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about these digs ... who nicola, 29, magazine editor for a publishing company that produces craft titles where sydney, australia the pad a two-bedroom house starting from scratch  "The house was so big (and empty) when we moved into it. We had to get everything from scratch because we relocated from Europe and left all our furniture behind, so we had a lot of hand-me-downs at the beginning. The house is also very open plan and all the rooms lead onto each other without any interconnecting doors, so it was important for me to give each room some kind of boundary, so it's not too open-plan. I think we achieved this just by the way we placed the furniture, really. Also, since we're renting, we can't make too many changes, but I have given the place a cleaner look by whitewashing the walls and taking down some of the curtains." decorating on a budget "I tend to recycle all the things I've been given or have salvaged from alleyways. I repaint or varnish old furniture to give it a new look, and I bought cream damask chair covers for $AUS200 from Ikea, which went over some old dining chairs, which saved me having to buy new ones. I think when you're decorating on a budget it tends to bring out the resourcefulness within. I've taught myself to look at objects with an eye for what they could be, rather than what they are. I shop around a lot, keep an eye open whenever there's a council clean-up, search thrift shops, etc."