Guest Bedroom Make Over: On a Budget and Shopping Local

Have you ever looked at a room in your home and thought, “I’d love to give this room a facelift but I just don’t have the budget!” Well think again. In this post, I’m going to take you on a DIY journey re-doing a guest bedroom for under $75! From the headboard to lamps, I’ve got you covered on all the tips and tricks to make your room shine. Here’s what I was working with. To start this project and find some inspiration, I headed over to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Buffalo. Its one of my favorite places to shop; when you are finding amazing treasures and supporting a good cause you really can’t go wrong. While I was there I found some paint, hardware and knobs I needed but I was still looking for that one big statement piece for the room. Side note: I totally could have used the white vanity in my bathroom re-do had it been here a couple of months ago! It was only $25 but I digress… Then I turned the corner and bam! I saw my inspiration for the room. I found this very head board for under $20! Now from a far you may think it looks like you wouldn’t have to do a thing to it, but it was really dirty and stained and was screaming for a make over. Challenge accepted! I ended up leaving restore with a headboard, two lamps, a mirror, an end table and other supplies to get me going on this project. Total spent so far: $25! When I was done there and figured out what supplies I needed, I headed over to Valu Home Centers. After being absolutely ecstatic about all my finds I started working. Let the fun begin!

Headboard Re-do For this project you’ll need:

existing upholstered headboard (shown above)
sheet of thin wood (3.5 ft x 4ft -for a full bed)
staple gun and staples
screws and washers
painters tape (or similar tape)
screw driver (electric is best)
hammer
scissors
upholstery fabric (I had some laying around that I used for this project)

First remove the existing fabric. I used a screw driver to get the fabric loosened so I was able to then rip it off. Once you have the first layer of the fabric off, inspect the other layers to make sure you’re okay to layer the new fabric on top. Thankfully, this headboard was in really good shape underneath! Using my scissors, I cut the fabric to size, leaving about 6 inches over the edge of the frame. Once I had the fabric cut, I used my staple gun to begin attaching the fabric to the frame. Carefully, pulling it as tight as possible, I folded over the edges to make a clean line when stapling it. Keep in mind, it doesn’t have to look beautiful on the back because no one is going to see it once its in the room. Exibit a: Once I was finished with the stapling, I brought over my sheet of thin wood (3.5 ft x 4ft -for a full bed) and my wood screws. I used 12 screws to attach the wood to the headboard. You’ll notice I left about a foot and a half at the bottom. That will be how it eventually attaches to the wall. Next, I began to measure where the headboard would attach on the wall. I used painters tape to map out where level is on top and the bottom. Finally, I used the remaining screws and washers (for extra support) to attach the wood frame to the wall. I screwed in a total of 8 screws and washers to attach the wood frame right into the drywall of the room.

Next up… Lamp Re-do

For this project you’ll need:

lamps
sand paper
painters tape
spray paint

By the way, have you ever seen the spray paint collection at Valu?! It is practically endless. There were so many options to choose from, I ended up going with a really beautiful silver. Here are what the lamps looked like before I spray painted them. To redo these babies it was pretty simple. I sanded them with a fine grit sand paper, wiped them down with a clean cloth, and taped off the chords and the tops.

Paint away! When spray painting, be sure to do one thin coat, let it dry and then do a second coat. (Don’t get too close or the spray paint will drip!)

Staging and the Reveal For this project you’ll need:

outlet covers
baseboards and nails
hammer and screw driver
pillows, linens and blankets
picture frames, decor and other items you want to decorate the room with

Once I had all my projects done, I started piecing the room together. I attached baseboards to the bottom of the walls with nails – it was really simple since the boards were already painted white. Then I moved on to the bed, where I used leftover fabric from the headboard project to put together some accent pillows to tie everything in. Staging the accessories is so much fun! Keep in mind its best to go in groups of threes. Three flowers, three books, three items clumped together looks fabulous.