Since 2020, Malaysia has been locked down and established SOP to people due to the COVID-19. Everyone needed to stay at home to keep away from public activity for safety. It caused people to have extra time and look for something to do during MCO, such as tidying and fixing their living spaces up. It was not only for a comfortable living environment but also an effective living style.
There was one creative and dedicated woman Nur Diyana from Bentong and dressed up her 20 years old rental apartment into one of the famous decorations, Scandinavian styles. Once she posted on her Facebook and shared with the public the way she dressed up her 20 years old rental apartment, the most surprising thing was she made it beautifully without spending over RM 2,000 as her budget. She made use of IKEA furniture and shopped in Eco Shop, Daiso, and Jalan Jalan Japan for cheaper and practical decorative items.
20 years old apartment was changed old clothes to new
Diyana shared her experience of the budget-friendly makeover of her rental apartment which is in Lurah Bilut, Bentong on Facebook. She posted a selection of before-and-after images of the rental apartment and described them in detail. To illustrate, she indicated to the public the images of the prices for furniture and home decorations modules along with the useful tips to aid others who also wished to turn their homes into a new face.
Diyana and her husband accomplished an unbelievable makeover by only using 2 weeks. From her Facebook post, we can observe that their house was brimmed with brightness and breeziness. Furthermore, they utilized Scandi-inspired and modern farmhouse-inspired furnishers to equip the bedrooms, toilet, living and dining area, and kitchen as the final appearance.
We are totally impressed by Diyana’s way of the apartment makeover. She strongly understood how to manage her budget wisely to decorate and modify her apartment. She didn’t even need renewal instead of just using their previous furniture and the things acquired from the budget stores.
We learned from Dinaya who attached new furniture and colors to the living area, including a television, cabinet, wooden chair and standing lamp from IKEA, and a vintage carpet from Carpet Prima Nilai. At the same time, she colored the room’s yellowing walls with a 7-liter bucket of white paint for a clean and nice look. It was shocking to hear that Dinaya only spent RM725 on all these furniture and paintings.
“To practice thrift is a value.” Diyana is a thrifty person who is good at collecting useful and affordable items. As we knew from her Facebook post, she didn’t throw away her apartment sofa set. In daily life, she usually visits the bundle and dollar stores, for example, Jalan Jalan Japan, Eco Shope, Kaison, and pasar malam, and she mostly purchase the home decor things from there
Diyana’s shelving units were used to fill up with useful items which she bought at a cheap price and decorate her space.
Diyana used each useful and cheaper item, like a dining set, carpet, wall shelvings, and decor to adorn her dining area with spending RM500.
We were wondering what tips Diyana used to achieve all these things easily. The truth was Diyana liked spending money wisely. She enjoyed buying affordable items at some particular sections of the mall, such as “As-Is” in IKEA. This section focused on selling those unwanted and lowest price items, for instance, her dining table.
Similarly, with Shopee’s popular 11;11 sales approaching, she kept waiting for the chairs that she wanted to buy because of the lower price together with shipping fees. At last, she successfully got a set of 4 Eames-inspired chairs which were barely under RM200.
Every room was enrolled in budget-friendly home makeover
If you thought about spending a lot of money on dressing up in the kitchen, you would be wrong. The other tip that Diyana used was concentrating on others which were most needed to be fixed. In her situation, she built a fashionable and comfortable atmosphere by installing PVC industrial tile stickers and adornment in modern farmhouse style.
For the bedroom, we can see that the master bedroom had the same decoration as the living room. She liked to use pure colors and casual items to adorn the space, for example, the white walls and curtains. Also, she used rustic bedspreads to decorate the bed and increased the freshness of the bedroom by hanging a few pots of plants and displaying the rattan wall decor.
On the other hand, there was one effective way to remove the bigger items in the bedroom. Diyana taught everyone to make the old things become new for multipurpose. She shifted her old dressing table and used it for a contemporary shelving unit. Other than that, she matched a hanging mirror with the old dressing table to become a new dressing table and a place that can be used to store things.
There was a huge change in their second bedroom. From the before and after makeover image of the second bedroom, we can notice all the placements and decorations were absolutely different. Diyana decorated the dim and messy bedroom into an elegant and comfortable one. She and her husband made it as a nursery which was filled with the IKEA and Shopee furniture which were suitable for males and females. Diyana also selected the furniture which was practical with a high aesthetic, for instance, she had an idea to make the dresser duplicate act like a changing table.
The laundry area and other places we didn’t pay much attention to were delicately dressed up by Diyana. She used modern farmhouse-inspired adornments to adorn them nicely.
Diyana spent less but got an item of high quality. She bought Moroccan-style PVC tiles from Kaison, one of the budget stores she liked to visit for modernizing her toilet. Its price was only RM20 but it can help to enhance one’s value.
Money-saving home makeover of 20 years old rented apartment
What Diyana demonstrated to us is that we can do anything impossible if we really want to achieve our dreams. We can use a smaller thing to do a bigger thing in our life like Diyana’s money-saving home makeover. A beautiful and fashionable house is not compulsorily to waste a lot of time and money, instead, try to use your creativity to observe more simple things which provide high quality, affordable price and good function in lives.
Cover image adapted from: Nur Diyana
