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You have probably spent all your life savings on your lovely new home, but now you need to furnish it. This task can be both daunting and exciting, especially when funds are particularly low but worry not, as having enough money to pay for Laurence Llewelyn Bowen’s time is far from necessary. The positive thing about having to home decorate cheaply is that your options are automatically limited so you have to be fairly stringent with your decisions.

Your home should reflect your personality and when you do not have the finances to buy whatever catches your eye you need to be highly creative with inexpensive ideas. Avoid the pricey home furnishing outlets such as Habitat and opt for discount stores and mass produced stockists such as Ikea. You can often customise production line factory furniture with cheap accessories and a good imagination. There has been a bloom of consignment shops recently (such as “Shabitat” yes a poor mans Habitat) where consumers can buy private owners furniture at massively discounted prices. The range they have is of course one of a kind, constantly changing and often there are hidden gems waiting to be discovered by self proclaimed interior designers with a keen eye. Shopping around at stores such as these can be timely but well worth it when you save hundreds of pounds and find an impressive piece of kit.

If you are shopping strictly retail keep an eye out for scratch and dent rooms towards the back of the stores where slightly damaged models can be found for frequently less than half the price and can often be restored with some imagination and a little expertise. Refurbishing furniture is an exercise you should keep in the forefront of your mind. It is a chance to be creative and resourceful and other than save you considerable amounts of money you can redesign items to fit ideally with your home vision. Similarly, browse around some flea markets and car boot sales as these too can provide some excellent and inexpensive options.

Colour and composition are two potentially very cheap but also completely essential aspects to get right. In tandem they can add so much to a room especially when executed well. Consider your colour palette carefully, limit yourself to a few colours and stick to that choice. Too many colours will overcomplicate things, clash and break up the space with confusion. Keep it simple and keep it strong. The same principle goes for composition; do not clutter your walls and floors with unnecessary furniture, accessories and hangings. Start out minimal and add to it as and when you feel appropriate. Now paintbrushes at the ready, get busy bargain hunting.