Kirstie Allsopp fills houses for free

16 May 2013

Channel 4 Features will challenge property and interiors expert Kirstie Allsopp to transform homes without spending a penny.

A staggering 10 million items of furniture are binned every year and clearing up the household goods that Brits throw out on the street costs the economy a whopping £33 million a year.  Kirstie wants to remedy this “throw away and spend” attitude by showing how simple it can be to transform, fix and give a new home to a once loved piece of furniture.

In Fill Your House For Free Kirstie will meet families whose homes are in dire need of a makeover but who are, like many people in the UK, short on cash to transform their property.  Using the huge number of freebie resources out there, as well ingenious tricks of the trade, Kirstie will help these families realise their dream of a made over home for next to nothing. There’s just one big rule – no tat allowed. Things may be free, but they have to look stylish too.

Kirstie will be opening a city centre store kitted out with kitchens, bathrooms, sofas, tables, chairs, paints, carpets – everything you’d expect from a furniture store. However, Kirstie’s store will have one big difference: everything on display will have a zero price tag.    

Kirstie and her team will demonstrate how to upcycle and restore old furniture, as well as showing viewers where to go and how to salvage their own treasures while spending as little as possible on doing up their homes.

The 4x60 series is being made by Glasgow based indie Raise the Roof Productions and was ordered by Channel 4 Features Deputy Commissioning Editor, Katie Horswell.  It will be executive produced by Andrew Jackson and the series producer is Paula Campion. It will air on Channel 4 in the summer.

Katie Horswell said: “It’s already happening – people are shunning the stores and instead they’re searching the internet and are visiting events up and down the country trying to get fantastic stuff for free. So we want to capture this on a massive scale and prove that with confidence and hard work we can inspire everyone to use someone else’s junk to create their own treasures for their homes.”

Andrew Jackson added: “This is such a simple idea it hurts and I can’t wait to get stuck into the real stories and the very real challenge of doing amazing makeovers with free stuff.  I relish the idea of tapping into something that feels big hearted and fresh, but that’s going to get bigger and bigger.”

ENDS.