Downing Street flat: 6 ways Carrie Symonds could blow any home renovation budget outside John Lewis

Everyone’s talking about home renovations this week, but it’s not because a new episode of Grand Designs just dropped.

The refurbishments in question focus on the Downing Street flat, which Boris Johnson and his fiancee Carrie Symonds revamped in a bid to get rid of Theresa May’s “John Lewis nightmare”.

There are claims - made by the PM’s former top aide, Dominic Cummings, no less - that Mr Johnson intended to have Tory donors “secretly pay” for the refurbishment of the four-bedroom residence.

While prime ministers have an annual allowance of up to £30,000 of taxpayer’s money to go towards the cost of refurbishing the space above No 11, it has been reported that the couple spent as much as £200,000 on the four-bedroom residence.

A friend of Ms Symond’s provided some kind of explanation for the cost claims to the Daily Mail - apparently she has “exquisite taste”.

But the newspaper alleged that the PM raged to aides that his fiancee’s taste was so exquisite that the cost of the decor, which included “gold wallpaper”, was “totally out of control”.

So, what could Ms Symonds possibly have bought to rack up the rumoured reno cost?

Here are six things she might have considered.