Total Bedroom Makeover for under $350: From Boyish Blue to Totally Pink Princess

This tackle did not happen all at once. This tackle, which I finally think is done, has happened over the period of about six months or so. But, now that it is finally finished, I figured it was time to share.

Poor, poor Molly. For a few years, she has had the bedroom that was formally Jack's bedroom (before he and Noah began sharing a room). The reason that she is "poor Molly" (hey -- not really...she has had a bed and a roof over her head, which is more than most people in the world) is that she has been in a very drab, very blue room.

But, we left it like it was, because it was easier. Plus, it was a star-moon-clouds theme, so that was pretty unisex.

I didn't take pictures directly before we started, but here are a couple of pictures from when we first painted the room when we first moved into the house.

Finally, after Molly turned three, I couldn't help but start thinking about a pink, girlie room. I wanted something fun. But, a lot of my ideas seemed so expensive. But, with some work (and spreading it out over time), we were able to do most of what we wanted and stayed at right under $350.

I know -- this will still seem like a lot to some of you. But, take heart -- we spread it out over time, and also tried to see how we could use things we already had.

Here is the run down on what we did and how we spent our money.

1. We painted! And, not only did we paint, but we took two colors from the same paint chip and painted three walls a lighter pink and one wall (plus her closet) a darker pink. Remember -- paint is a wonderful way to change the look of a room without having to spend a fortune. (And, the cool thing is, if you really hate it, you can paint over it.) Cost for the paint: $60.

2. We used the shelf that we already had -- thankfully, it didn't sell at a consignment sale that I had it in. The shelf in this picture (below) is the same one as in the first picture above. We just spent $10 to change out the decorated knobs (stars and a moon) for plain white knobs. (What a fabulous and green thing to do -- reuse things you already have with slight changes!)

3. One of the last things that we did to the room (finally!) was to decorate the walls. We decided to go bold and use polka dots. These are all self-stick and peel right off. We only put dots on the walls from about five feet from the floor and then all the way up to the ceiling. The large dots were purchased at Lowe's for $10 per package (five dots each of all one color). So, the large dots cost us $30 (since we used purple, pink, and green). All of the other dots came in a package together that I picked up at Target for $17.

4. On the same trip to Lowe's when we bought the large polka dots, we went into the garden center and found this lovely fence/trellis for $23. We loved it, and thought it would be a perfect headboard for Molly's new bed! (It is plastic, so it is lightweight, but it doesn't look like wood, so that's even better!) Oh, and the best part? Since our total was over $50 (it was actually $53), we had a coupon for $10 off a $50 purchase. So, they took $10 off this trellis piece, and we ended up getting it for $13.

5. New Bedding! We let Molly pick out Disney princess bedding, which ran us $45 (sheets and comforter), as both were on sale.

Speaking of the bedding, in interest of full disclosure -- this room project was actually more expensive than $350. We actually spent another $250-ish to buy her bed. But, considering that she was getting close to being four and was still sleeping in her crib (yeah, yeah, don't give me a hard time -- she liked it and there was plenty of room), you know -- it was time for her to get a "big girl bed." Regardless of whether we were doing the room re-do, we would have had to have bought it, so I didn't include it in the master total for the purposes of redecorating.

6. We re-used another of the star/moon themed shelves! This was more subtle, so we actually didn't change anything on it.

7. We did buy the "Sweet Dreams" sign to sit on top of the re-used shelf. Found on sale for $8.00.

8. A Perfectly matched piece -- I found this tin princess sign at Target for $17. I might not have normally picked it up, but not only was it a perfect piece for this tiny bit of wall, but it exactly matched the darker pink wall (which runs parallel to the wall the sign went on). And, with having princess bedding, I thought this was too perfect to pass up.

9. Eric did a TON of work on her closet! He took off the ugly old doors, and we are storing them, in case we ever need them again. We painted the darker pink inside, which gives it a great depth. Eric took down the single hanging rod and built in this custom set -- designed by him just for Molly's closet. Cost for closet re-do (including baskets for closet and cubbies (seen in another picture farther down): Approximately $135.

10. In order to keep the dark blue curtains (and do something that Eric had been eager to do), we (along with my Mom) built a cornice box for the window. Although we just kind of figured it out on our own, here are some directions for building cornice boxes that sounds very much like what we did. We spent approximately $10 on the whole project. Eric already had the wood that someone had given him as scrap. So, my Mom and I went to Walmart and bought fabric that we thought would look nice with both the darker pink paint and navy blue curtains. So, other than Eric's time, our cost for the project was totally in the fabric and some batting.


11. We kept a set of cubbies that we had already put together from multiple sets of shelves from Walmart. We did add white baskets to some of the cubbies though (price listed in with the closet description).

Whew! I'm kind of tired just thinking of it all now! Although it seemed like a lot of work, it definitely helped that we worked on it just a little at a time. It made it both more do-able and more affordable! Plus, it really helped that we tried to find as many ways to do things ourselves and find inexpensive ways to buy new things.

What are some of your favorite ways to redecorate a room? Any fun tips or ideas?