A MUM-OF-TWO who transformed her council house for £7k has hit back at cruel trolls who have called her interior "tacky."
Micha Cummins, who is 22, from Luton, who previously had a two-bed council house, explained that in January she did a home-swap with a lady who wanted to downsize.
Realising the potential of the larger house, Micha knew she had her work cut out and, slowly but surely, she transformed every room apart from the bathroom, which just had a tidy up and fresh lick of paint.
But, despite her incredible achievements, Micha's social media page has been flooded with mean comments from keyboard warriors.
Amongst the negative remarks include people branding it "tacky" and "way too grey," along with another ranting:"Great, our tax money wasted on this c**p."
Speaking exclusively to Fabulous Digital, Micha, who has a one-year-old daughter named Ariyah and eight-year-old Anaaya, has responded to the trolls, and shared her top tips and tricks for decorating on a budget.
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The special needs teaching assistant says: "My living room was dull and very worn down when I moved in.
"The lady that lived here was a very heavy smoker so everything was full of nicotine – it was in the walls, in the plastics.
"She had pets so when I pulled up the carpet and flooring it was just full of dog urine – it was quite grim!
"The first few weeks after I moved in I was in tears thinking, 'how am I going to get through this?'"
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The £7.99 foil trick to create a panel feature
Not letting that stop her, Micha, who painted the walls 'Pure Brilliant white' which cost £20 for a large tub from B&Q, set to work giving the room a total glow up – using a bargain buy she found on Amazon.
"I wanted a panel feature in my living room so, cutting budgets, I went on Amazon and found some silver foil tape, which was £7.99, and created my own panel effect behind my TV unit."
As for the finishing touches, Micha bought a £120 floating TV unit from Argos and cheap accessories from the likes of B&M and The Range.
"I've got little £5 mirror trays that my candles sit on from B&M and artificial flowers that go in all the pots which are from The Range – they were £1.50 each.
"Some of my hanging planters are from Ikea and the candles were all a few pounds each from B&M."
Micha, who is single, adds that the living room wasn't the only room that was in desperate need of some TLC when she moved in.
"The kitchen was very dated," she says.
"It had dark worktops and bleach-coloured cupboards…it really wasn't my style."
Upcycling kitchen cupboards using vinyl
However, the savvy mum couldn't afford to buy a brand new kitchen that cost thousands of pounds, so she came up with the genius idea of upcycling all of her cupboards.
"I wrapped them with high gloss white vinyl, which I bought from Vinyl Warehouse," she explains.
"It cost me £79 – I got two 20m rolls and I've still got about 5m left which is handy if I need to replace any."
Micha bought the kitchen sink and tap from B&Q for around £300 for the pair and called in a favour from a friend to do the plumbing.
The DIY whizz then had a quick shop around to find a marble effect worktop and stumbled upon HC suppliers online.
"They do laminate worktops at a cheaper rate, so I only paid £69 for a worktop and bought three of them," she explains.
"I then just painted the walls white and added a nice big clock which cost me £60 from The Range.
"All of the materials for the shell of the kitchen cost me around £600."
Special effect paint instead of wallpaper
Meanwhile, in Micha's new stylish bedroom she's got a stunning feature wall, which a lot of people wrongly assume is wallpaper.
Instead, she revealed that she achieved the look using a special effect paint from an online company called Imperia Italia, which cost her £79.
"You use it with a brush and a tobacco sponge and when you're brushing it on the walls, you've got to wipe and sponge it and it gives you this nice marble-looking effect," she notes.
"It looks like wallpaper but it's not."
To complete her bedroom, she added planters on her window-ledge, with cost £2.50 from The Range, and bedding from Dunelm's sale.
Quick and easy sticker transformation
As for her daughter's room, Micha took inspo from Facebook's DIY on a Budget page after a social media user shared a snap of her leaf and wicker-themed bedroom.
"I didn't want to wallpaper the walls after filling in all the cracks and holes, so I got some leaf-themed stickers from online that cost just £5.99," she says.
The DIY fan completed the look with a wicker rug and accessories from B&M, mirrored wardrobe from Argos, chest of drawers from The Range and a bed set which she snapped up for £10.
"I got my daughter's green leaf effect bed set for a tenner in the sale at B&M which is really nice, too," she adds.
Photo frame Ikea mirror hack
Micha also wanted a big mirror in her hallway, but wasn't willing to splash out £300 that stores were charging.
"I got some photo frames and mirrored tiles from Ikea and stuck them to the wall – now I've got a massive big mirror in my hallway," she says.
"It only cost me £70."
But despite Micha's impressive efforts, with her council house now looking totally unrecognisable, it hasn't stopped cruel trolls from making negative remarks.
"With the shiny tape in my living room, people say it looks tacky and cheap," she says.
"And because I've stated I live in a council house I've had people say, 'well I've paid for that' – basically unassuming I'm claiming all the benefits in the world and I don't work.
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"It doesn't mean that because I live in a council house, I've got to sponge off the government to pay for my stuff – I do work hard for what I get. But I do just ignore the trolls.
"I just find those sorts of comments funny to be honest!"
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