Miss Bailey’s Room Makeover for less than $50

So last January I decided that since my Grand-daughter Miss B is here 5 out of 7 nights a week usually, because her poor Mama had to be at work by 4am, she needed her own space and to get out of Kara’s old room and have her own room.  It was time to turn that spare bedroom back into a real bedroom.  But I had to do it on a small budget. Like less than $50!

I found a solid wood dresser in the classifieds in my Neighborhood group on line for $10!!! Had some blemishes, but was in great condition.  I had left over paint from previous year when I painted the room so decided to make chalk paint to use on the main part of the dresser.  I wanted to finish the top in a worn wood look for accent.  Sorry, wish I had taken photos of the process, but I’ll try and explain.

One way to make homemade chalk paint is to use 1 Cup Latex paint, 2 Tablespoons of non-sanded grout and a little water for mixing the grout.  I used chalk paint because there is very little prep work involved. i.e. no sanding! I did use my hand sander on the top of course to take off the entire finish since I wanted to stain it a darker wood.  The only downside to using the grout over plaster of paris is it does have a little smell, not horrid, but there… and also it tends to clump up quickly and you need to add a little water and remix between coats.  It also doesn’t keep well even in a sealed container so only mix what you will need.  I didn’t have any Plaster of Paris so used what I had.  If you do your own chalk paint, I would recommend the plaster over the grout.  The recipe is 3 parts latex paint to 1 part plaster of paris and water to mix.

I used 2 coats on the dresser and also did a little night stand I had.  Then I distressed it by sanding on edges to give it a country chic kind of look and to go better with the worn wood top I wanted to do.

On the top I applied a mahogany stain, but applied heavier in some areas.  I had the stain leftover from a previous project.  Then I watered down a little black craft acrylic paint and rubbed that on some of areas to make it look more aged.  Used my sander once again and just touched a little of the edges for additional worn distressed look.  I LOVE how it came out!  I coated the entire dresser using a Wipe-on poly by Minwax because it seals it up with a gorgeous hand rubbed look like wax would give but so much easier.  This came out so good I did the same to an old nightstand I had, a coat rack found in a garage sale for $1, and a left over drawer from an old broken dresser I use in the garage as shelves. LOL I also did the same worn wood technique on a Day Bed I found on Craig’s list for $20 and spray painted the metal a flat black metal paint.  We did buy her a good new mattress though which I am not including in the makeover costs.

And while in the garage, I found some old picture frames, painted them. I put the fabric and ink art portrait I had made of Miss B and fairy wings in one, and stapled some twine inside one and used some mini clothes pins I had to hang photo booth photos of her and her Mom and Auntie and placed this in the drawer on her dresser.  Then I just added the others on top of her dresser just for fun.  Found a set of wings left over from a fairy that had broken years ago and put them in the drawer too. (No I’m not a hoarder, just couldn’t throw them away.)  And had an old brass lamp that I repainted to match the metal on the day bed,  some post cards of fairies that I put into frames too.  And that gave me the idea of making the twine balls chandler and putting fairy lights draped to and in it.  I learned how to make that from a Pin I found on Pinterest HERE.  I did this with Miss Bailey and her Mama and we had a blast getting all sticky. LOL  Found the Fairy Lights for a killer deal on Amazon for $11. They even have different settings like fading twinkling etc.  B loves them and gives her more light in the room too.

Also had some old wood pieces out there and made the “Love you More” sign using a stencil I made with my Brother Cutter and craft paint and bought some wood letters from local craft store and glued to painted blocks for the “Dream” blocks on her night stand.  Cut up and sanded some blocks and stained and distressed the edges with watered down black paint and put some inspirational words on them and stacked on her wall shelf.  I found the floating shelf in a garage sale too for $5.  Also found a poster frame I had never used… had a bunch of various blue paint store samples so I cut them all to one size and glued them to construction paper and put into the frame to make a calendar.  Then I used a dry erase marker to put the month and days.  OH and an old planter and wicker side table too! Used the planter as her trash bin and the side table I repainted same as everything else to hold her x-box and another garage sale find of a $1 wood crate to hold all her game discs.  Found a cork board in the garage too left over from one of the kids.  Painted the frame black to match better.

The wood table was my great-grandmother’s sewing table so I choose not to paint it being a family heirloom.  I did paint an old wood chair I had black previously so it fit in well. She could use those for a desk.  Had my old flat screen monitor in the garage from before I bought my Mac so now she can use that with her lap top and her x-box.

Hung up everything along with some canvas art I had made a few years back from her two favorite scrapbook pages. Had a few vintage Faeries books to complete the whole theme of what this room has now turned into. LOL Had the bed set, hamper and small lamp already that used to be my youngest daughter’s and they worked beautifully in here.  Took me about a week to do it all and most was done with Miss Bailey too.  She loves the room and even keeps it pretty clean! BONUS! LOL And the bigger bonus?!  I spent less than $50 to do it all minus the new mattress! It was a good week. 🙂

One day when they get a house near by and she is a little older to stay home alone, I told her she can take it all to her new house if she wants. But for now, she has her private space and a room she can call her own when she is here with us. 🙂  Here are some photos I took. You can click on them to see full size if you like. If you have any questions on something I made, please feel free to ask. I’ll do my best to explain better.