The Eight Dollar Room Redo

As we get settled in to this new place, we have been going room by room to get things set up the way we want them to be.  We sort of left our bedroom behind as the rest of the house took shape, and although we had great new furniture, we had trouble figuring out where to go with our room, and we were also working on a pretty tight budget.

So, for about two and a half months...this is more or less what our room looked like.  We did move the bed to the other wall so it was facing the windows to make more room for our dresser, but that was about it.

Sad right?  For that reason, I have spent a good bit of this month slowly working on helping our room take shape.

I fell in love with the look of floor length, sheer, patterned curtains, but most of the ones I found for sale were either not quite what we wanted, or way out of our price range.  So, I saved this picture in a folder on my computer and started scheming.

I can't find the source for this photo anymore, I originally found it through Google.

A few weeks later I happened to find a bolt of fabric on clearance at Wal-mart, so I scooped it up and took it home.  I went to a craft store, got a rubber stamp and a tube of paint, spread out all my supplies on the floor and started stamping.

The finished product! While they certainly aren't perfect, you cant beat the final price tag.  Four 96-inch panels for $8!

Next I raided the basement for some inspiration.  I found some dusty blue shutters that I had had for years.  I had been given them by my Aunt, and although I always loved them, I never knew what to do with them.  I glanced around until my eyes settled on some metal sconces we had hung in our old kitchen, and I knew just want to do!

I scrubbed the shutters, hammered in a few nails, and voila!

 I gotta say...I really like it! It's different, but it's us. The birdcage was used in our wedding as a cardholder, and the typewriter has been in our home for years after I found it covered in dust in a building at my Nanna's farm. We still need to hang the mirror, but that is one thing I can't do on my own, and after I made poor Matt move the curtain rods (twice) to suit my liking I wasn't about to ask him to grab his drill again!

The room is not fully finished just yet, but eight bucks and a little muscle sure went a long way!  I really love taking one thing and reusing it for a completely new purpose, like the shutters.

Have you re-purposed anything in your home? Care to share?