It’s hard to imagine that just five years ago, designer Hannah Drakeford was drowning in a sea of beige in her bland, featureless new-build.

Today, thanks to her bold vision and some smart money-saving design hacks, her purpose-built one-bed is a riot of colour and personality.

Hannah, like many renters in London, had struggled to get on the property ladder. ‘I’d sold my house in Leicester and, even though it had a front and back garden, it wouldn’t even get you a tiny bedsit in the capital,’ she says.

She opted instead for shared ownership of a one-bed flat in Deptford. But with no cash left for refurbishment, Hannah had to pull some daring design tricks out of the bag to give her new place an injection of sassy style.

The remarkable result was captured on Instagram and, after being made redundant from her job at the start of the pandemic, Hannah opened her own design studio.

‘It gave me the push I needed to establish my signature style and to start a career in interiors.’

Hannah gives us a room-by-room looks at the budget hacks she used in her fabulous flat…

Bathroom

Problem: Holiday Inn vibes with fake wood laminate and ugly tiles

Solution: Moroccan makeover

Cost: £300

Paint: My initial source of inspiration came from a trip to Marrakech and a riad with amazing circle motif tiles on the floor and walls.

First I painted the beige tiles, floor, bath panel and chrome radiator in white V33 Renovation Floor & Stair paint as I couldn’t afford paint for different finishes. To prevent waste, I calculated the exact surface area I needed to cover.

Tiles: I stencilled the tiles using an Ikea dinner plate, Frogtape and a ruler and painted the motif using Lick Pink 03 paint. I added a coat of Ronseal Exterior Crystal Clear Varnish to seal.

Pink wooden panelling: A straightforward hack using pre-sanded, primed wooden battens sawn to length, and glued onto the wall above the sink with grab adhesive. Painted in the same pink used for the tile motifs and ceiling.

Floating globe lights: Basic bathroom ceiling lights mounted on the wall – an Ebay steal at just £27 for all three! They don’t light up yet, but look great.

Faux Terrazzo worktop: This was a labour of love. I primed the awful dark wood laminate worktop with Zinsser Bullseye 123, painted it with black emulsion and – using a little paintbrush and watered down white emulsion – I painted the white stones copied from a Terrazzo pattern I’d found on Pinterest.

It cost £25 and took two days – but saved a ton of money on a real stone worktop.

Top tip: Check Ebay for imperfect tins of paint going cheap!

Bedroom

Problem: Room had no features

Solution: Painted murals to add interest and pops of colour

Cost: £70

Ceiling circle: After painting the walls dark green, I tied a pencil to a piece of string and the base of the ceiling light to get a perfect circle, then then painted it in using an orange tester pot.

Headboard: Using another tester pot and Frogtape, I painted a block of blue behind the bed to create a headboard behind the headboard.

Black and white bedside table: A £5 Gumtree find – it was a nasty 1990s black glass and chrome side table – I stuck a black plastic pipe over the chrome then covered the glass top in squares of sign writers’ vinyl and varnished it all.

Top tip: Balance up pops of colour; my purple mural has purple curtains opposite, the orange ceiling circle matches the orange lamp, the yellow circle works with the yellow cushion on the bed.

Lounge

Problem: Everything was shiny beige and boring

Solution: Updated kitchen units

Cost: £150

Striped walls: I painted four black stripes across the white wall to lengthen the room. First I measured the height of the wall, divided it into equal sections and created the stripes using a spirit level strapped to a metre-long ruler, a pencil and Frogtape.

This cost just £50, which is brilliant as wallpaper is mega expensive. Key is to paint the skirting the same colour as the bottom stripe.

Coffee table: An Ebay buy for £20. Using leftover paint from my kitchen units, I painted four circles on the glass top using an Ikea dinner plate as a template.

Red TV cabinet: My fave hack. I bought a grey Ikea cabinet from Ebay for £20, took the door panels out, cut cheap green garden sticks to size, painted them and stuck them into the door frames with a glue gun.

The handles are a thin plywood circle cut in half. I painted it red and added £15 legs to make it look more expensive and mid-century.

Top tip: Cut Frogtape in half to get twice as much use out of it!

Kitchen

Problem: Needed definition from the open-plan kitchen

Solution: Zoned area with stripes and upcycled furniture

Cost: £120

Units: I took the doors off the cabinets and sanded everything down outside to take off the shine, then tackled the rest of the kitchen that couldn’t be taken out. After priming, I used gloss paint meant for garage floors on both the cabinets and worktops as it’s really hard-wearing. Then I added cheap Ikea handles.

Paint: Using black emulsion leftover from the lounge, I painted black colour blocks at either end of the corridor and across the ceiling.

The black disappears, lengthening the room and making the ceiling look taller.

Hallway

Problem: Narrow and dark

Solution: Created space, light and a wow-factor first impression

Cost: £45

Mural: Rather than buying expensive artwork, I painted a black geometric mural onto the wall using an Ikea dinner plate as a template, and a ruler.

It’s the branding that’s on all my homewares – there’s an element of this in every room to give the flat a cohesive look, and it uses up spare paint.

Sideboard: An old made.com piece – I added legs and painted the inside white to make it look more mid-century. It cost about £30.

Lights are old vintage Habitat 1980s metal shades from Ebay for £15 – I added orange lighting flex and polystyrene balls, which I painted black.

Check out Hannah’s hacks and her interior and homeware design studio on her Instagram

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