Room Makeover on a Budget

We completed another room makeover last week for 16-25 Independent People.  This was rather a challenging room as this was a joint house with six individuals to listen to and pull together a room from their shared ideas.  It turned out surprisingly well we have to say!  The room had magnolia walls (as most seem to have in this project), a dark blue carpet and two red walls, no furniture and no real central point.

The budget was £300, £50 per person and we had the whole kitchen come dining room to fill!  The house mates generally wanted to create a space that they could use, sit in and eat meals together.  Pictures on the walls to make it more homely and a space that they would want to spend time in.

BEFORE

The original room was bare and cold.  No warmth or comfort at all.  We were rather excited with what we could achieve with this room as it was such a bare canvas to start with.

 PROPOSED ROOM PLANS

The House mates at first were a little sceptical, strangers (me and the support workers) entering their home and supplying them with mood boards and money to decorate the room.  We discussed the budget and what we could do for them.  The ideas soon started to flow and after a few shopping trips to local second hand shops, we sourced many items for such reasonable prices!!

The dearest outlay was £50 for a red corner sofa from Gumtree!! £50!! We know, AMAZING!  We then sourced an amazing dropped leaf table from Sofa Project in Old Market, again for the amazing price of only £30.  I think a rather large part of the budget was spent on paint which was unavoidable really.  We refreshed the whole room (with most house mates joining in!), painting most of the walls white.  Apart from the previously red walls which we revamped with a lighter Coral, just to add a little warmth really.  The colour works really well with the dark carpet which we couldn't really do that much with.

IN PROGRESS

 

AFTER

The house mates all contributed images that they wanted to hang on the walls, it works really well as a collective and the mismatched frames add to the eclectic tastes.  There was a roughly attached panel in the far right corner of the room which is access to pipes etc, we used a wooden trim and black board paint to make this into a feature and a useful corner instead of an eye sore.

The cushion covers were made from left over Ikea curtain fabric.  Tying in the scheme of blue and coral.

The stools were also an Ikea find with vibrant touches to add a personal touch to them.  Paint pot testers were a freebie donated by local groups.

The black blind was removed from the kitchen and replaced with a light voile, tie backs were made from left over curtain fabric to tie in the scheme.

The finished room was rather a success.  We sourced everything from either, Gumtree, Freecycle, Ikea or high Street second hand shops.  The total coming in at just under £300.  We managed to provide the house mates with a room that is functional.  A table to sit at and enjoy meals, a sofa to sit and relax on.  The open cupboard that had mysteriously lost the doors were improved by hanging a cheerful curtain with a fruit design which the house mates can colour in themselves.

ITEMS SOURCED

Feature Wall Paint	Dulux, Coral Flair	1	£22.95
Drop Leaf Table	Sourced from Sofa Project, Old Market	1	£30.00
Frames	Mixed collection - 5 of frames sourced from Country Studio Framing, Old Market	1	£10.00
Stools / Chairs	Frosta stool, Ikea	6	£8.00
Light Shades	Regolit pendant lampshade, Ikea	4	£1.50
Curtains	Mossflox, Ikea	1	£20.00
Sofa	Red L-shaped sofa, Gumtree	1	£50.00
Picture hooks	Fixa picture hooks, Ikea	1	£2.50
Throw	Gurli throw, Ikea	3	£5.50
Inner cushion pads	from Ikea	4	£1.50
Curtain pole	Irja, Ikea	1	£1.50
Clock	Rusch wall clock, Ikea	1	£1.95
Material	Hemtrevnad, Ikea	1	£14.70
Fabric Pens	from Ikea	1	£2.00
Picture frames	Mixed collection of 4 bargain frames from Ikea	1	£4.40
Picture frames	Nyttja colourful frames, Ikea	3	£2.50
LED lights	from Ikea	1	£3.00
Wood Primer & Undercoat	Wilkinson’s	1	£7.95
Hemming tape	Ebay	1	£2.97
Wooden trim / Chalkboard	B & Q	2	£3.50

We also managed to source rather a lot of items for free from various locations.  I'd like to thank all of the facebook groups that provided paint samples and left over fabrics that enabled us to add the finishing touches to the room.  Bristol you are such a generous city.

To find out more about the wonderful work which the charity 16-25IP do follow this link - 1625ip.co.uk/What-We-Do

House Renovating

We've been in our home now for two years and a month.  It feels like a long time, we've done quite a lot, but still have a fair bit left to do.

We've now completed the kitchen, whooo hooo.  After a lot of deliberation we finally settled on colours.  It's quite difficult compromising, when I would love to go really girly and Dan loves black and white, we aimed for a retro feel instead (I thought I can girlifie it later with curtains, pictures and
soft furnishings, I 'll just slowly ease them in!  sssshhh!!).

We opted for Dulux Apple White - A classic, clean pale green which can make a room feel fresh and alive. We used this on most of the main walls, but stayed below the dido rail.  Above we kept fresh and clean with a pure white.

Then we used a dark Overtly Olive - A calm, muted green that has an air of sophistication about it.  On the chimney breast wall.  As you can just about see in the below right image.

By using the same colour but in different shades you can create interest in a room without being too overpowering. Overtly Olive works well with Apple White.

 

The next project is to complete the bathroom, this was started about Easter last year.  

Since then we've been having a bath every morning, this started out as a luxury but soon wore of it. You get a bit fed up of getting up 20mins prior to bath time! 

Dan has been very good and made us a lovely swish bathroom. It feels such a luxury to use it now.  We have an awesome walk in shower that Dan designed and made for us.  If anyone wants a bespoke shower you know where to come! 

I have to give lots of praise to Dan as he has been  working so hard, I can't keep up with the pace he's going at.   Dan really encouraged me to apply to take part in the St Werburghs Arts Trail this year.  This has really spurred me on to start thinking creatively again.  It has also however given Dan a very tight deadline to work to.  Dan's aim is to complete the majority of the building work in the house prior to the Arts Trail which is at the end of September.  This involves getting the living room in a usable state, it has been our store room for the past two years, then also decorating the hallway and landing.  If anyone would like to lend a hand painting get in touch!!

The bathroom is almost there, we now have everything plumbed in and working.  It's quite long and thin so we opted for quite pale, light shades to make the space feel as big as we could.  However, we did splash out a bit and just added a feature wall of GOLD!  How bling!  I wasn't quite sure about it at first but I think it actually works really well.  It's not too over the top. 

As well as getting the bathroom to a more finished standard our spare bedroom needs to be completed Oooo I'd say in about 2 weeks tops!  We have family coming to stay so have a lot of work to do.  I'll upload more pics of this work soon.