As a single mum with a 5-year-old daughter, Julie Nielson is on a tight budget. Instead of buying expensive items, she has developed a knack for finding cheap items that she can paint, repair or modify to suit the decor of her home. Don and the Burke’s Backyard team travelled to Ocean Grove in Victoria, to meet ‘$5 Julie’.

All that glitters

Julie says she is "hypnotised" by things that sparkle, such as sequins and other reflective surfaces. She loves to paint and is a whiz with a staple gun. The red and blue feature walls were already in the house, but Julie paints most other surfaces. Silver is her favourite colour. She has spray painted the heater, air conditioner, bar, table and sideboard plus various other pieces of furniture. Glass bottles in the kitchen are filled with water and food colouring. They have fairy lights behind them, so that they reflect different colours as one walks past.

Bargain furniture

Julie picked up her lounge suite from an op shop. It was priced at $10 but she ended up getting it for free. The old covering was ruined so she went searching and found a large amount of free material that is normally used for making shoes. Not having upholstered any furniture before, she sought advice from an upholsterer and then did the job herself. The cushions were made from a $3 dress from another op shop.

Julie found the kitchen sideboard on the side of the road. She just spray painted it, added new handles and put some chicken wire in the doors.

Julie’s daughter sleeps on an antique double bed that a friend picked up from a massage parlour. With a new mattress it looks as good as new, and is apparently worth around $2,500. A hanging mobile in one of the bedrooms is made from roofing iron. Light reflects off the steel at different angles, making it look very pretty. The bedroom mirror also has lots of stories behind it, but Julie says that most of them are secrets!

Contact information

If you want to decorate your place on the cheap, Julie Nielson is happy to help with ideas and advice. She can be contacted on (03) 5256 3206.

Copyright CTC Productions 2003