$300 Room Makeover!

For the first 3 months living in our new house, the dining room was where we stored boxes we had yet to unpack. For the next 4 months, our dining room was completely empty. Then, I just couldn't take it anymore and told Michael we HAD to do something about it. He said "ok, see what you can do with $300". If you know me at all, you have to know I felt very defeated. I'm not so good at being frugal and finding bargains. Usually, if I need a new dress, I simply go to Nordstrom, avoid the sale rack and lay down however much it costs for the dress that I like the most. If I need a new piece of furniture, I go to a place like Haverty's a buy it. Well, not anymore! We are officially ON A BUDGET in the hopes of one day having a baby and me becoming a stay-at-home mommy. So I can live with being on a budget for that reason. :)

So there I was with $300 and feeling blue....I started searching Craig's List and could not believe my eyes when I found a dining room table, 6 chairs, and a china hutch for sale for $100!! I immmediately put in a bid for $125! :) And got a call later that day. The lady said I was one of 12 bidders within the hour that she posted and because I had the highest bid, she called me first. Yay!!

Now the dining room set is not the best, but it fills up the room and provides me a great setting for hosting dinner parties! Also, I now have a place to store my Great Grandma Willis' china set.

Before we picked up the table, we had some work to do. I wanted to paint the room with a faux finish called "ragging". After we picked out our base color and glaze color for the top coat at Lowe's, we were ready to paint! Please note: if you are ever going to paint a room red, make SURE you start with a great primer! We took this advice and are so glad we did! We did one coat of primer, two coats of the base red color and then one top coat of the glaze applied using the ragging method.

Drumroll please.....the Before and After pictures!

BEFORE



AFTER


FINAL PRODUCT - $300 Room Makeover!!!



We still need to paint or re-finish the table, chairs and hutch; add a rug; get new, longer drapes; and find something to add as the table centerpiece, but I think we're off to a great start!

I'm hoping this is just the first of MANY home improvement projects I will post to my blog. Working on the house is one of my favorite things to do! And with the help of my friend Christine (Interior Design & More), when I have some money to spend, I'm hoping to get things looking great. She is a FABULOUS interior designer!