$100 Room Challenge-One Week LEFT!

We are 3/4 through July and that means we are in the final stretch of the $100 Room Challenge hosted by Erin over at Lemons, Lavender, & Laundry! 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.)

Last week I shared that I had chosen our sunroom/playroom to be the lucky recipient of a little “refresh.” 

Let’s recap what we started with:

Curtains and wall color were coordinating, but rather thrown together. 

AND…

The green Sofa of Doom. (Ok. That’s not it’s real name, but that’s what I started to think of it as. Ha!)

In actuality this was a great find when we were getting ready to move over 4 years ago! We lucked into this at Restore for $30. It had been the floor sample at a furniture store. AMAZING deal! I haven’t seen a deal this cheap recently. What a blessing to find it!

Since we homeschool, we use this sofa all the time. It’s a great size to snuggle up and read together! 🙂

(But… it just wasn’t my favorite color and the material isn’t my favorite. I realize this is a petty problem to have.)

But fear not!

That’s why God invented slip covers! What? You missed that story of the 8th day of Creation in Sunday school? Huh. I guess that means you also missed when God decided to make a little piece of Heaven on Earth where things are bright, organized, and able to be flatpacked to take home?

(Cue Heavenly Choir….) 

 

Yes, my friends, IKEA happened.

This was kind of a key component for staying in budget got this $100 Room Challenge. And since it’s been 2 years since visiting my version of Heaven on Earth (at least a version within a few hours of me), doing this challenge was the perfect excuse to go! 

IKEA sells a very popular sofa system called the Ektorp. (You can see it here.)

Don’t you love all of those Scandinavian names for IKEA products? See?! Not only do you get to enjoy shopping, but you can read those product names, hit up the cafe, and BAM, cultural experience! (Practically an international immersion program! Can you tell I don’t do much international travel? Bwhaha!) 

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I’ve noticed that lots of home bloggers I love have these sofas. Over at Just a Girl and Her Blog, you can see Abby’s living room and Ektorp sofa. Tracy at Jersey Girl in the South also has the Ektorp sofa. (Just two examples, but see? Very popular sofas for good reason!) These sofas are great because they are modular and you can create the system that works best for your room and family. They also are great because IKEA sells slipcovers specifically designed for them. The “prettier” ones are more expensive, BUT the beige colored one is an AMAZING price. 

[Drum roll please]

$19 for a loveseat slipcover! Say WHAT?! (Promise. Here it is.) 

Now, I was literally holding my breath when putting this sucker on our couch. I had looked at the Ektorp loveseat and it really DID look very similar in shape to ours, but I’d have to try it out to see if it would actually work on OUR couch. (I may have been a little impatient and skipped the recommended ironing.)

It isn’t perfect (I might need to do a little adjusting on the sides), but for $19, I am incredibly pleased with it! (In fact, I think it looks even better than our slipcover in the living room!) 

So, if you are wondering if an IKEA slipcover would work on your non-IKEA couch, you could always try it! (My thought was that if it didn’t work, I could always console myself with the trip back to IKEA to return it. 😉 

I’m so glad we gave it a go! Now our sofa looks so much brighter and more “us” and it only cost $19!

Let’s talk curtains now. Yep, we found those at IKEA too. They had one type that was $5 for a pack of TWO- wow! But those had kind of a shimmer/ glossy look to them. Luckily they had another “budget-friendly” option that was $10 for 2 panels! WAHOO! I needed 4 panels, so that set me back another $20 in my budget.

All they needed was to be ironed and hemmed. 

[You can find my favorite sewing machine here. I got mine at Costco and love it! (If you want to find out how to make that pin cushion in 5 minutes, click here.)]

Here is a picture of the old curtains. Not too bad (those beautiful new corbels help! And also the post-4th of July decor….Ha!)

 

Let’s look at the “after” picture with the new curtains: 

You might have noticed another change. I spray painted the curtain rods white. I love how they just kind of blend in now and aren’t such a stark contrast.

I want this room to be softer and brighter and I think we are heading in the right direction now! 

I have some more DIY projects that I will be working on for the final reveal next week. I won’t tell you what they are JUST yet, you will have to come back (mainly because I want to make sure they actually work ). Yep, I am totally going to be the guinea pig here. I will let you know how it turns out. Stay tuned! [Update: Want to see the Reveal? Click Here!]

Here are what the other bloggers that are participating in the $100 Room Challenge were up to this week: