Last month’s Lowe’s challenge took longer than we expected due to some travel (first my husband, then me), and my need to make every detail perfect. I think in the end it paid off.
Lowe’s Creative Ideas sent us a $300 gift card to help us makeover one area of our home. We had lots of ideas. Our living room/office, the dining room, maybe it would make a dent in a bathroom remodel? In the end we chose the room that needed some love and attention-our master bedroom. We needed to turn it into a love nest. No, not that kind (get your mind out of the gutter), but the kind of space that makes you feel nourished and full of love for the life you have.
Living in a relatively small home, our bedroom is the only place we can ‘retreat’ in the house, and close the door. We wanted a relaxing space, but knew on a $300 budget it would be tough to get everything done we needed to. Somehow we made it happen though, and I’m thrilled to show you the results.
Before:
Note: I’m having issues uploading the ‘before’ photos, and will continue to work on trying to fix it. Bear with me.
In total it took us about 3 weeks. We started the project the week before my husband was away, and I took a trip the following week to a conference for four days. It really took us a total of about 30 hours to do all the labor, but since it was spread out it wasn’t too bad.
To start we removed everything from our room, putting some items in the kids rooms which they cleverly charged us rent for each week of the project. At $5/week per kid it wasn’t cheap, but we were happy to do it since it allowed us to makeover our room.
Next we headed to Lowe’s with the kids in tow to look at paint samples. The kids love to pick their own samples so they kept them occupied while we looked at colors. We still love the bright and light color we chose for the family room, and thought something similar might work in our room. Our bedroom gets a ton of natural light though, so we knew we wanted something slightly darker, but still light and neutral enough that we could change out the bedding or curtains anytime.
We chose a color called “Sandstone” and picked up two gallons in no VOC formula from Olympic. We also picked up a gallon of ceiling paint since the can I had at home was no good anymore.
While we were there we also purchased a ceiling fan to replace the hideous fan that was in our room. Brass fittings and white, and those annoying spotlights underneath that blind you-yuck. We also picked up some electrical supplies since EVERY outlet and light switch in the house has been painted over in a flat white paint. (We fix them room by room as we remodel) They had to be carefully cut off to remove them without destroying the walls.
Once we had our supplies I got to work. I started with sanding down all the walls. I don’t know what the previous owners did to them when they painted them for sale, but there are brushstrokes EVERYWHERE. Even after sanding down all the walls they are still somewhat noticeable if you look closely, but as with everything in our house we know it will never be perfect, but it’s SO much better now.
In retrospect I should have done the sanding prior to buying supplies, but I’m usually not motivated to start a project unless I have almost everything on hand.
Once the sanding was done (and I had the sore arm muscles to prove it) I ‘broomed’ the walls, vacuumed up all the dust, and planned some time when I could tackle the painting. Since most of my days are very stop and go all day long I opted for a chilly and rainy Sunday to paint. I fed the kids, got them some activities, put on a movie (with strict instructions that ONE movie was plenty) and then headed in to paint.
Armed with some tunes I got to work, and 6 hours later (phew!) I had the ceiling painted and one coat done on the walls. The second coat went up the following day.
Now that the paint was finally done I was ready for painting the baseboards, interiors of the closet, and the rest of the long checklist I had. But I had to leave for a few days, so everything got put on hold for about a week.
I tackled the final painting projects, and over this past week we killed the power and my husband took care of installing the new electrical outlets, and getting the fan installed (that took two tries to get right since one of the fan wires came loose).
We were finally able to remove all our gear from the kids’ rooms on Sunday, and put our room back together (mostly). I re-hung the curtain rods (higher and further away from the windows to add the illusion of height in the room), and we put the closet doors back in on Monday night.
Here are the after pictures with my commentary, since there are still a few things that need improving and I’d love your input!
This is the view from the door to the master bedroom.
You can see how low the bed is in this view. We slept this way for years when we were co-sleeping, so it doesn’t bother me, but I’m excited to try something different with our headboard/bed frame in the future.
This is the long wall with the door you enter. This is my dresser, and I’m still not sure what to hang here. What do you think?
This was the big challenge in our bedroom. These closet doors are floor to ceiling and were a hideous almond color with rust stains (BARF). I’ll be sharing how I made these over and why we reused these in place of new closet doors in another post.
This is the window wall. I love, love, love how these curtains look in here. I bought them for the family room, but think they were made for this room.
Here’s a breakdown of what we did to transform our master bedroom:
Sanded and painted walls, trim, and ceiling.
Replaced electrical outlets, switches, vent covers, and ceiling fan.
Painted closet doors.
Painted closet door and interior hardware.
Supplies list and cost breakdown:
5 bottles white semi-gloss spray paint by Rustoleum (for closet doors) $21.10
Electrical outlets and supplies $36.58
Painting supplies $12.89 (we had much of what we needed on hand already)
Ceiling paint $19.47
Wall paint $47.94
Calera 52″ ceiling fan with light $99.98
Total cost for our room makeover: $237.98
Other things we used that we had on hand:
Wall anchors
Vent covers for return and heat/AC
Paint supplies: paintbrushes, roller tray, disposable roller covers, spackle
Electrical supplies (wire cutter, voltage checker)
Other tools
Still to do:
A New Bed Frame: We discovered out metal bed frame (that holds the boxsprings and was attached to our headboard) was broken, so we’re deciding what we want the bed frame to look like. We have a headboard we scored really cheap at the Potter Barn Outlets that we may repurpose, or we may buy a new bed frame. I’ll keep you updated once we decide.
Bedding: The comforter we’re using is SO comfy, but it’s a queen size. I have my eye on a comforter at Target, but it’s not in the budget just yet.
Art/photos/mirrors for the walls: This part is always tough for me. I want calming-so I’m thinking about making a painting, and hanging a mirror we already have. There are three areas I want to tackle-the space above my dresser, the space above Bob’s dresser, and the wall that is next to the curtains (it’s what you see directly ahead of you when you look into the room).
Lamp choices: I’m not 100% sold on the lamps we have in the room, but they work for now.
Now it’s your turn! Enter to Win a $100 Lowe’s Gift Card for your own Mini Makeover:
Winner of the $100 Lowe’s gift card is Jennifer Moyer! Congrats!
Kelly Disclosure: As a member of the Lowe’s Creative Ideas Bloggers and Creators Network I received a $300 gift card to aid in the purchase of supplies for this project.
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