Bedroom Makeover with 0$ Budget

THIS WAS SCARY! Let us start with this!

I am an architect and a co-founder of a design office, but this is the first time I take design decisions on the spot and I do all the work by myself with no help. (Well minor help from my fiancée and my mother.)

This post is going to be the full “walkthrough” of the flip.   

To start with, we moved to this house 15 years ago and I never had the chance to design my room the way I wanted to. It was like I had to have closets so that’s what we added, and then two years ago I had to add more closets and a mirror and we couldn’t find the exact same wood color so we had to use white wood. Everything felt weird. The room was functional but it wasn’t something I wanted to spend my time in. 

So, I decided to flip this room having NO BUDGET! I just had to get some paint, and some minor accessories to style the room with as soon as it’s done.

This makeover proves that minor changes can make a big difference. 

Here are the before pictures:

Green and off white walls, scattered pictures on the walls, and a red bed cover. 😬

Step 1: Designing the room

I think we all agree that the first step was to remove the green walls and replace them with ANY OTHER COLOR. So I got grey paint for the walls and a combination of dark blue and grey for the accent wall that I wanted to design behind the bed. What I really wanted to do was to keep the closets I added two years ago and work with what I have since my budget was almost close to zero dollars!

Tip 1: Always start with some inspiration pictures. Go to Pinterest and create an inspiration board. This way you know what you want to do and where to start.

Step 2: Remove everything from the room and start painting

 Tip 2: Paint changes everything! It is always a good time to repaint your walls and it changes all your space. If you have a small room, paint the walls in a light color to make your room feel bigger. 
(I will be writing a blog about everything related to colors and paint soon.)

Step 3: Design the accent wall

For the past year, I fell in love with geometric wood art design and I really wanted to try it. Let us just say THIS WAS THE HARDEST PART. It was really hard because I had to do it alone. So if you are willing to try it these are the steps I made.

• Take dimensions. Find the center of the wall. 
• Draw the design you would like to make ON THE WALL.

•  If you are working alone the easiest way is to place the wood on the wall over the drawing you made and start cutting them one by one to complete the design.

• When you are done cutting you can fix them on the wall using wood adhesive.

•  IT IS TIME TO PAINT

• And you are done!

Tip 3: Always design an accent wall. An accent wall can be a wall with a wallpaper, an art wall or anything that makes it stand out in your room.

Step 3: DIY

This was my favorite part. I had the chance to Diy two items, the wall sconces next to my bed and the ceiling light fixture.  

For the lights next to my bed, I created two wall fixtures with the wood I had left from the accent wall. I cut them to the exact sizes and used adhesive to put them together. The important part is to make a hole in the wood that fits the light strip to slip it inside. After they are dry, I painted them and fixed them on the wall. This DIY was inspired by a YouTube video I watched by the sorry girls, you can find it below. 

 

For the second DIY, the ceiling light fixture, I have a little hack for you. Ceiling light fixtures can be a little expensive. What you can do is go and shop for a basket, any basket! What I found was a simple black steel basket with perforations all around. Note: Don’t forget to check the size of the light bulb inside the basket before purchasing it because you don’t want it to be bigger. Finally, you just need to flip the basket and fix it to the bulb’s wire and there you go, you have a ceiling light fixture!

An additional hack for you guys, spray paint is magic. I spray painted all my silver cabinet hardware gold and it made a huge difference. 

Tip 4: If you are on a budget, DIY-ing is always the best option.

Step 4: Final touches- After Pictures

Just some styling and some final color touches and I got myself a new room.

Tip 5: Accessories make the room stand out. No matter how much you spend on paint or layout, the accessories in the room are what makes the room feel special and interesting. Add things like pictures, storage boxes, plants, pillows or any other items that makes the room feel like it is yours.

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