- [Lucy] Do you have a space that you have big plans for?
Know exactly what you want it to look like but you just don't know where to start?
Well, I'm here to help.
Together with the team at Bunnings, we meet people from right around the country helping
to shape their plans and prove just how easy it is to transform an area without spending too much
time or money.
This weekend, we're working with 20-year-old Max who has turned half of his mom's living room
into a temporary bedroom.
Now that his sister's moving out of home though, Max gets his own proper bedroom so he's asked for our
help to give his mom her living room back.
Hi, Max.
- [Max] Hi, Lucy. - So good to meet you.
- Good to meet you, too.
- So talk to me about this space.
This is your living room.
- This is our living room.
It isn't used as much as we would like it to be used but hopefully, that will be changing soon.
- So you have a bedroom here.
- I do.
There's a bit of a makeshift bedroom back here.
That's where I live because we have three people living in our house.
Two bedrooms, so we had to cut some corners to be able to fit me in the house.
And we made it work with cutting the land room in half.
- Your mom allowed the living room to become smaller.
- She did.
- So that you could actually create your own bedroom.
- She did.
- Well, what do you want to do with this space?
What's the plan for your mom and for the family?
- I want to open it up, bring the TV into the middle of the room,
bring some more natural light in.
- So you've got a new TV?
- I have.
I bought a new TV for my mom, a thinner one and a slightly bigger one so I think
she'll really like that.
- A slim one is good.
So I need to know more about this situation with the bedroom.
So let's have a look at this bedroom.
Oh, my goodness.
Oh, Max, you've got all the natural light.
- I do.
- You cheeky sod. - I do have all of it.
I've stolen all of it.
- So, there's a lot of screens going on.
What's happening with all these screens?
- Oh, these are for my gaming, and studying, and watching.
I love gaming.
- What does your mom think about all this gaming?
- She likes gaming, too.
She's not the best but she tries and that's what matters.
- So is that something that we might need to think about in this new space because we do have, now,
quite a large area.
- I think so. - Maybe we can plan a little gaming...
- That would be awesome. - ...station/workspace.
Are you happy to just completely transform this house?
- Tear it all down.
- You're down for everything?
- Just completely.
Let's just redo everything.
- I love it.
Well, let's make a plan and we'll get started.
What do you reckon?
- Sounds good.
Let's do it.
- Love it.
♪ [music] ♪
Okay. So while every mom swoons at how adorable Max is, let's make a plan for the space.
The first thing that we need to do is to clear out the room including removing those doors.
We're going to rip out the carpet to lay floating floors, install new curtains and lights to brighten
things up, and give mom a place to relax, watch TV, or play the occasional game with Max.
We're going to get this done in as little as two days.
Okay, Max, I'm excited. Are you excited?
- I'm excited. I'm ready to go.
- You're ready to go?
I love your enthusiasm.
So there's a bit to get done in a couple of days so we're going to need some help.
I brought in the team from Bunnings.
- Awesome.
- And we're going to get started.
- Let's do it.
- Let's go.
♪ [music] ♪
The first thing we need to do in this space is clear out all the clutter and take the room back to its base.
This means removing the dividing doors that used to separate the living room from Max's bedroom
and then repairing the wall.
♪ [music] ♪
By removing the curtains, already we can see a difference with the natural light
now beaming through the window, giving mom her visual view of the mountains back.
♪ [music] ♪
Painting is a great way to really transform a space quickly, and there are so many different paint products
out on the market that can give your walls texture and a new look.
I'm so excited, Max. Our paint is here.
I can't wait to show you.
This is, like, such an on-trend color.
Do you know what it is?
- Nope. - Do you have any...?
- No idea.
I have no idea.
I know it's paint in a bucket.
- Okay, ready?
- Yeah.
♪ [music] ♪
Oh, wow.
- Do you love it?
- I love it, yeah.
- What color is it? - It's awesome.
White.
- It's white.
- Awesome.
- What it is going to do to this room is completely change it.
It's going to freshen it up.
It'll make it look a lot bigger than it is and it'll be a really great base for us to start with
and then we can layer up from there.
- Sweet. I'll trust your experience.
Let's do it.
- You're a smart man.
If you do want to actually add color to your room, you don't have to paint your entire room.
You can just choose to paint one wall.
And don't just think about color.
You can think about texture as well.
You can get lots of different types of paint.
I'm actually using a slightly textured Aniseed, which is a beautiful dark charcoal.
Now, it's going to bring a nice strong contrast to this wall.
Max is jumping in to help Peter prep the walls.
- [Peter] The best way to do it is put it on the top there like that.
You can pull it right down to the bottom.
So just tear it up.
Take it straight to the bottom.
Just stretch it a bit.
Tape it down and then that's perfect.
Okay, once you've got that done, we might try it on the skirting board.
- All right, sounds good.
♪ [music] ♪
- Basically the same technique.
Stick it down there.
- While Max and Peter finish prepping the walls, we've called in our sparky Aaron to prepare for our new
fan and run the wires for our mounted TV.
Peter, our paint expert, is helping Max so that he can get the right paint
in the right spot.
- All you have to do is lay the brush up.
Give it a tap on the inside of the pot.
Always put the brush on its edge when you're cutting in.
So you brush along there, then put the brush on and just cut it.
And then just brush that edge out.
Get paint on the brush.
That's it.
Now just make sure you brush it out when you're spreading it.
♪ [music] ♪
So when you're taking the tape off, what you need to do is always pick up the edge.
Then you need to pull it on an angle away from that painted edge.
- Oh, I see.
- Slowly and just tape it right along.
It's done.
- Okay, looks good.
- Turned out all right.
♪ [music] ♪
- Okay, so we've cleaned out the space.
The painting is well and truly underway.
We need to rip out the carpet because then we're going to be putting floating floorboards down which is
totally going to elevate the space.
Removing carpet can be a really dirty job.
I find that the easiest way to do this is to cut it into long, thin strips so it's easier to rip out.
♪ [music] ♪
If you're in an old house like I am, you might find that your floors are actually a
little bit wonky.
So if you are putting new flooring down, you might need to make sure it's level.
We're using some Masonite just to make sure we put a nice, level surface before we put down our floorboards.
Laying floating floorboards is super easy but it does take a bit of time.
So Christine, our chippy, is lending us a hand.
- [Christine] So you've got to push it in at the same time.
Slide it over to the left so it will be high up to the previous board.
When you go down, check if it's flush while still holding on pressure.
Check if it's flush and if that's good, you can whack it with a mallet just like that and done.
- It's good?
- Yeah.
So you can put the next one on.
♪ [music] ♪
- It's the end of Day 1 and while the team head home for the night, Max is opening up a special package that
has just arrived.
- Max, what are you doing?
You've gone rogue on me.
I thought it was the end of the day.
- Oh, yeah, well, I've got a bunch of these frames that I plan to surprise mom.
I'll be putting a bunch of family photos in here.
I think she's going to love that.
- Show me now.
I want to see.
Oh, very cute.
That's Baby Max.
- Here, it's my mom. - Oh, my gosh.
- The theme's going to be black and white.
That's what I'm aiming for.
- When Max is finished, I'll help him arrange the frames on the wall.
But for now, can we all just take a moment to appreciate just how sweet Max is for arranging this?
♪ [music] ♪
It's a new day, and the living room is really starting to take shape.
The fresh white paint on the walls has made it feel bigger and brighter.
♪ [music] ♪
Okay, Max, I'm going to get you to give me a hand.
We've got another DIY project today.
We're going to be making a custom desk area in the living room space.
So I've actually picked up this hardwood panel.
You can cut them down to size.
You can give them a stain if you want.
But to be honest with you, I actually really like the raw finish.
So let's just strip off the cover.
♪ [music] ♪
Cool.
What do you reckon, Max?
Gaming console ready?
- I reckon that looks really good for it.
- Let's get it inside.
- Cool.
- Now that the table is made, Scott and Max are securing the wall brackets that will
hold up our shelving.
- [Scott] Okay, Max, next, we're going to hang the shelf on here.
We've got to make sure that we hit the stud on the wall.
14.60, so that's going to be the width of our shelf.
Now, you can either use a stud finder or you can do the old-fashioned technique
before they invented the stud finder.
So we've got a stud there.
♪ [music] ♪
That's a stud. Beautiful.
♪ [music] ♪
[inaudible] level actually.
♪ [music] ♪
- The room is really starting to come together, and our sparky is back to help us secure
the final finishes.
This fan looks fantastic, and the TV is now on the wall.
I love indoor plants.
I am always finding a way to bring these into my interior design.
They're a fantastic way to bring a dead space to life and also add a lot of height which this guy does.
So, James, what is this guy called?
This cactus?
- [James] It's actually euphorbia, otherwise known as an African milk tree.
- I love it.
He's got a serious vibe, isn't he?
He's cool.
- Absolutely beautiful.
- How tall is he going to get?
- He grows a few centimeters every year; that's in a bright corner.
- Right.
And what do we need to know about looking after the euphorbia?
- It's very low-maintenance, so it doesn't require much water.
Something like a cacti and succulent mix is absolutely perfect, and they can use that in conjunction to a
perlite to add extra aeration to the soil which is going to help water seep to the bottom really quickly
which is exactly what you want.
- I love it.
We're nearly finished here.
And then we get to style it up.
- Absolutely.
♪ [music] ♪
So we're on the home stretch.
I've sent Max away so I can style the space.
This, I love this bit.
This is where we get to have a bit of fun.
♪ [music] ♪
Max is back.
♪ [music] ♪
- Whoa!
What the...
Oh, my God!
That's completely different.
- Do you love it?
- I love it.
Oh, my...
- Does it feel like the same living room? - It's a completely different space.
It's like a new house.
Wow, it's so open.
Oh, my God.
That looks so good.
- You know these are your couches, everything's here.
- These are ours.
They look completely different.
- Doesn't it just...?
It completely changes the space.
- I like the greenery as well.
It adds such a nice vibe.
And the photos.
Actual family photos.
We never really had that before, so it's nice.
- So this can be, you know, your mom's home office but slash your gaming console.
- Sophisticated gaming study area.
I mean, I love it.
- So you didn't do just do the desk either because you did the floors.
- I helped out with that laminate flooring.
Changing the laminate flooring was the best decision.
It's awesome.
I really, really love it.
- So what do you think of the feature wall with that dark color?
- I love black and white. - It came out really well.
Do you recognize those?
- I do recognize those.
You painted those completely white.
- Yeah, exactly.
White fixes everything.
- Yeah, it really does.
- How good is this though with all the natural light coming through?
- It is so nice. - You were hogging this before.
- My mom's going to freak out when she sees this.
Thank you, this is insane.
I actually can't...
And I can't believe this used to be my room.
And it just really wasn't that difficult...
- Are you surprised? - ...at all. Yeah, I'm completely surprised.
- So you can literally tell your family that you basically did this in a couple of days with a
couple of helpers.
- Yeah, a couple of helpers and it all just fell into place.
It all clicked together and now I'm just ready to watch TV.
I just feel like I'm ready to watch.
- My work here is done.
- Thank you for everything.
- Enjoy. - I really appreciate it.
- Bye, Max.
Let me know what your mom thinks.
- I'll let you know.
- When I first met, Max, he was so excited to do something special for his mom
but he just didn't know where to start.
So, together, we made a plan and for under $8,000, we were able to transform his living room and it was so
worth it to see how proud he now is to share it with his mom.
So, there we have it.
It just goes to show that all you need to make it happen is a good plan, a couple of days, some mates,
and you, too, could have a brand new space to enjoy.
♪ [music] ♪