We have an extra room in our house that hasn’t been used for several years. It once served as a bedroom when I did child daycare in our home. Since that business closed, the room has been nothing more than a storage area.
Recently, I decided that I need more crafting in my life; I’m even entertaining the idea of selling some handcrafted items as sideline. As any crafter knows, space is important; both to spread out and work as well as to store supplies. So I decided to turn that extra space into a craft room. It has many features that make it ideal for my purposes.
The room:
- is out of the way
- has great light and ventilation
- stays cool in summer because it’s on the lower level
- has a decent-sized closet
- is easily accessible to the utility room sink for cleanup
Even with all that is positive about the room, it needed a lot of work to be transformed into a functional space, conducive to creativity. I didn’t, however, want to spend a lot on the room makeover. I knew that with careful planning, resourcefulness and a willingness to d-i-y, the job could be accomplished for very little financial outlay. In fact, I wondered just how little…maybe $100?
My frugal makeover plan:
Be realistic – Wanting to stick to an extremely modest budget kept my expectations grounded. It was bare bones, baby. What, I asked myself, are the major elements that needed changing to make this a room in which I’ll love to create?
My answers:
- The carpet had seen better days and needed to be removed.
- The room was decorated in calm blues and had worn and decidedly uninspiring wallpaper. Fine for sleeping children; not so much for creative inspiration.
Use what I had on hand – It’s often surprising to discover what you already have on hand to begin a project like this. I wisely checked our workshop before heading to the home improvement store. I found we had enough leftover ceiling paint from another room for a fresh coat in my craft room, a brand new roller a paint tray and a couple paint brushes that were in perfect shape.
Repurpose – This helped me save significant money on this project.
- Flooring – New flooring was definitely not in my budget but, yikes, those old floor tiles under the carpet I’d pulled up were horrible and some were even cracked. My solution was to pull up the lightly-worn carpet covering a wood floor in an upstairs bedroom. It was an opportunity to reveal the lovely wood floor in the bedroom while obtaining free carpet to cover the craft room floor. Double points!
- Furniture – I upcycled the daycare crib into a work table and the diaper changing table into a storage shelf. Spray paint transformed these into attractive pieces.
Borrow rather than buy – I borrowed a carpet-cutting knife from friends. It was a life-saver that allowed me to avoid incurring the cost of buying something I’ll rarely if ever use again.
My final makeover tally
I did come in under budget on my craft room makeover at $96.00.
- 2 gallons wall paint (I chose a sunny yellow to brighten and energize the room.) $50.00
- 9 cans spray paint (I chose a green apple color for wall shelves and repurposed furniture.) $36.00
- ½ bottle carpet steam cleaner solution (With a fresh steam-cleaning, the carpet is good-as-new.) $10.00
With only a few changes, a modest budget and, I’ll admit, a considerable amount of elbow grease, an unused room has been transformed into a functional space that may even help me make some extra money in time.
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