Thursday, April 6, 2017

The $150 ORC

If you follow any blog, you've probably heard of Calling It Home's One Room Challenge, and you may be aware that their spring challenge starts today. I participated in my first (and only) challenge about a year and a half ago when we redecorated our 90's blue striped bathroom.  I loved the challenge,  it provided a timeline for us, so the room was completed much quicker than if we were doing it on our own.  You can see the before and after shots of our bathroom here.

About two days ago, admittedly after a glass or two of liquid courage, I decided that I wanted to do this challenge again.  A pretty last minute decision, considering most bloggers have been planning this challenge for months, putting together mood boards, and reaching out to companies for collaborations.  Not me.  I just decided on a whim that it's high time to give our guest room a face lift, and here's the kicker, on a $150 budget.  




Going off on a little tangent here, but T and I have been loosely following Dave Ramsey's 7 Baby Steps for several years now, yet we still have student loans and car payments that we're having to put money towards each month.   I love the idea of finally being debt free, but I've had a really hard time making the sacrifices I need to to really shovel money towards our debts each month.  A few weeks ago, I decided it was time to go balls to the wall with it, to knock out our debt and hopefully do so by my 30th birthday.   Fingers crossed. (And more on this later, this deserves a post all on it's own)

So when the thought of doing a ORC entered my mind, I knew I'd have to get creative.   T and I both agreed that we could put $150 net into this room, that's it.  I say $150 net, because I am giving myself the ability to consign anything within the room, and use that money towards the space as well.   And while I'm giving myself that option, I also think it would be pretty freaking awesome to only spend $150 on the space, regardless of the money I make selling things in there.

Here are some before pictures I quickly snapped of the room.  (So quickly I didn't even bother to straighten the bedding before I took them) There's nothing too terrible about the room, no heinous wallpaper, no burgundy accent wall.   But, it's just that, nothing, completely vanilla.  We kept the walls the fleshy pink that they were when we moved in, and then I just dumped some furniture from our old house in there and stuck a light close to the bed.  That's it.   I did manage to get the previous owner's glow in the dark stars off the ceiling and the dream catcher removed from the ceiling vent before I snapped these photos.





And here's the general plan for the room...

  • Paint the walls in SW Mega Greige.  We have enough left over from painting our dining room, so I won't have to come out of pocket for the paint.  COST: $0
  • Two new bedside tables.  I'll either be finding some used ones to redo, or purchasing two Rasts from IKEA.  COST: Approx $70
  • Two lamps for bedside tables.  Hoping to repurpose two lamps I already own. COST: $0
  • Hang old windows above the bed.  I'm picking these up from someone tomorrow who was about to throw them away. COST: $0
  • Rearrange some furniture and hang artwork above the dresser. COST: $50
  • Install new blinds in the room (these have already been custom ordered, so I'm not including them in the budget, they were about $200 if you're curious) and hang some kind of sheers or drapes. COST: $10
  • Change out the ceiling fan.  I've had a new one in our attic waiting to switch out, I just need to finally do it.  COST: I'm calling it $0 because I've had it for 2 years just sitting around. 
  • Use my remaining $20 for any other decor for the room

I'll be using a lot of things that I already own, repurposing, consigning, possibly dumpster diving, bartering, and up-cycling to make this happen, and I'm pretty freaking excited about it.  While I won't be able to provide convenient shopable links at the bottom of each post for you to be able to buy the exact same things I have, I will be showing you how just a little bit of craftiness and elbow grease can make a pretty big (I hope) impact in a room.  So I hope you'll follow along with me as I either successfully complete the cheapest ORC ever or fail miserably.








8 comments:

  1. Excited to watch this unfold! and I cracked up at the dream catcher/glow in the dark stars line! Ha!

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  2. Can't wait to watch you tackle this one!

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  3. So awesome, I cannot wait to see the progress happen over the next six weeks!!

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  4. Thank you! I feel like this is a much more realistic ORC - not one with sponsored content and C/O products that aren't disclosed well (seriously drives me nuts!). Really excited to see what you find!

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  5. You are so creative and crafty. I know it'll be so pretty!

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  6. You go girl --- I am all about doing things on a budget!! Can't wait to see it come together!

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  7. That room is such a great blank space! It sounds like you have a solid plan for where to spend, so I think you can definitely do it for under $150. Looking forward to following your progress! Oh, and don't feel bad - I didn't decided on a space for my One Room Challenge until yesterday! So I seriously have nothing planned or bought!

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  8. Hello from another Laura in South Carolina! I love your plan for this room, down to the thrifty budget and creative ways to find items that will work for your space. I look forward to watching your progress!

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