A few weeks back, the lovely people at Money Supermarket contacted me to see if I would be willing to take part in their Room For Improvement challenge to makeover a room in my house for just £50. I like to think I’m pretty thrifty and creative, so I decided to do it.
I’ve wanted to spruce up my Craft Room for a while now as it looked drab and uninspiring. Be warned, this is a picture heavy post, but I hope you will enjoy it.
The Craft Room housed our (horrid yellow) futon mattress, a stool acting as a little table and loads of craft stuff in various bags and boxes.
I had managed to get this tray storage unit for free a while back, as my work were throwing it out. Useful but ugly and very much like school classroom trays. I had one magazine rack and the rest were crammed in the corner amongst other things.
The small brown boxes on the floor would soon solve the magazine problem…
Now coming the ‘during’ shots. I wanted a table to sew and make accessories on so I scoured Gumtree and eBay and found this solid wooden one for £10. I searched for local sellers as I don’t have a car and a kind man delivered.
He was not so kind for bringing about a billion spiders with the table!! After G had saved me from the creepy crawly invasion, I washed, sanded and painted it with some leftovers our decorator left from the recent paint job on our house.
Then the brown boxes saw a little craft knife action (after Tammy had done helping) and became magazine holders to be spray painted later.
A chalkboard from Poundland got the washi tape treatment to tie in with the pale blue theme I had in mind for the room.
I spent hours spray painting wicker baskets in the garden, but failed to take before or during shots of these oops! The baskets were free as I’d been saving them each Christmas from the hamper G gets from work.
I also spray painted this sewing spool holder so it stood out more.
The horrid red drawers needed a pretty curtain to hide behind, so my Mum’s hubby fitted a rail for me from supplies he already had. I stitched a quick slide along curtain.
I decided to also make curtains for the window, but Tammy was not happy about me taking the old ones down and promptly sat on them. Next, I whipped up a crochet doily to sit underneath a plant pot.
Are you ready for the after shots?!!!! TA DA!!
The stool acting as a table also got painted and the Fabric Notice Board I made with my sister was finally hung.
I spray painted a letter rack I had already to hold all my Post Circle mail, important letters, new pastel sharpies and my hand embroidered WI badge.
Rachel and Harriet convinced me that I could keep a succulent alive (I always kill house plants) so I got this baby from Aldi!
My spray painting marathon turned brown wicker baskets cream and blue to hold all my yarn, washi tapes and notebooks.
The bookshelf area hasn’t changed much, except the spray painted boxes-now-magazine racks are housed on top and I have hung the “Dream” sign my Nan gave me.
I covered the nasty yellow futon with a cream throw I already had (you can see it in the first shot) and Tammy seemed to love that and curled up immediately. I hung some bunting I received in a craft swap and added my Granny Squares Blanket.
The majority of my budget went on fabric for curtains because I wanted Clarke and Clarke Dotty. I think it was worth it as it really changes the room and I was chuffed to find it for £7.99 a metre on eBay, Bargain!
I painted the tray storage so it matched the table and stool and switched around the layout of the room.
BEFORE AND AFTER!
I managed to stretch the budget and tried to make the most of what I already had. I do enjoy finding ways to make something old look totally new and I think I achieved that.
It’s definitely more organised so I hope I can be a tidy crafter now!
Here’s my spend for the challenge:
- Wooden Table from eBay – £10
- Clarke and Clarke Curtain Fabric – £27.45 with postage from eBay
- Plastikote Spray Paint (Cream) – £7.99 from Hobbycraft, already had the blue
- Cream Paint - already had
- Storage unit curtain fabric – already had
- Wicker Baskets – already had
- Small brown boxes – already had
- Succulent Plant & Pot – £2.99 from Aldi
- Chalkboard – £1 from Poundland
Total Spend: £49.43
Tomorrow I’ll be sharing some more details of my craft space up close, so don’t forget to come back! Sorry for going on about it, but it was a lot of hard work!
Do check out 
