{$100 Room Challenge} Week 2 and Week 3 Update

Welcome to week 3 of the $100 Room Challenge! For those just tuning in, this challenge involves taking on one space, and giving it a makeover, in one month’s time, with $100 or less.

For my $100 room challenge, I am working on our family den that has great bones but is a bit lackluster. This space gets used daily and is really where we like to kick back so I want it to feel comfy, cozy and casual. 

As a reminder, here is the before:

Today I am giving an update on what I have been up to the past two weeks. If you are wondering if you missed the week 2 update, I was not able to get one together. Because Irma. #enoughsaid 

However, had I shared an update last week, I would have talked about how I got busy busy busy shopping the house for furniture and accessories I could use. It was productive and I had a good starting point for getting the shelving styled.  I really didn’t want to rob Peter to pay Paul – in other words- I didn’t want to take anything from rooms I was already using for this room. 

Y’all. WHY IS SHELF STYLING SO HARD? I have seriously spent at least 2 hours working on these built ins so far. My biggest challenge is all of the glass shelving. With everything open it just looked so super busy to me. The people that lived here before had a nice sports memorabilia collection so it all looked great here. Hmmmm….. My solution so far is to remove the glass panel in 3 of the 5 shelf areas and use larger items there. I am still not super stoked about the styling but I will keep tweaking it this week.  Total cost so far= $3

OK, next up is the happiest accident I could have ever stumbled upon! I needed a mirror for one of the walls in this room. The only mirror I had hanging around not being used was a tiny one with clothespins glued all around it from a laundry room project I did years ago. Hmmmmmm…….this was not going to cut it. I thought about getting some wood shims to make it a starburst but then it hit me. I had our Restoration Hardware driftwood wreath that still needed a home. Would you believe that the mirror I had on hand fit perfectly behind the opening of the driftwood wreath. I’m telling you- this was destiny!

Chunky, textured mirror? Check! 

I ended up just hanging them both seperate on the wall so they are not even glued together if I need to use them somewhere else someday. Although I can’t imagine that happening because I LOVE this happy accident!

OK, so far- only $3 spent! Woo woo! Next up- we will talk about lamps. I had two white lamps (that I painted from brass years ago) but no lampshades. Notice I didn’t say a pair of lamps? They are not actually a matching pair- but hey close enough! My mom was on the case for some lampshades for me and she tracked down 2 matching lampshades for 2 bucks a piece. While they were cute and would look good as is in another space, they wouldn’t work for this room… 

I just grabbed a paintbrush and some leftover Repose Gray paint I had on hand and went to town. It did take 3 coats to get them covered but now they are a very light gray. Total spent: $4

Next up, see that sofa table in that lamp picture above? I bought it before we got married so approximately 14 years ago. But up until yesterday it didn’t look like that.

Here is what it used to look like:

It was dark brown with a glass top. It has been bothering me for around 11 of the past 14 years but it’s size and shape is really just perfect for behind a sofa so I have always held on to it. To make it more modern, I decided to paint it black and give it a new wooden top. I found a piece of birch 2′ x 4′ plywood at Home Depot and had them cut it down to size- which was actually only one cut since the table is 4′. Then I used some stain I had on hand to give it a nice warm coat of walnut.

I am in LUUUURVE. 

Total cost: $21.15

Definitely should have done this years ago!

Phew- I have been busy y’all! OK, moving on to that fern art you see. When I went to my frame stash, it was pretty limited because I tossed most of my junk before we moved. I did however, hold on to these three white frames that used to hold my triptych octopus art. So I found some free botanical fern art, used some black fabric to create a “mat” and printed it at my local kinkos. 9 sheets at $0.65 a piece + tax = total cost is $6.20

And the last update for this week is this chair. In my original post I said I was going to be on the hunt for a chair and accent table for this corner of the room. Well, I didn’t have to hunt very far. The black dresser was being used as a temporary nightstand in the master but I recently found us a new pair so this one came down here. (more on the new nightstands soon!) On moving day, this leather chair landed up in Sweet P’s room for lack of a better place to put it at the time. Seeing as how I don’t see him lounging up in this chair up in his room any time soon (or more like EVER) this chair got moved down and is perfect for this room! This was one of the first pieces of furniture The Big Sweet and I bought so it has now served us well in 8 homes! Total cost = $0

OK- I think that is all for now! Still a few things to do before the reveal next week. I am actually heading to NYC for the Better Homes & Garden StyleMaker event so this room actually needs to be ready to go by this weekend. I better get busy!

So let’s review the to-do list:

• fill and style the built in bookshelves PROGRESS! Total cost so far $3
• add an accent chair and table to side wall  DONE! Total cost $0
• add a leather ottoman and fun throw pillows to break up sea of gray sectional-  STILL NEED!
• add art on walls- DONE!  Fern Art and Driftwood Mirror- Total cost $6.20
• add side tables and lamps- PROGRESS! Wooden table top and 2 lampshades Total cost $25.15
• accessorize- PROGRESS! Total cost so far $0

OK, so it looks like I have spent $34.35 so far. 

Not bad. Not bad at all! 

Be sure to check out what everyone else has been up to in the links below. 

xoxo-

Heather

Week 1  |  Week 2 & Week 3  |  Week 4