Thrifty Thursday: A Room Redecorate for Under 20.00

Today, I decided to do Thrifty Thursday a little differently and show you what I've been up to the last little bit.  A lot of it was in the planning, figuring out a theme and such and then picking stuff up at garage sales, or more importantly from around my house, and putting the plan into action.

This was a direct result of my daughter really needing a reward of some type.  She started out this school year really behind due to a stomach condition that made her miss probably at least half the school year last year.  She worked hard at school, worked hard at home with me on her homework and as a result she finished the school year scoring average or above average in both math and reading!  It was a long hard road, but we got there.

My daughter recently has become obsessed with the book series "Fancy Nancy" and when she saw Nancy's "fancy" room she desperately wanted a fancy room of her very own.  Her dad and I sat down with her and told her if she worked really hard on her end of the year testing for school (which she did in spades) and cleaned her room before bedtime WITHOUT complaining (we just have kind of gotten used to a war at  night getting her to clean her room every day) I'd fancy up her room for her.  And she did everything we asked without complaining for the last three weeks.

So, this week it was time to repay her for all of her hard work.

Here's some pictures of her room before the redecorating.

One of the plans I had was to make it easy for her to clean her room by making the main floor space kind of minimalist in design.  You can see the just open bins of dress up stuff and things that were just around her room.  You can also see the top of her "tea table" that I set up for her to have her tea parties on that was kind of sitting in the middle of her room.  My daughter's room is kind of tiny, so I decided if she wanted a fancy room it needed to be kind of empty or it wasn't going to be looking very fancy at the end.  I didn't want to fancy up the room with tons of stuff and then my daughter just have MORE stuff to clean every night.  That seemed counter productive.  So, I worked out a plan/theme in my mind and went with it.

I decided the theme for her room would be, "A Garden Cottage by the Sea" and figured I could do a lot of the decorating with things I already had from around my house.  Her room was already decorated with butterflies (my handiwork on the curtains and quilt on her bed) so I figured a garden theme would work perfectly.  I then headed to the thrift store with a list of additional things I hoped to find/get to finish up the design work.  And I hit pay dirt.

Here are the pictures of the room after the redecorating I did.

The biggest purchase I made was this.

A limited edition painting of a cottage on a country road which was just PERFECT for what I wanted to do with the room.  It cost me 5.00.

A grape wreath for .50, a baggie of fake flowers for another .50 and some floral wire that I already had and voila.  A fancy wreath to hang.

Here's a view of her desk area.  I took some mason jars (which hurt to part with, but they were needed here) and sorted her drawing and painting things so she'll be able to find them easily at her desk.  My daughter loves to draw, so I wanted to make it that much easier for her to express her creativity.  On top of her desk I placed a lavender plant I had on top of my cabinets in the kitchen and then just organized part of her rock collection around the plant.  I also put up one of the wooden dolls that my mother-in-law has been picking up for my daughter when she finds them (we can't really do paper dolls around here because my son likes to eat paper).

I put a light green small tablecloth I had on my living room coffee table and placed it on her table with a doily I bought for 1.00 at the thrift store to dress up the space.  It really is amazing how a doily can make any space fancier isn't it?

In the small space between her closets I hung up some straw hats as an extra decorating element and the double bonus was that it got the hats up and away from falling on the floor, thus made it so they won't get wrecked over time.  I did buy the middle hanging hat for 1.00 at the used store, but it was such a nice touch to the room I couldn't pass it up.

Another big thing I did, which kind of hurt for me to do, was I took the small bookcase I had in my bathroom and moved it into my daughter's room.  I kept trying to avoid doing it, but I finally came to the conclusion that she needed a bookcase as I was picking the books she had been reading at night off the floor where they'd slid off her bedside table every night.  She has book shelves in her closet, but they are kind of high and hard to get to, so I knew she needed something that was lower and easy for her to access or the problem with floor books would continue.

So, I rearranged and got the bookcase in her room.  One of the things I bought for her room was some pineapple bookends I found for 1.50.  I took the books she had around her room and placed them on the bottom shelf of the bookcase.  This way she can take whatever book she's reading at night and place it on the bookshelf and it won't end up on the floor.

I took a basket I bought years ago that had been in my bathroom housing shampoos and things and placed it on the bottom shelf.  In it I placed her chap sticks, moisturizers and other self care things that were scattered all over her room.  On the upper shelf is a basket I found for .25 which I told her to put hair things in so she'll have a place for hair elastics and barrettes. And I dug her "Lorax" tree she made at school out of her closet and placed it on the shelf so she can enjoy it.

On top of the bookcase I placed a small crocheted blanket that my step-mom made that my daughter loves, but is kind of small to use as an actual blanket.  But it sure does fancy up the space.  And then I placed a couple of boxes my mother-in-law bought my daughter for her birthday that house little necklaces and things in them.  I also bought a tin on a whim that says "Spring" on it with a little girl holding flowers for .25.  I'm sure she can use the tin for something, but I thought it was super cute and went with the room well.

One of the main requests my daughter had for her room was that she wanted a mirror in it.  We tried to convince her she didn't need one with mirrored closet doors and all, but she insisted.  So, I took a mirror I had down in my den and hung it above the bookcase.

I also hung up some of my daughter's spring and summer themed artwork around the bedroom in places and took down her winter themed things to put into her closet until...well...winter.

As a last little touched I took a small vase I got for .50 and placed some of the shells I had previously in a hurricane vase in my den (it's part of a coastal theme design I have in the summertime in my den).  I put a big shell I found at the used store for 1.00 beside the vase (so she has a shell that she can actually play with).  Underneath I placed a book on herbs I had to span the gap behind her dresser so we don't lose any shells behind it at some point (herbs kind of went with the garden theme).  I do use the book from time to time, but it'll be easy enough to grab it for a few minutes here and there to take notes or whatever. 

I took the basket with her ponies in it and placed it over by her bed, mainly to discourage the space becoming a clutter catch all, which it always has become in the past.  I then took the rest of her things and managed to rearrange her closets so everything tucks into the closets nicely and is out of the way, so she has plenty of floor space to play (at the end of her bed right now is a couple of cardboard boxes that she's using one as a dog house for one of her stuffed dogs and the other is a doll bed for her Elsa and Anna dolls.  I left those because playing with boxes is important ;).

The only semi-permanent thing I kept out was her small tea table, which I placed over by her dresser so she has good access to tea parties, which she's really into right now.  She even had been using a small picnic blanket I made for her 18" dolls as a tablecloth, which I thought was super cute, so I left it.

All totaled I spent around 15.00 on decorations total and I got one thrilled daughter out of the deal.  She loves that the room is fancy and super easy to keep clean (really her closets might become a sty here very quickly, but at least it is off her floor) and she now has a "fancy" room to go into every day.  And she's keeping it clean, multiple times a day, just so that it feels clean and fancy.

Total cost of redecorate:  Less than 20.00 and rearranging items from around the house.

Cost of Having a Daughter Thrilled With Her Room and Not Complaining About Cleaning It:  Priceless!