Today's Before and After: Spare Bedroom Reveal

I thought I'd begin this post with the ORIGINAL "Before" photo from when we had just bought our home:

This was the very first room we began removing staples from the same evening that we closed escrow. Don't let me be the first to say it has come a long way. After all, we did buy a pot farm.

After endless searching for a real "Before" photo of how our room really has looked for the last year, I found that I was unsuccessful. This is probably the closest we'll get for now. After all, it's pretty close, except minus the painting, and throw on an old comforter from Brandon's college apartment (actually he had it in high school too) and there you'd have it.

Then I thought I'd try to spruce up this room as budget friendly as possible. I started picking up little things here and there at thrift shops and figured I'd go for sort of a mismatched feel until we could afford to really overhaul the room. However, it wasn't exactly doing it for me.


Then design A.D.D. struck.

I decided to play off the color scheme in these pillows and tie it in with the $4.00 artwork I found at Goodwill. After all, that tied in pretty good with the rest of our colors in our home.

So, I went with stripes. But decided the whole room was a bit much.


And here it is now:

Skipper absolutely LOVES this blanket. Seriously. She will meow incessantly if you are on it until you move so she can lie down.


The bedding is from my old bedroom, but flipped upside down to hide the print on the other side.


We also angled the bed so it didn't look so smashed into the corner. We did lose some floor space, but I love the look of the angle with the new $10 headboard I found on Craigslist. Originally, I planned to paint it, but when we got it in there the worn wood looked perfect.

Because the spare bedroom doubles as our office, the bookshelf (which has been sitting empty at the top of our staircase for a while) was remodeled into a storage/filing area thanks to some filing boxes I found on sale at Target for only $2.00 each!


Doesn't Skipper make the best prop?

Our other kids wanted in on the action.


I plan to add a little metal wall shelf below the mirror to beef it up a little bit and turn it into a little wall-mounted nightstand. I've heard some mixed reviews about the size of the mirror, but I love the look (the photos haven't been able to exactly capture it just right).

Izzy especially loves the Dwell Designs pillow (sold at Target) that I found at Goodwill for only $3.00! Score.

And everyone loves a little before and after. So, here is our update (and much more organized) desk area. I couldn't believe what a difference it made moving the little metal file cabinet over by the window. Not only did it allow for more elbow room, but it cleaned up the whole space.

P.S. That desk might see a new shade of stain soon!


The Breakdown:

Bedding: Already owned
Frogger Tape: Already owned
Paint: $10 for a quart of Valspar's "Footpath" (blue)-- I already had leftover "Nutria" from our Kitchen
Blanket: $20 @ TJ Max
Mirror: $12 @ Marshall's
Bookcase: Already owned
Filing Boxes: $6.00 total--$2 each @ Target
Fabric for pillow covers: $6
Headboard: $10 on Craigslist
Artwork: $4 @ Goodwill
Dwell Studio Pillow: $3 @ Goodwill
Curtain Rod: $14 @ Tuesday Morning
Curtain Fabric: $15

Grand Total: $94.00!

Not too bad, eh? How about you? Done any sprucing up lately?