Girls’ bedroom makeover on a budget: Princess Room

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Hi everyone! This Christmas, money was extremely tight. I am not working and Brent has had to miss several days of work without pay to take care of me. Being broke around Christmas time may sound horrible to some people, but not to us. We always make the best out of every situation, and this was no different!
We currently live in an apartment where there is very little storage and everything always seems so cluttered, despite having 1190 square feet of living space! Our daughters have slept in the same bed forever because they refuse to sleep by themselves. They love to cuddle with each other. Add a full size bed to a small room decked out with 2 dressers, tv and toy storage, and you have not a single square inch of play area! Where did they play? They played all throughout our apartment! We would be stepping on toys, tripping over them, dodging them left and right, and wanting to scream because our apartment was taken over by toys!

Since I have been unable to work due to health conditions, I am very bothered by the idea of toys littered around the house. I had hatched up a plan to completely change the girls’ bedroom around to save space and make them want to play in their room. When I was their age, I loved my bedroom! I wanted them to feel the same way about theirs; I wanted them to be proud of their bedroom and want to play in it. I racked my brain for weeks to come before finally coming up with the starting point: bunk beds!

I searched through Craig’s List for bunk beds, and ended up finding a sweet deal on wooden twin bunk beds with mattresses for $125.00! The bunk beds were in excellent condition, as were the mattresses.

My mom bought the bunk beds for the girls for Christmas, along with Hello Kitty sheet sets that the girls picked out for $19.09 per set. The Hello Kitty comforters were $29.09 each, and not quite so princess looking. Brent and I wanted the girls to have a more sophisticated look for the comforter, but were unable to find anything at a price we could afford, so we went to Jo-Ann Fabric and headed for the sale rack. We finally decided on style and purchased 4 yards of brown fleece, 3 yards of a patterned flannel, and 1 1/2 yards of a matching patterned flannel to make 2 twin sized comforters all for under $32.00 (the price of 1 comforter at Target or Walmart).

Making the comforters was easy as pie. The back of the comforter is brown fleece and the front of the comforter 4/5 of the way up is a brown and pink square pattern with pink leopard trim. The 1/5 part is a strip of brown material with pink and white stripes and hearts. It took me about an hour to make each comforter, and was well worth the money saved!

My mother is so crafty! She came up with the idea to convert my old entertainment center that has been taking up space in her garage into a great big dollhouse castle! My mother sanded down the entertainment center and layered on 3 coats of white paint. Then, with the help of some wonderful people, they brought the entertainment center up to our place and I did all of the fancy work. This project cost $4.00 plus tax. We already had the acrylic paints, sponges, and paint brushes. Our only purchase was at the Dollar Tree for shelf wallpaper which we used for the floors (inside shelves) of the castle. The old changing table that was doubling for a toy storage facility was removed from the girls’ bedroom and placed in our closet, where we have been able to make excellent use of.

We sorted out all of the girls’ toys, kept the ones that they play with often and are in good condition, donated toys that they don’t play with, and threw out the ones that were so junky that they were falling apart. We had several plastic storage boxes lying around between our apartment and my mom’s house, so we found boxes that fit perfectly under the bottom bunk bed and in the top shelves of the entertainment center. All of the dollhouse castle paraphernalia was placed on the top shelves and dress up and housekeeping stored under the bed for easy access. Next, we took the 2 dressers and placed them inside of their wide but narrow walk in closet. Everything was coming together so perfectly!

My dad was storing a beautiful toy chest that he had made for the girls, however we had no room for it previously. As the room began to open up, we found that we were able to take the toy chest from him and place it under the window sill. All of the extra miscellaneous toys were able to go inside of the toy chest. This couldn’t have been any more perfect of a fit!

We have been wanting to get the girls a new tv for their room. Their tv was a 27 inch bulky 1996 model that weighed a ton, and we wanted to get them a slick little flat screen tv. We had been looking for a deal for over 6 months, but could not find something that we were able to afford and be satisfied with at the same time. Christmas deals were starting, and we began to search more and more, and got my dad involved in the hunt for a reasonably priced tv. My dad is the master of all deals. He found a 22 inch Coby LCD tv for $198.00, and to top it off, he said that he would front us the money and we could pay him back starting in March so that we may recuperate from Christmas spending! The girls got their beautiful tv, and Brent hooked up an old computer that he had refurbished to their tv so that they may watch whichever movie their heart desires and play computer games whenever they wish. He gave them an older wireless mouse and keyboard as well. The girls are hooked up to the max!

We found a few extras here and there to add to the girls’ princess room, and also used things that they already had in their room to mix things up a little. We bought a 12×12 inch canvas at Jo-Ann Fabric on sale for 5.99 and painted a princess crown on it (thanks to Target’s version at $14.99 for a 10×10 inch). We found a steal at Ross for a beautifully decked out lattice wall hanger for the girls’ bathrobes, hats and purses for a total price of $3.00!

We made a reading corner, a dollhouse section, an arts corner (with their chalkboard table that we had made out of an old Dora the Explorer kids table), and a great big center spot of empty space to play!

The girls LOVE their room, and we couldn’t be any happier! The total cost of the makeover into princess bedroom was $376.00, however toys staying in the bedroom is priceless! And that, my friends, is how to please everyone in the household and be thrifty while doing so!

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