: "I did it! I wallpapered my floor and I’m stoked with the outcome. And only for £23!! It took me no time at all and seems quite sturdy."
Lick of paint
Holly Windsor, 25, wanted to update her flooring so it matched her Hinch-inspired colour scheme, but was put off by the £1,000 quote she'd received for tiles.
Instead, the savvy mum simply painted the entire thing herself and it cost just £45 - and it couldn't be easier to do.
Holly bought a two-litre tub of V33 Renovation Floor & Stairs paint in Loft Grey Satin for £36, which was enough to cover the entire kitchen floor with two coats of paint.
After allowing it to dry over night, she said: “We’re extremely happy with the end result, it looks like a brand new floor for a fraction of the cost."
All rugged up
If you want carpet but can't afford it, there is another option as one mum has proved.
The clever-thinking mum popped on down to B&M and picked up six stylish grey rugs at £20 each and used them to cover her living room floor.
But she laid them in such a way which gives the illusion her room is split in two which created separate spaces for her kids to play.
The whole thing cost her just £120, nothing compared to the £800 she was looking at.
Tile say
If you're sick of your current bathroom or kitchen tiles, or don't have any and wish you had, there's a super affordable way to get the look thanks to adhesive floor tiles.
The handy stick-on tiles come in heaps of trendy colours and designs and people have been using them to quickly, and cheaply, transform bathrooms, kitchen and even staircases.
sell them for just £14 a pack, while sell them for £11 so it's no wonder DIY fans are snapping them up left, right and centre.
Alternatively, you can buy this roll of trendy Bewley print from B&M, or another modern design, making it look as if you have retiled your entire space.
- Bewley Vinyl, B&M, £39.99 –
The flooring comes in a roll of three metres by two and is inspired by Victorian tiles, and will set you back £39.99 a roll.
Wood you believe
If you love the look of expensive wooden floorboards but can't fathom parting with the money, rest assured because you can mimic the look with cheap vinyl flooring.
Using the same B&M roll of lino, one woman completely transformed her bathroom floors giving them a stylish wooden finish.
- Self adhesive wood effect Vinyl plank, £2 -
While another did the same and said: "I've never laid lino before and although it wasn't the easiest DIY I've done, it wasn't too hard either.”
Elsewhere, another woman was able to transform her kitchen floor for just £50 using a selection of self adhesive vinyl planks from B&Q - and they look just like the real deal.
The planks cost her just £4.85 and she needed ten - but they're currently on sale for just £2.
Stencil it in
If you want an even cheaper option (and yes, that is possible), grab yourself a paint tester pot and a stencil which can be bought for just a couple of pounds.
Savvy home owners have been taking to their floor with a crafty stencil design of choice, using it to spruce up otherwise boring floors - both inside and out.
But you don't even have to have tiles to begin with, just a painted surface will do, then go in with a different coloured paint for the stencil design.
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