If you are looking to renovate your house on a budget, I strongly recommend a trip to Homebase before it closes for good.

The home improvement and garden centre retailer entered administration on November 14 last year. CDS Superstores - which owns The Range and Wilko - has acquired the Homebase brand name, intellectual property and up to 70 of its stores.

This week, my editor gave me on the arduous task of visiting the Plumpton Park store in Harrogate. to find out more about what's going on.

Rest assured, I was there in a solely journalistic capacity – although I may have taken advantage of the £5.50 cushions. 

It's been widely reported on social media that The Range, a variety store and garden centre, will take over the Plumpton Park site.

A Homebase staff member confirmed the news, and said jobs will be transferred when The Range opens on March 28.

Homebase will serve its last customers on March 9 but its name will live on as an online brand as well as inside the 70 former stores that reopen as The Range.  

Discounts

Homebase’s demise is not all doom and gloom – in fact, it is quite the opposite for shoppers.

We wanted to see what offers were available in its final weeks - and they certainly did not disappoint.

An entire kitchen unit was 70% off – down from £10,992 to £3,653.

A ready-to-go bathroom – which included a bath, toilet, furniture, taps, a radiator and a sink – was 60% off. What once cost £3,785 is now £1,514.

If you’re in the market for some flat-packed furniture, such as armchairs and sofas, most of it was heavily discounted – some half-price.

Plenty of branded items were discounted too; Dulux paints were up to 60% off, Yankee Candles – including 538g candles – had been slashed by 30%, and a Bosch lawnmower was half-price.

For those looking to heat their homes cheaply, a 35-inch remote-controlled tower heater was down from £80 to £48 and a wall-mounted fireplace had been reduced by 25% - from £249 to £186.

Rugs, duvets, storage units, dining tables, hard flooring, tiles, gardening tools and cookware could all be nabbed for significantly lower prices over the next few weeks.

Homebase is making no attempt to hide its plight, with signs reading, ‘ADMINISTRATION SALE’ decked across the store.

A lot of products were still in stock, but some shelves were completely empty. One corner of the store had been cleared entirely. 

Homebase's demise has been years in the making. Hilco Capital acquired the company for £1 in 2018 and has since closed more than 100 stores.

The Harrogate store is one of 119 Homebase sites in the UK remaining and one of five in Yorkshire. The others are at Leeds, Bradford, Selby and Hull.

Homebase chief executive, Damian McGloughlin, last year said the past three years had been “incredibly challenging” for DIY stores. 

Shoppers will be hoping its next chapter as The Range heralds a change of fortune in Harrogate.