Before & After High Style, Low Budget Sunroom: One Room Challenge Week 6

30 Comments May 8, 2019 hollandavenuehome

If you’re finding me through the One Room Challenge, welcome to my home on the internet! I’m Avery and I live in a charming 1910 Craftsman style home in rural Iowa with my husband. You can learn more about me here, and see some of my previous design work in my kitchen, and my Fall 2018 One Room Challenge: Cozy Eclectic Master Bedroom Reveal. My design style is cozy, whimsical, and collected. You can follow along with my homemaking adventures on the Holland Avenue Home Instagram.

Need a quick recap of my One Room Challenge progress so far?

Catch up on all six weeks of my Spring 2019 One Room Challenge:

Week 1: High Style, Low Budget Sunroom Transformation

Week 2: DIY Tree Stump Coffee Tables

Week 3: The Power of Paint

Week 4: DIY $150 Bed Swing and Painted Concrete Floors

Week 5: Finishing Touches

Friends, we made it to the finish line. Six weeks of painting, building, creating, sewing, cleaning, styling, shooting, writing, editing, posting, and cheerleading have come to an end. I would like to thank Linda and the whole One Room Challenge team for hosting this inspiring event, and for creating a community of encouraging designers and refreshing designs.

This round of the One Room Challenge has given me incredible confidence not only in my design vision, but in my ability to execute that vision through a fiery ambition to “do it myself”. I have grown so much as a designer, blogger, photographer, creator, and nailgun-wielder in the last six weeks, and am very proud of the work I’ve done. I can’t wait to share my transformation with you. Now let’s get on with it!

The “Before”

This is where we started six weeks ago. Our front porch sunroom looked like a crime scene. The crime? Sadness, darkness, neglect, and all-around grossness. I see people complain about “before & after” type posts by saying that, “The before photos are edited to make it look worse. The biggest ‘transformation’ is the photography improvement.” When you look at these “before” photos, keep in mind that I used the exact same camera and the exact same editing tools to make this “before” look as good as it could in a photo. It really was that sad.

The walls are partially painted white because I spent hours out here with a paint brush (due to the siding and wall texture) and never finished. Which left us with a partially painted, freckled concrete floor, yellow-ceiling room.

The Process

Over the last six weeks, I have painted every square inch of this space.

We started by spraying the walls and ceiling with Sherwin Williams Extra White. I painted an accent wall with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Aubusson Blue. Then I painted both doors with Early Riser by Magnolia Home Paints. The window trim is pre-tinted semigloss black by Rustoleum.

These photos prove that paint is the easiest and cheapest way to completely transform a space. The wrong paint color costs just as much per ounce as the right paint color, and making smart paint decisions can really create a “wow” factor.

Painting the epoxy floors was terrifying and amazing. I’d never used paint thinner, epoxy paint, or a respirator before this project. But with determination to “do it scared”, leftover epoxy paint from a friend, and two hours on a Tuesday afternoon, I was able to make this sunroom look brand new.

The other big project for this space was building a bed swing. My brother-in-law, Kirk, is incredibly skilled in woodworking, and taught me the basics of building and power tools. We built this DIY $150 Bed Swing on a Saturday afternoon, and it is now the coveted napping location.

The first project I completed for this challenge was creating DIY Tree Stump Coffee Tables from free stumps.

The project that turned this space from a normal sunroom into a high-style, cozy, textured, dreamy wonderland was dyeing my basic Ikea curtains with Rit Dye, and creating a hand-sewn Euro pleat. I will write a full tutorial for this project soon!

The After

I bet you’re probably getting antsy to see the “after” photos. I’ve talked for long enough, and now it’s time to let the photos speak for themselves.

Here’s a reminder of what I started with six weeks ago.

And the “after”—my favorite space I’ve ever created (that I still can’t believe is the same room or in MY HOUSE!).

(I picked up this 1935 issue of Better Homes & Gardens at the same antique store that gave me the stumps for free!)

I already had that darling mid-century gingham set. It was $100 on Facebook marketplace last year, and yes, I do feel like the luckiest woman in the world.

Fun fact: That loveseat is actually a pull-out bed! I couldn’t resist styling this space as a guest room.

Here’s one more visual for the complete transformation of this room.

I estimate that we spent about $650 in this space. Here is a rough budget breakdown of the things we purchased specifically for this transformation. We already had some of the furniture, art, and decor, and a few of the elements were sponsored by brands. Some of these links are affiliate links, which means that I will make a small percent commission (at no extra cost to you) if you decide to purchase anything through one of my links.

Paint: $130

5 gallons of white paint: $120 from Sherwin Williams, but we only used 3 of the 5 gallons
Epoxy floor paint: free from a friend’s project leftovers
Annie Sloan Aubusson Blue Chalk Paint: Sponsored ($35 to purchase)
Magnolia Early Riser paint: Leftover from another project
Rustoleum black paint for window trim: $10

Bed Swing: $200ish for swing and bedding

Lumber, rope, and hardware from Menards: $150
Twin mattress: already owned
Sheets: $2 at a local thrift store
Striped pillow shams: $40 from Anthropologie
Down pillow inserts: $4 for 4 at my local thrift store

Drapes: $125

4 Ikea Ritva panels, drapery hooks, and curtain rings: $100
Curtain rod: $25 on Amazon
Rit Dye: Sponsored ($50 to purchase the quantity I used)

Stump Tables: $20

Stumps: free
Polycrylic: $10
Sandpaper: $10

Rugs: $115

6×9 Loloi Loren Terracotta Sky Rug: Sponsored by Rugs Direct ($399 to purchase from Rugs Direct)
5×8 Wayfair Bungalow Rose rug: $90 on sale
3×5 jute rug from Marshall’s: $25

Other Decor & Accessories: $60

Sewing table: $10 thrifted
Black metal lamp: $2.50 thrifted
Wood bead garland: $0.10 thrifted
House numbers: $40 from Hearth and Hand at Target
Gold vase: $14 from Target

Labor: $0 (I didn’t hire out anything for this project. I either did it myself, or utilized the generous help of some talented friends!)

Time: Technically, it is a 6 week challenge. I tweaked my design plan many times, and don’t have a good gauge of how long it took me to design the space. I worked on it occasionally for a few weeks leading up to the challenge. It took two afternoons to finish the stump tables (About 6 hours). About 3 hours to prep and paint the white, and a few hours to paint the accent wall, doors, and trim. Kirk and I spent about 8 hours building and installing the bed swing. I spent two hours painting the epoxy floors, and then let them cure for a whole week before placing any furniture or rugs. Dyeing, pleating, and installing the curtains took about 6-8 hours. My sister-in-law, Sarah, spent a few hours hand sewing pillow covers for the bed swing while Kirk and I built the swing (Thanks, Sarah!). I spent an afternoon (about 3-4 hours) placing the furniture, styling the space with artwork and accessories, and installing the house numbers. I spent around 3-4 hours photographing and editing the final images, and about 2 hours writing the final post. Each week, I spent about an hour writing the posts for weeks 1-5. My husband, Ben, helped me with a few of the projects including prepping the room for paint, installing the curtains, and moving furniture. My friend, Tessa, helped me prep the room for paint. My friend, JJ, did the white paint with a sprayer (in just 30 minutes!). My friend, Sara, helped me tie up loose ends on a few projects one afternoon. My brother-in-law, Kirk, led the bed swing construction all day on a Saturday while my sister-in-law, Sarah, sewed pillows and kept us fed!

I estimate that I spent about 45-50 hours total to complete and document this project, and anywhere from 10-15 hours designing and preparing the space (emptying of furniture and cleaning).

The cost added up to about $650, which is what comparable custom drapes would’ve cost if I purchased them new. Buying a pre-made bed swing runs about $1,000. A similar black metal lamp sells for $200 at Schoolhouse Electric (instead of $2.50 at Goodwill). Half of that $650 budget was just for painting and building a swing, and the rest of the styling was completed for $300 and repurposing things I already had.

That is still a very large amount for us to spend, and we don’t spend that kind of money like it’s nothing. So while the $650 price tag does not feel “low budget” to me, I’ve realized that furniture and projects just cost money. I transformed a neglected, dreary porch into a very high-end space for a percentage of what a similar style would cost if we didn’t have to be resourceful and thoughtful with every purchase.

(The sponsored rug, chalk paint, and curtain dye would’ve added to the budget, so if you wanted to buy everything you see brand new, it would’ve cost a bit more. Still, $1,000ish for a brand new room is less than what you would spend on a designer sofa alone.

My goal with this challenge was to learn new skills and encourage you to have the confidence to learn something new as well. If I can do it, anyone can do it. I wanted to share as much of my process as possible to show that you don’t have to have a ton of money or expertise to make a vision come to life. This space represents resourcefulness, overcoming DIY fears, and a commitment to doing what I love instead of just following what is trendy. I’m not sure if my final space is trendy or not, but I’ve never seen another look quite like it, and it makes me proud of all of the things I created over the last six weeks.

I don’t have any interior design or photography training, but the last 3 years have been full of self-educating and experimenting in my own home. I learned SO much during this One Room Challenge. I learned how to use an electric sander, circular saw, nail gun, and paint sprayer. How to use epoxy paint and a respirator, and how to mask off a room for spraying. How to dye fabric in my washing machine, do a whip stitch to seamlessly finish pillow covers, to use pleating hooks, and how to stitch euro pleats into basic curtains. I discovered that I need a tripod to shoot interiors, and I learned how to use my camera in a whole new way. I learned how to make sure your interior editing doesn’t over-expose your windows. I’ve been studying editorial styling and photography, so I incorporated those skills in this shoot.

If you don’t know how to do something, put on your learning hat and DO IT SCARED. All of those things were intimidating until I decided to learn and do them myself. Reference the internet, books, and your talented friends to learn a new skill, and then get out there and just try it!

I couldn’t have completed this transformation without the help and support of my family and friends. I’d like to thank my husband, Ben, for listening to my constant ramblings and thinking-out-loud, and for supporting my love for design. Ben’s sister, Sarah, and her husband, Kirk, visited for a weekend to help with this space. Kirk designed the plans and led the bed swing project, and Sarah sewed pillow covers. My friends Kyle and JJ from Rent-All in Storm Lake provided tools, assistance, advice, and the epoxy paint. My friend, Sara, came over one afternoon to help me pleat the curtains. My friends Briee, Stephanie, Sydney, and my Mom offered their design opinions throughout the whole process, and collectively responded to approximately two million “What about this?” texts from me.

This project was sponsored by a few great companies that were generous enough to send me products to make my vision come to life. Loloi Rugs and Rugs Direct provided the beautiful Loren rug. Rit Dye provided the dye for my Ikea curtains. Annie Sloan Chalk Paint provided the paint for my accent wall.

Don’t forget to check out the final reveals of the Featured Designers and other Guest Designers on the One Room Challenge Blog.

If you enjoyed following this project, I would greatly appreciate if you shared it with a friend! You can follow along on the Holland Avenue Home Instagram and Instagram Stories for interior styling tips, daily encouragement towards thoughtful and resourceful decorating, and future projects!

Join the Holland Avenue Home- Thoughtful Homemakers Community on Facebook for an inspiring and encouraging community where you can share your projects, ask decor questions, and see behind the scenes of Holland Avenue!

Thank you so much for following my transformation. I hope you leave my blog encouraged and empowered to tackle projects in your own home.

Want to see a few more of my favorite DIY projects?

The original kitchen Before & After: Before & After: A Bright, Affordable DIY Kitchen Update
An honest kitchen update: Chalk Painted Kitchen Cabinets Two Years Later
One Room Challenge Fall 2018: Cozy Eclectic Master Bedroom Before & After: One Room Challenge Week 6
Creating a Cozy Home Library
DIY Tree Stump Coffee Tables: One Room Challenge Week 2
DIY $150 Bed Swing and Painted Concrete Floors: One Room Challenge Week 4

Finishing Touches: One Room Challenge Week 5

8 Comments May 1, 2019 hollandavenuehome

Catch up on all of my progress for the Spring 2019 One Room Challenge:

Week 1: High Style, Low Budget Sunroom Transformation

Week 2: DIY Tree Stump Coffee Tables

Week 3: The Power of Paint

Week 4: DIY $150 Bed Swing and Painted Concrete Floors

I wasn’t able to make much progress in the porch, because the epoxy floors needed to cure all week prior to placing the furniture and rugs. I did make progress in other ways, but those projects will have to wait until the reveal next week! I’m pulling together my final styling elements, and plan to style and shoot the space TOMORROW! I will incorporate plenty of vintage accents with soul to add warmth and charm to a space that came together in a quick six weeks.

The main thing I accomplished this week was dyeing my white Ikea curtains with Rit Dye, and customizing them with pleating hooks. (I’ll share a full post about this DIY after the reveal. It will be a nerdy curtain party!)

The other progress was finally painting the window trim. The windows are black, and the white trim seemed to accentuate the fact that the windows are not white. The white trim made the windows look out of place, so I decided to make the black windows a statement instead! I’m really happy with the dramatic punch that the black trim delivers. If you have an element in your space that looks like it is out of place, consider turning it into a statement. My Mom taught me the importance of having black accents for contrast in home decor. If you’re choosing paint or furniture colors and usually choose white by default, consider choosing black instead. A tasteful touch of black paint can keep things interesting, and will provide contrast and drama for the same price as white paint.

You can follow along on the Holland Avenue Home Instagram and Instagram Stories for behind-the-scenes progress before it comes to the blog. I’ll be sharing weekly updates here on my blog, and you can get reminders every time a post goes live through entering your email into the “brighten my inbox” tab to the right of this post.

Don’t forget to check out the design plans of the Featured Designers and other Guest Designers on the One Room Challenge Blog.

Thanks for following along, and stay tuned for next week’s BIG REVEAL!

Catch up on all six weeks of the Spring 2019 One Room Challenge

Week 1: High Style, Low Budget Sunroom Transformation

Week 2: DIY Tree Stump Coffee Tables

Week 3: The Power of Paint

Week 4: DIY $150 Bed Swing and Painted Concrete Floors

Week 5: Finishing Touches

Week 6: Before & After High Style, Low Budget Sunroom

DIY $150 Bed Swing and Painted Concrete Floors: One Room Challenge Week 4

9 Comments April 24, 2019 hollandavenuehome

Catch up on all of my progress for the Spring 2019 One Room Challenge:

Week 1: High Style, Low Budget Sunroom Transformation

Week 2: DIY Tree Stump Coffee Tables

Week 3: The Power of Paint

This week, I’ll be sharing about my two biggest projects- the DIY bed swing and the painted concrete floors!

$150 DIY Bed Swing

Last weekend, Ben’s sister and her family came to stay with us. Sarah and her husband, Kirk, have two little boys, and live just a few hours away in Des Moines. Kirk is an incredibly talented woodworker, and graciously agreed to help me build a bed swing. By “help me”, I mean that he did all of the difficult stuff like designing the plans, leading the construction, and teaching me how to use tools! I sent him a photo of a bed swing I liked, and gave some general instructions about how I wanted it to look. I wanted simple, clean lines, an “X” detail in the back, and thick rope for hanging from the ceiling.

Kirk designed a plan that uses dimensional lumber (aka 2×4’s and other sizes that you can buy precut, and just need to cut to length). I already had an extra twin mattress, so the plans are designed for the mattress to rest on a sheet of plywood.

The plans for this bed swing will be available to purchase on Etsy for $10.

Plans will include a detailed, measured drawing and a list of materials. Like I mentioned before, I already had the twin mattress, which saved money in my final cost.

I will send out a link (through my newsletter) to the plans on Etsy when they are finished. If you want to purchase the plans, make sure you’re signed up for the Holland Avenue Home newsletter to be notified when they are available! (I only send a few emails a year- nothing spammy!)

It took us one Saturday and about $150 in materials for the swing!

We used 40 feet of 1″ rope from Menards ($40) and spent $110 on the lumber (including a 4’x8’x1/2″ sheet of plywood).

Here is the swing in our freshly painted porch. Seriously every single square inch of this porch has been painted over the last two weeks! I’ll address the floor painting later.

We set up shop in the front yard, just outside of the front porch.

This blog post won’t be a step-by-step tutorial, because it is realistically a more advanced project. If you have a friend or family member that is at least somewhat familiar with building things, you should be able to combine this rough outline with the detailed plans in order to build your own swing! We used a combination of screws, kreg-jig screws, wood glue, and a nail gun to assemble the frame.

The first step was to create the base for the outside of the frame and the plywood. After that, Kirk drilled 1″ holes in each of the 4×4″ corner posts, and attached the posts.

The back is on a 10 degree angle, which is very subtle but makes a big difference in comfort! After the corner posts, we built the back support and X detail. The last step was to attach the armrests, which also had 1″ holes that aligned with the holes in the corner posts.

We waited to attach the plywood until the swing was hung so that we could place the ladder inside of the frame for easier hanging.

To hang the swing, we first threaded the rope through the corner posts and armrests. We used 10 feet of rope on each corner to hang from an 8.5 foot ceiling. The triple knots at the top take up quite a bit of material.

We had 1″ holes for 1″ rope, and threading the rope created a lot of friction. I had the idea to cover the bottom few inches of the rope in painter’s tape to create a smoother surface. It worked great! After the rope was threaded, we tied a single knot on the bottom of each rope.

Kirk demonstrating his strength before we tackled the actual hanging part! I was nervous for this, but it was a breeze!

The most important part of hanging your bed swing is to make sure that you screw your eye hooks into ceiling joists.

You can find the joists with a magnetic stud finder. Our ceiling joists run horizontally across the width of the porch. We were pretty limited by the amount of ceiling joists, and chose to hang from the second and third joists so that there would be plenty of room for the swing to move back and forth. (The back of the swing is about 2 feet from the wall. Your ceiling joists may be closer or further away from your wall, but they are typically the same distance apart from one another.) It was about 40″ between holes on the armrests, and about 28″ between joists, meaning that the ropes come in about 6″ on each side to be 28″ apart on the ceiling.

Once we determined where the ceiling joists were, and marked where the hooks needed to be installed, Kirk drilled holes in the joists. He screwed in the lag eye screws by hand. We bought the kind that had attached hoops on the bottom, so that the rope had plenty of space to thread through. Lag eye screws will have a weight limit. Ours are 350lbs.

Once the eye screws were inserted, we propped up the swing on two 5-gallon buckets, and threaded the rope through the eye screws. Kirk tied triple knots on each of the ropes.

The hanging part was a lot easier than I expected it to be! Here we are, enjoying our work after a long day! I learned how to use a lot of different tools, and really enjoyed seeing a project come together. My first comment after we kicked out the buckets was, “This wasn’t here this morning!” It was very satisfying and rewarding to build something from scratch. It was fun to spend time with Kirk, too! We both have really strange senses of humor, so the construction puns were rolling all day. (Examples: “Don’t screw it up”, “Did you go to the hardware store and get board?”, “You saw it here first”)

While we were building the swing, my sister-in-law, Sarah, sewed pillow covers! I found four down insert pillows at our local thrift store for $1 each, and a set of L.L.Bean flannel sheets for $2. The fitted sheet covers the mattress, and Sarah used the flat sheet on the backs of the four pillows. Two of the fronts are covered in Annie Sloan linen, and two are covered in pillowcases I found on clearance at Target. The fabric was a little too pink, so Sarah tea-dyed the fabric before sewing them to give it a more muted, peachy, vintage feel!

Like I said, I know that I didn’t give a step-by-step “then you screw this piece to this piece” tutorial. But if you want to build a swing of your own, you’ll need a few different power tools and a knowledge of how to use them, which will probably include either a handy friend or your own understanding of how to work from a detailed plan! If you have any other specific questions about the bed swing that I didn’t answer, please feel free to reach out through my Contact page.

The other big progress I made this week was painting the concrete floors!

Painting the Floors

Here is a reminder of what the concrete floors looked like before. They were a strange, freckled concrete that just looked dirty. I wanted to give them a fresh look, and needed to use heavy-duty epoxy paint since this is our main entrance for guests. We live in Northwest Iowa where it is basically winter for half of the year, so this porch sees a lot of snowy boots. My friend had leftover epoxy floor paint from his business, and gave it to me for this project!

I used a Sherwin Williams two-part epoxy paint. Epoxy has a part A and part B, and it activates when they are mixed together. It is incredibly toxic, and you absolutely need to wear a respirator and only use it in a well-ventilated space. I had to keep checking our weather forecast to make sure I could paint on a warm day (with no rain for 2 days) so I could keep the windows and door open.

For my 300 square foot porch, I used a 5 gallon bucket to mix half a gallon of A and half a gallon of B, and about a quart of lacquer thinner. (You mix parts A and B on a 1:1 ratio, and will need a quart of lacquer thinner per gallon of epoxy. I started with half a gallon of both A and B, and had some left over.) It is important to mix them really well, and whatever you mix needs to be used within 3ish hours. I opened all of the windows and door, donned my respirator, and finished the painting in about two hours.

After cutting in the edges with a brush, I used a 3/8 nap roller on a pole to roll the rest of the floors. I did the sections to the right and the left first, then painted myself out the center. I locked the door behind me, and left the floors to dry for at least 24 hours before coming out to close the windows! We put a towel under the front door that opens to our living room to help with the smell, but it is already gone the next day.

I invented some interesting yoga moves in the process. My favorite was the “One-Legged-Painter”, which is what I became when I stood behind the bed swing on one foot, pushing the swing as far away as I could with my other foot so that I could roll the floor underneath. There was also the “Hunchback of Holland Avenue”, which is pictured above as I applied pressure to the just-barely-too-short-for-comfort roller handle.

Here is a before and after of the floors! I knew it would make a huge difference, but WOW!!! It feels so fresh and clean compared to the freckled concrete.

They need to cure for 7 days before I bring our furniture and rugs back out. They currently look a tiny bit streaky from the roller, and I’m wondering if it is because they are still curing. Even if they do have subtle roller marks, it is still a drastic improvement over the previous floors. Looking back, I maybe could’ve applied the paint a little thicker, but epoxy is pretty thick and I didn’t want to over-apply.

This week was full of the biggest progress yet, and I’m getting pretty close to the finish line! The only things I have left to do are pleat and hang my curtains, create my floral artwork for above the bed swing, and paint the window trim. After that, it will just be final styling and shooting the space! Ben and I are absolutely thrilled with the progress so far, and I am giddy when I think about how much we will love the finished space! We’ve already had a lazy day on the bed swing, which consisted of a Game of Thrones marathon to catch up before the new season’s second episode premiered. Monday was Ben’s day off (and the day before floor painting), so we spent our afternoon curled up on the bed swing with Louie while it rained. I can’t wait to host friends on this porch all summer!

I’ve learned a lot during this round of the One Room Challenge, but the biggest thing I’ve learned is to just “do it scared”. I’ve tackled a lot of new projects and new tools that scare me before I just jump in and decide to learn. It seems like everything I’ve done so far required overcoming fear and intentionally embracing new skills. I learned how to use an electric sander and worked with polycrylic for the first time for my DIY Tree Stump Coffee Tables in week 2. In week 3, I learned how to mask off a room for paint spraying, and even learned how to use the sprayer! This week, I learned how to use a saw, a nail gun, a krek-jig, and epoxy floor paint. I won’t be blogging about them until next week, but today I used Rit Dye to dye my Ikea curtains. It scared me, too, but they look great and I have a new skill in my arsenal! Every one of those projects scared me before I started, but so far they have all turned out wonderfully and have given me a sense of accomplishment.

If you have a DIY project that scares you, just do it scared! You may make mistakes, but don’t let that hold you back from learning new things. And who knows- maybe you’ll invent some new yoga poses in the process!

Don’t forget to check out the design plans of the Featured Designers and other Guest Designers on the One Room Challenge Blog.

Thanks for following along, and stay tuned for next week’s project- making Ikea curtains look high-end with Rit dye and pleating, and the final styling touches!

Catch up on all six weeks of my Spring 2019 One Room Challenge:

Week 1: High Style, Low Budget Sunroom Transformation

Week 2: DIY Tree Stump Coffee Tables

Week 3: The Power of Paint

Week 4: DIY $150 Bed Swing and Painted Concrete Floors

Week 5: Finishing Touches

Week 6: Before & After High Style, Low Budget Sunroom

Don’t forget to save this project on Pinterest!

Cozy Eclectic Master Bedroom Before & After: One Room Challenge Week 6

17 Comments November 7, 2018 hollandavenuehome

UPDATE! This project was shared by Apartment Therapy on December 3rd, 2018. There are a few details that were wrong in their post. I will address them as they appeared in the post.

1. The title is misleading. I did not create an “entirely new bedroom for only $350”. We kept a lot of existing elements, and added some personality through paint and textiles. $175 of the $350 total was for the Ikea dresser project.

2. My name is Avery, not Ashley.

3. The paint colors on the bedroom wall and the sunroom ceiling are not the same. The wall is Luxe by Magnolia and the ceiling is Early Riser by Magnolia.

4. We did not stain the nightstands. They are unfinished Tarva nightstands from Ikea.

5. We did add new artwork from Dandyroll Home above the bed, and the expense of the frames was part of my total cost.

Week Six is here and I am equal parts giddy, proud, and exhausted. This was my first experience with the One Room Challenge, and I am glad we decided to jump in and give it a shot!

If you’re finding me through the One Room Challenge, welcome to my home on the internet! I’m Avery and I live in rural Iowa with my husband. You can learn more about me here, and see some of my previous design work in my kitchen. My design style is cozy, whimsical, and collected. You can follow along with my homemaking adventures on the Holland Avenue Home Instagram.

*This post contains affiliate links. If you choose to purchase any items from Target or Amazon through my links, I will make a small commission at no extra cost to you*

Here’s a recap of my posts for the One Room Challenge so far.

Week 1: Cozy Eclectic Master Bedroom Design Plan

Week 2: Moody Accent Wall

Week 3: DIY Throw Pillows and Vintage Artwork

Week 4: Hand-Painted Modern Chinoiserie Mural

Week 5: Ikea Dresser Makeover

Here’s a reminder of my vision for our Cozy Eclectic Master Bedroom update.

I stuck to the original vision, and I’m so happy with all of the choices I made! I also updated the attached sunroom, and did a little improvising with that design plan which involved taking some bold risks with paint. But you’re not here to listen to me ramble…you’re here for the reveal!

Here is a reminder of what our bedroom looked like before.

It was very neutral, and gave me a wonderful blank canvas to start with. I took my time designing our bedroom, and kept things very minimal and neutral for two and a half years. If I could go back in time, I would still make all of the same purchasing decisions for bedding and furniture, because it only took a few accessories and an accent wall to make this space unique and colorful! If you don’t have a clear idea of your personal style, you can’t go wrong with a neutral base. Experiment with adding color through accessories and pillows because they will be easier and cheaper to switch out if you’re not happy with the finished design.

Now for the exciting part… the “after”!

Headboard | Lamp (Similar. Gold instead of wood) | Linen Duvet and Shams

Bird Poster | Indigo Throw (Similar)

We kept all of the same furniture, but I added unique and colorful accents with textiles and an accent wall. The throw pillows are all made from fabric I picked up at Mood on my recent trip to New York City for the Better Homes & Gardens Stylemaker Celebration. The indigo throw at the foot of the bed is from a very kind gentleman at the Chelsea Flea Market in NYC.

The art above the bed is very special to us. I love decorating with vintage maps, and Courtney from Dandyroll sent me these 1897 maps of Kentucky, Iowa, and Turkey (the three places my husband and I have immediate family). I wrote all about the prints and bedding in my Week 3 post, DIY Throw Pillows and Vintage Artwork: One Room Challenge Week 3.

On the wall opposite the bed, we have a new Ikea dresser! We already had one dresser (which I didn’t photograph because I had to move it out of the room to take photos of the bed!), but we needed a little bit more storage for large sweaters that need to be folded. We live in Iowa after all, so our winter clothing is the main component of our closet. We wanted to get the smaller, four-drawer Tarva dresser, but when we got to the warehouse it was out of stock! We decided to bring home the larger, 5 drawer Tarva dresser, and can use it in another bedroom or somewhere else down the road. I stained the dresser with Minwax Dark Walnut stain, and Ben installed the new hardware we bought from Hobby Lobby.

I needed a place to store my jewelry, and the top of the new dresser works perfectly! I was styling the top today to take photos, and all of my earrings were in a pouch. I decided on a whim to use the vintage books as a makeshift earring holder, and it is now one of my favorite styling elements of the whole update. I didn’t see it on Pinterest or anything, but as I was trying to arrange the mustard tassel earrings on the tray, I decided to stick them in the book. It works great, and is an unconventional and whimsical way to store my earrings without having to buy a special earring tree!

Mirror | Wood Watch | Gold Earrings

Now on to my FAVORITE part of the update, the sunroom! It is just through that door to the right of our bed.

It has been neglected for the two and a half years that we’ve lived in this house. Here is what it looked like when we moved in. Beige walls, damaged wood trim (from the extreme temperatures and direct sunlight this room experiences), dated wallpaper, and pale green shades. Yikes. We used it as storage for two and a half years, but I knew that this space had amazing potential.

The desk and chair metal chair were here when we moved in. I sold them on Facebook marketplace! The giant chair, affectionately named Charles, was given to us by Ben’s parents. It is the comfiest chair in the entire world, and it also has its own zip code. It is HUGE. It won’t fit in our living room (the ottoman alone is significantly larger than our coffee table), so it lives out here. We moved it to the guest room to take some pretty photos with a cute vintage chair, but we will probably move it back on to this porch. (#reallife).

I started painting this space white months ago (and by months, I guess I really mean years at this point!). I gave up painting because we never used this room and winter happened and it gets COLD.

When I decided to do the One Room Challenge, I knew I needed to do more than just paint a wall and make some new pillow covers, so I decided it was time to give this room the love it deserves. I am SO glad I did. I am giddy just typing this because I’m so excited to show you the finished product.

I don’t know how to do things halfway, and I only do incredibly affordable designs, so instead of just painting the walls (like a normal person) or using some fun removable wallpaper (like a normal person that has a lot of expendable money), I decided to HAND PAINT A MURAL ON AN ENTIRE WALL. It was a crazy decision. But crazy decisions yield crazy results. And if you will allow me to toot my own horn, I am in love with what I created. The mural was inspired by the floral bird fabric (aka my spirit fabric) that I used for the pillows, and Rifle Paper Company’s Shanghai Garden print inspired the elements of my mural. I relied on my own creativity for the colors and details, but I need to give credit where credit is due!

Are you ready to see the finished mural? I’m so excited to finally share it with you!

Here it is!!!

At the last minute (and by “last minute” I mean at 1:00pm on the last day of the challenge!) we decided to paint the ceiling the most beautiful sage color. (Early Riser by Magnolia Home Paints!) It was previously a pale yellow color, which seriously needed an update after the rest of the room got a fresh coat of white. The sage is so pretty, and brings an unexpected pop of color to this already whimsical space. Why be boring when you can be fun?

I’m sharing this photo again just because I’m so excited about it. I used acrylic craft paint from Hobby Lobby ($10 total) to paint the mural. The yellow tufted chair was free on the side of the road on our town’s junk day (because someone is insane and was going to throw away this perfectly beautiful chair). The kilim rug is from our trip to Istanbul last year.

Painting the window sashes black was another bold design choice that really paid off. I could’ve gone all white on the windows, walls, and ceilings, but the contrast of the black sashes and the cheerfulness of the sage ceiling really add a lot to the finished design.

Big risks have big rewards.

I’ll say it again for the people in the back.

BIG RISKS HAVE BIG REWARDS!

I used to be afraid to take risks with design, and I looked to other designers’ spaces for inspiration. But where is the fun in that? Once I decided to design this master bedroom around what my husband and I love, what we already had, and what would be unique and special for us, I had a blast picking out fabrics and colors and taking bold risks like painting the ceiling green. I’ve never seen a bedroom or a mural or a space like these before, and that is the most satisfying part of doing what I love instead of what is trendy. If I followed the trends (board and batten accent walls, neutral everything, high-end throw pillows, brand new furniture) I might get a trendy and popular space (for a lot of dollars). But by choosing what brings a smile to my face, sourcing decor and furniture from around our home, and making bold color choices, I’ve created a space that my husband and I absolutely love and that no one else can copy.

The entire master bedroom and sunroom update cost a grand total of $350. (HALF of that total was for the Ikea dresser update!)

Here’s my entire cost breakdown. I want to be transparent about this, because you rarely see the cost behind images on Instagram or Pinterest or in the magazines. Instead of feeling bad that your house can’t look like an editorial spread, just remember that a high-end throw pillow can cost $100 or more! Remember that when you see a “perfect” bed or couch that is covered in a throw pillow army (that may cost a few hundred dollars, not including the designer couch!)

Master Bedroom and Sunroom Update Budget:

$40 – Fabric for pillows

$30 – Indigo throw

$10 – Craft paint for the mural

$20 – Quart of paint for accent wall

$30 – Gallon of white paint for the sunroom

$20- Quart of paint for sunroom ceiling

$5- Small can of black paint for window sashes

$150 – Ikea Tarva dresser

$25- Hardware for Ikea dresser

$5 – Small can of stain for dresser

$15 – Frames for vintage maps

Total: $350

The $70 I spent on the fabric and indigo throw was the majority of my “fun money” I saved up to spend when I went to New York City. We actually already had the black paint for the windows and the white paint I used on the sunroom walls and trim, and the ceiling paint is leftover from when I painted my office. I still wanted to share all of those things in my budget breakdown because we bought them at one point or another (even if it was spread out over a few months).

I hope that by being transparent about the cost of this update, I can encourage you that you don’t need to spend a ton of money to love your space. I must confess that the total of $350 feels very excessive to me, but every item we purchased for this space (whether paint, furniture, or decor) was intentionally and thoughtfully selected, and we won’t be changing it anytime soon! I am all about affordable decor and resourceful decorating, but at the end of the day, stuff costs money. It just does. I like to prioritize using what we already own (which is composed of secondhand furniture, thrifted decor, furniture handed down from family, and a handful of Target and Ikea items) Updating this space wasn’t necessary, but it has been an exciting and enjoyable process for me and I am incredibly thankful that we have the resources to make our house a special and beautiful home.

Thank you so much for following along with my first One Room Challenge journey, and don’t forget to check out the amazing transformations from the other Featured Designers and Guest Participants!

With so much love,

Want to see more of my room transformations?

Before & After: A Bright, Affordable DIY Kitchen Update

Vintage Modern Guest Retreat

Don’t forget to follow along on my Holland Avenue Home Instagram for daily snapshots of life, resourceful decorating tips, and encouragement towards thoughtful homemaking.