$100 Room Challenge- Before Pics

I am so excited to be taking part in the $100 Room Challenge sponsored by Erin over at Lemons, Lavender, & Laundry this month! The challenge is simple: 4 weeks & $100 to transform a room in your home. (You can read more about the background for the challenge here.) I love the premise of this! I’m sure most of us can attest to the fact that we usually don’t have loads of extra money just sitting around, so dropping a lot of money on new decor really isn’t in the cards (those pesky bills get in the way….#adulting. Sigh.).

But $100? That is a little more attainable. Sell a few items you don’t need, have a yard sale, wait for your birthday (mine was last week-PERFECT timing!), etc. and $100 is in your grasp, my thrifty decorating friend (wahoo!). 

I couldn’t fully commit for a few weeks on which space in my home I wanted to do for the $100 Room Challenge. It was almost like being a kid in a candy store.

I kept thinking: Really? I get an excuse to use $100 and do whatever I want with it?! (Well, not whatever I want. It’s not like I’m going to buy new shoes….hmm…but maybe I could work them into the room design NEXT time and get a new pair of boots too! Ha! I like where this is going- blogging is paying off in new ways! JUST kidding!)

I hemmed and hawed over where I would do. My master bedroom? I could use some new bedding. Dining room? Decor is kind of hodge podge, so it would be nice to pick out some things to tie it together….

But then, THEN my sweet friend asked me if I would like these: 

I don’t know about you, but she was definitely speaking my love language. I mean, LOOK at those corbels! (I have all the heart eyes for them my friend!)

They are HUGE! 4 feet tall!

I knew I wanted to put them somewhere in my home (What? You don’t normally try to hang 4 foot corbels inside your home? How odd…Bwahaha!). 

Because of their size, it was kind of decided for me where they needed to be: our sunroom (aka “playroom”). We have much taller ceilings in this room (So the corbels will fit in here).

{This post may contain affiliate links for your convenience. Using these links might result in me receiving a small commission, but at absolutely NO cost to you! You can read more about my commitment to transparency, by visiting my Disclosure Statement.}

So….the corbels decided for me. My room for the $100 Room Challenge will be [musical fanfare inserted here] the SUNROOM (aka Playroom).  

This room is right off of the kitchen and is a place we spend a lot of time in. (All of the toys are in this space.) 

This room gets a lot of great natural light. (I love bright spaces! They just look “happier” to me!) I already mentioned that it has tall ceilings. (Ever since we moved in, I have had dreams about having a huge 10 foot tall Christmas tree in this space at some point during the holidays.)

The downside to this space is that it can be seen from every room in our downstairs (well, minus the bathroom). But if you are in the bathroom, the door should be closed anyway. (Please teach my children this concept soon. I mentioned in my post here that they seem to think there is an “open-door policy” when it comes to Mommy and the bathroom.)

Not only can you see the sunroom/playroom from any room downstairs, but it’s also a straight visual “shot” from the front door. So, there’s no escaping it!

I have tried to keep it relatively “tidy.” But plastic toys are only so “beautiful.”

Plus nothing in this room was actually bought FOR this room (well, the curtains were kind of bought for this room, but they were mainly purchased because:

1. We “needed” curtains when we moved in. 
2. I found these in clearance bins for 0.96 a panel?!
3. The blue in the curtain matched the wall color we painted. 
4.  They actually are 2 different lengths-One window’s curtains go to the floor and the other window’s go to the end of the window….  (But remember #2?) $3.84 for 4 curtain panels I didn’t even have to make is a STEAL, so I decided to make them work and up they went!

We did buy 2 new rugs when we bought the house. Mainly because we were moving from an 800-some-odd square foot condo to this home and panicked. We needed something STAT! We threw one of the new rugs in our living room and this one landed in here. (We basically DID throw them in- we moved in 3 days before Christmas. My husband thought it would be an amazing memory to have Christmas in our new home. Bless.his.little.crazy.heart. It actually WAS special to wake up Christmas morning here (high five Jason), but it was QUITE the whirlwind!)

Anyway, the rug (Home Goods) is super nice  and soft, but I am amazed that in 4 years time it still has any RUG left (it sheds constantly and I am emptying the vacuum canister every time I vacuum it). 

So now you’ve seen my “before” photos of this space. No photo staging here friend, this is #realife. (Because if I was staging this room for a photo, let’s just look on top of those cubbies for a second. HA!) 

For the room makeover my hope is to pull in more blues and whites. (I’ve been crushing on all of the blue and white rooms I have been seeing on Instagram lately!) I also want to make the room look more tied together. 

My friend, Linda, over at burlapandblue.com is local to me and was selling these lamps: 

SOLD! (She has a beautiful blog. Check out her beautiful kitchen and neat cabinet transformation tip here.)

With these lamps (similar color ones here and I also like these ones here) and those beautiful corbels I was gifted, I feel like I am on my way to some semblance of a plan for this space. Come back next week to see how it is (hopefully) taking shape! 

What room would you want to use $100 for?? Let me know in the comments!

[Update: Want to see the 2nd and final weeks from this room makeover? Click here for Week 2 and here for the Reveal!]

(Disclaimer: I completely realize it sounds a little absurd to want to makeover a space that is totally functional (after all it IS a playroom). But….well…. if I have to look at a space and BE in it 24/7 (minus a few hours in there for sleep- ahem- not nearly as many hours as I would like) then I would love the space to be functional AND somewhat pretty too. Anyone else?

Check out all of the other bloggers who are participating in the $100 Room Challenge along with me!