WHEN Samantha Hall moved into her new house last summer she knew it would take more than a bit of spit and polish to turn it into her dream home.

But she never dreamed that a whole team of experts from BBC daytime TV show House Invaders would help out.

After a month of decorating Samantha sat down to watch a TV film she had recorded and an advert for House Invaders came on so she leapt into action.

Yesterday a team of 15 arrived in Great Harwood led by assistant producer Jean Campbell, presenter Linda Barker and handymen Phil Turner and JJ Martinez.

After initial worries when Samantha ran out of milk and mugs and the clutch went on the crew's van the transformation of kitchen, lounge and a bedroom got under way.

The TV DIY team recycles existing materials from the house. Now in its fifth series, the show is watched by 1.8million viewers and the team has helped more than 200 families.

Samantha, 36, was horrified by the colour scheme and amount of woodchip in her Spring Avenue house when she and daughter Sophia, three, moved in last June. She said: "There was woodchip everywhere which I couldn't stand and a peachy pink colour scheme which is not my taste at all.

"The kitchen was awful too as it was really tacky and even though I don't cook I wanted it to look good."

Samantha, a nurse, had already given the team a head start by replacing all the internal doors, having double-glazing fitted and stripping the dreaded woodchip.

After examining the contents of Samantha's front room which included wood, old doors, tins of paint, a vast array of ornaments and Robbie Williams pictures the team had seven hours to complete the job.

First off was Samantha's bedroom which she was banned from seeing until the new look was complete. The bedroom already had a gothic theme with a wrought iron bed frame and other matching furniture but the design team swapped the plain white walls for two shades of flamingo pink and added shelving and rich aubergine velvet curtains as well as rearranging the overall layout.

The next room for the magic touch was the lounge which had a paint job to the chimney breast and a feature made of the window looking out into the rear yard. The team adapted a wooden blind which Samantha had bought but not put up as it was too short. But the addition of a pelmet and varnished wooden frame around the window was just the job. Spare wood was also used to make a contemporary coffee table.

Finally the team tackled the kitchen by adding some metallic paintwork to the cupboards, more shelving and a new orange colour scheme to brighten the room up as opposed to the previous pale blue.

Samantha said: "It's really, really nice what they have done, I couldn't have hoped for anything more.

"They painted the bedroom pink and the living room cream and brown and Linda even made some great art work for the walls downstairs. The whole place just looks a lot better now and feels a lot more like home. They've done a great job and I certainly won't want to change anything. It's all staying just as it is."

Other changes carried out by the team included making a wooden table for downstairs, painting the kitchen doors with metallic paint and putting up shelves and a blind in the living room.

The programme is set to be screened in November or December this year.