Room for Improvement Challenge

I love changing the look of rooms around our home so when Money Supermarket challenged me to makeover a room with a budget of £50, I knew it would be out of character for me to say no.

I’m a keen decorator with plenty of enthusiasm for sprucing up my home but sadly I often lack the stamina to see it through. Paint rollers leave my arms knackered and cutting in around the edges with the paintbrush is tedious to say the least. Having said all of this, I have always painted the rooms wherever I have lived. Every room I lived in before settling down, I painted single handedly. I would curse myself each time once I had become bored after painting half a wall…but I always carried on and finished the job to the best of my ability.

My husband now does a lot of the painting, as he’s quicker and and stronger with a roller. He would, given half a chance, not bother painting at all! However, with me around to harass persuade him when a room needs freshening up – he steps up the task. He has never let me forget the time that I made a hashed up attempt to paint the hallway and kitchen whilst pregnant. As I was desperately bored and furiously nesting, I ploughed ahead without his help. What I hadn’t taken into account was how tiring painting would be and how I found it impossible to paint up to the ceiling and the skirting boards. In the end he was forced to patch up my dodgy paint work but I insist to this day that I did the bulk of the work. He thinks differently…

So with regards to the makeover, I figured it would be best to keep the project ‘small’ and for this reason I chose the bathroom. This room was boring magnolia and had been need of a lick of paint for some time. I’m all about clean and simple at the moment so I decided to brighten it up with white paint and accessories to match.

This was no mean feat with two children demanding my attention all day and at one point I wondered if I had bitten off more than I could chew. As luck would have it, one day Baby Beastie decided to have a long nap and I managed to do a lot of the painting. Over the next few days I managed some more coats and tidied up the edges until I was happy. Magnolia was surprisingly hard to paint over, or at least this magnolia was. We already had a white drawer unit and caddy by the toilet, so the white theme was inkeeping. The bunting  and vase were a steal during a sale and I thought the cute beach huts would look great alongside them.

So there you have it, a bathroom in dire need of a makeover but actually only needed a few coats of paint and some accessories to liven it up a little bit. I’m really happy with the summery vibe and simplicity of it and of course it didn’t exactly break the bank either, which is always a bonus.

What I spent the £50 on:

Crown Paint in Pure Brilliant White – B&Q £12

 2 White Wicker Baskets – Sainsburys £18  (£9 each)

Turquoise Vase – Sainsburys £3

White Heart Bunting – Sainsburys £4

Bamboo – Ikea £4.50

Beach huts – Sainsburys £12 (£6 each)

Print in frame (already owned)

Total spent = £53.50

Nb. I was given £50 to enable me to participate in the challenge.