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DIY Instant Green Upgrades

It’s tempting to replace old, tired furniture with spanking new pieces straight from your favourite catalogue but this costs money and wastes the planet’s resources. If your existing pieces are basically solid and functional, the environmentally thing to do is restore it yourself, following these expert tips:

1. Replace plastic knobs or handles on cupboards, wardrobes and chests of drawers with vintage, metal or chrome ones.
2. If you have any leftover paints and are decorating a child’s bedroom, try painting each drawer in a chest-of-drawers a different shade, or paint wardrobe doors a contrasting colour to the frame. This works well with cheap bedroom furniture.
3. Strengthen flimsy shelves instead of replacing them, by screwing batons under the back edges of shelves for extra support to prevent bowing.
4. Give a plain divan bed an instant headboard instead of buying a new one. Use a lightweight rug, a throw, or a length of material hung from a broom handle or wooden dowel fixed to the wall behind the bed.
5. Frugal first time buyers have always turned packaging into furniture. Throw an attractive piece of fabric over a plastic or wooden crate, or sturdy cardboard box, for an instant, no-cost, recycled coffee table.
6. If cupboard doors are marked, split or broken, remove them and use a staple gun to attach lengths of gathered fabric in their place.
7. Rather than replacing a saggy sofa, make it more comfortable by fitting a piece of plywood beneath cushions. You can also pay for new foam cut to fit the cushions in your sofa. Both are far cheaper than buying a new sofa.
8. Wood can be transformed with paint. To get a professional finish, sand the furniture down first, or remove old paint with a paint-stripper. Instead of buying new chairs, co-ordinate mismatching wooden kitchen and dining chairs by painting them all the same colour.