Design on a Dime

After all the unexpected renovations that we had to do to our basement due to flooding this summer and mold issues Brett and I are very quickly learning how broke you can get when you are a home owner and disaster strikes!

Lucky for us, we did have the saving to cover the damage. However the huge chunk of change that we had to drop also meant that we needed to put ourselves on a tight budget to build back our savings. Which therefore meant that if I wanted to decorate the kids new play room I was going to have to make everything myself.

My first project was furniture! We had tons of mismatched furniture that we weren't using in other parts of the house (a side table, a small book shelf, a magazine rack, and two twin mattresses). The only issue was that everything was in different woods and colors. A few cans of spray paint solved that problem and I tied the room together by painting them all blue.

With the twin mattresses we decided to stack them on top of each other and using pillows we created a couch effect for the kids to watch TV on. When we have couples visiting the top mattress can be pulled down next to the bottom mattress to make a king sized bed.

My next project came to mind after spotting a huge antique frame in my mom's garage. She wasn't using it and said I could paint it if I wanted. Taking the same spray paint as I used for the furniture I painted the frame blue, and then nailed it directly to the wall. Next we purchased chalkboard paint (a paint that gives the finish of a black board) and painted inside the frame for a useful and decorative addition for the kids.

Next I wanted some other wall decor, and after spotting a canvas with the alphabet on it at babies-r-us I had my inspiration! First I found 26 frames in our storage closet and around the house that I wasn't using (or didn't mind giving up). Once I had found them all I arranged them on the floor to figure out what frames would have each letter.

The next step was painting! I had more of that blue spray paint, so I lay everything out on our patio and got to painting.

While I was painting my friend Sarah used her new Cricut Machine (an electronic dye cut tool) to cut out the A-B-Cs in different sizes and colors to match the decor in the playroom's bedding.

After the paint dried we assembled all the frames, and hung them in the play room:

The whole thing cost me under $400 because I already had all the furniture and most of the supplies:

Wall paint - $20
Black board paint - $14
4 cans of spray paint - $24
Bedding - $200
A-B-C Floor mat - $30

On the HGTV show they get a $1000 budget, so I think I did pretty well!