Room makeover on a budget

The people at Moneysupermarket have challenged us blogger types to makeover a room with a budget of £50.  Now, I'm always up for a thrifty challenge, but up til yesterday I feared I'd bitten off more than I could chew...particularly as I'd just fallen off the step ladder for the 2nd time and was doubled up with post-ceiling-painting-neck-cramp.

Can I start off by saying, I'm not proud of this appalling state of affairs, but in the spirit of before and after shots, I have to show the 'before' at it's absolute worst.  Right?  That's how it's done?

                         

Our much neglected downstairs loo, whilst being the smallest room in the house, is probably the one with the most roles to fulfil.  We've done nothing to it since moving in nearly 2 years ago, and I'm sad to say it has been very badly treated.  As well as being our downstairs toilet, it also houses all our coats (and hats; scarves; wellies; smelly trainers etc). Added to that it's the laundry room as the washing machine is situated there, it's where the dog sleeps and has her food and water bowls, and the previous occupants obviously had grand ideas of it being a wet-room - yes there's a shower too!  I guess you'd call it a little undefined...

Because it wasn't serving any of it's purposes well (and it's all too easy to simply shut the door on it), it got used as a dumping ground.  Shoes are slung in there; dirty gym kit waiting to go in the wash gets chucked on the floor; the overflowing coat cupboard meant that coats are hung from any available place, or stuffed on top.  My wine-making equipment had taken over.  Good grief, there was even a string of garlic hanging off the shower - don't even ask me.

Yep, it was time to tackle this mess!

    

The simplest, quickest and cheapest way to improve a room is to have a damned good sort out.  De-clutter; re-organise; re-arrange and deep clean.  So that's what I did.  Everything that didn't belong in there was given it's marching orders, then the place was scrubbed from top to bottom.  The windows were cleaned inside and out.  The washing machine was cleaned inside and out; the floor scrubbed; the tiles cleaned and buffed to a shine.  Vanish is great for stain removal and luckily I'd been sent some so I used that to deep clean the dog's bed.

Ordinarily I wouldn't start painting on a quick makeover, but there was no choice here.  The walls were covered in filler and bits of bare plaster where the previous owners had removed something from the wall to take with them.

Both the walls and ceiling were a dull buttermilk colour, so I used some white emulsion I had left over from previous decorating to paint the ceiling, and asked nicely for a pot of bright yellow paint for the walls - well, it was doing nothing in my father-in-law's garage!  It has made SO much difference.  It's so much brighter and lighter in there now, and it feels sunny and cheerful.  It's not a colour I'd use in a room that you live in, but here where most of the walls are tiled, and being a room which won't be occupied for any length of time, it's fabulous.

 


I'm not a huge fan of net curtains, but being downstairs and having a toilet and shower, it needed something, so I chose sunny yellow voiles for the French doors, and they too give a lovely light to the room.

Although this room is actually a new extension, the previous owners loved their period features and obviously spent a lot of time sourcing items from architectural salvage yards.  The improvements allow these antique pieces to shine.  I added a vintage toilet roll holder which I picked up at a car boot sale for £1, and various other stuff I've obtained over the years!

The canvas was from BHS, and the song is special to us, so I had to buy it!  It makes me smile every time I see it now.

The washing machine was already housed inside a tall cupboard, and now I've sorted out all my laundry products, it's great to have them all on-hand, but out of sight.

The whole place is clean, fresh and organised.

Finally, it is what it should be.

Total spend:

Loo roll holder - £1 car boot sale
Canvas print - £15 BHS
Voiles - £5.85 eBay
Shower curtain - £10.99 Dunelm Mill
Coat Hooks - 3 x £3 from Tiger (mounted on skip-found wood)

Total = £41.84 - the rest went on chocolate chip cookies for the worker's many tea breaks.

What do you think?  Better before or after?  What are your top tips for thrifty decorating?

Disclosure: Thank you to Moneysupermarket for providing the £50 for this makeover challenge.