Thrifty Thursday 05: Budget Bedroom Refresh
Apologies in advance for some of these pictures. A lot of these were candid pics taken for text conversations, Facebook comments, Craigslist etc. Never intended on using them here!
Hey all!
This has been a post long-coming, but our room is finally at a point where I feel it can be shared. It might not be complete, but it's close!
I originally started our refresh by giving mom our big blue headboard, since it looked ridiculous on our tiny bed. I replaced it with this white antique one, and almost immediately hated it.
First, I had to buy a conversion kit for antique head boards and foot boards. Older bedframes had hooks that slid into slots on the headboard & foot boards, while today's frames allow you to bolt your pieces on.
Not the cheapest thing in the world, but the headboard itself was only $5, so I couldn't complain too much. Problem was, the bolts that came with the kit sucked, and the ones for my old headboard were far too long. I ended up having to use the old headboard bolts, because they would at least tighten to keep the kit from twisting and turning & throwing the headboard in all sorts of directions.
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| Conversion Kit for antique headboards/foot boards |
I quickly realized my mistake when I saw how far back the headboard was from the box spring & mattress: a full 7" space was between them, which meant pillows were getting eaten in seconds. No bueno.
Then, the 1920s dresser didn't fit where I wanted it (oh yeah, ps I finished that, you guys- bad blogger didn't make a post about it). It looked ridiculous no matter where it was in this room, but it was less in-the-way next to the bed, so my nightstand was banished to another corner of the room.
Crisis mode, people. I hated everything in this room. I wanted it all gone. Aaron told me he was going to headbutt me because I'd just "finished" it, and I already hated it and wanted to change it again.
Enter Salvation Army. After a particularly crappy day at work & class, I decided to go to the happiest place on Earth. I ended up torturing myself by doing so.
You see, lately, MCM furniture has been calling my name, screaming it from the mountain tops. I've been drooling over MCM bedrooms with original bed sets, dressers, and chairs. I've been pinning printable graphics like a mad woman. And then this showed up.
This 1950's bed frame was staring at me, begging me to take it home. But I had just paid bills, and even its measly little $50 (!!!!!) price tag was too much that day. I knew I'd have to leave it behind, and regret it for the rest of eternity.
You see, to most people, it's just a $50 wooden bed frame. To me, it's a full sized (perfect), sturdy, beautiful piece of furniture that, elsewhere, would sell for upwards of $1,300 in this condition.
And remember the bed frame crisis from the white headboard? I wouldn't have to worry about it, because this had the original framing, which meant no conversion kit needed. Cue happy dance.
I snapped a few pictures, whined to everyone I knew about it, and cried inside. I went home (still exhausted by the day, and now disappointed about this stupid bed) and moped around watching Netflix (current guilty pleasures below...I've watched through most of Haven with my Dad before. Scandal is a whole new show; I'm 4 seasons deep & I can't stop).
Then Aaron came home & agreed to buy me the frame for an early Christmas gift & made the day better. He's my favorite; I know all he thought was, It's another piece of furniture. We don't need another piece of furniture! But he's nice & knew that it meant getting rid of the pillow eating fiend that we were dealing with, and that I'd probably beat myself up over it for the next few days if he didn't. He knows I'm sick like that.
He and his grandma picked it up while I was at work that weekend, and we put it together soon after. So then the room looked like this. Still incredibly stupid, but the bed was so much better.
One night, I'd had enough of the ridiculousness with that dresser. I weaseled it into the closet, put my nightstand back, and cleaned up the mound of dirty clothes. I brought in a cane back chair (from someone on Facebook), dragged in a snake plant from the other room, and brainstormed on wall decor ideas.
The deer head could stay, but everything else seemed wrong, both color/style & size wise. I gathered up some thrift store baskets ($0.59-1.99 each) I'd been collecting for wall decor, & arranged them above the bed. I brought in a woven tapestry to cover up the anchors and holes on my side of the bed (I haven't patched them yet), and still something was off.
I asked my Facebook cronies for assistance, and ended up with these two options (complete with Netflix nest pillow arrangement).
Over all, the room feels much better. The quilt rack needs to be moved, and the art above Aaron's nightstand needs to be more cohesive with the room. We also still have my big nautical map that currently works, but I'd like to replace it eventually with something more fit for the style of the room.
I'm thinking about doing something along these lines (I already have the ladder), but using our plain white frames to have some black & white photos. That way the ladder is the focus & it doesn't look cluttered, but we can still personalize it a bit.
Right now, this room makeover has come in for under $100:
- Bed frame: $50 Salvation Army
- Baskets: $8.50 Salvation Army
- Chair: $10 Facebook
- Snake plant: $15 (when purchased for another room) Home Depot
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