Room for improvement £50 makeover

When I saw the moneysupermarket Room for improvement challenge I had to sign up. I saw it about 2 days before I went on holiday. So I signed up just in time, we were back late Saturday night so Sunday morning I knuckled down. I decided to improvement the boys room. We have been talking about doing something in there for ages.

We have lived in our house for 7 years so it really needed some updating. The budget was £50, I wanted a practical change but I wanted the boys to have input aswell. They both decided they wanted a London room, they are so interested in London since we took them in January. Neither of them wanted Thomas the tank curtains anymore and blue was the specified colour! Also they would like a chalkboard!!

I wondered how an earth I would do all this for just £50, so before I went away I started researching all their requirements. I really wanted to put a door on their toy cupboard too.

Here's a before picture of the room. Its tired and well played in, not to mention very messy. Ahem!

Shopping List

• Blackboard paint  from Wickes £9.99
• Chipboard from Wickes  £11.19
• London sticker set from Ebay £6.99
• Chic shadow Matt emulsion from B&Q £13.33 (we bought 3 chic shadow as this is what we have decided to paint the living room in aswell. It was 3 for 2 so rather than counting this as the free one I have just spread the cost over 3)

Total £51.07

I could argue with this total as we only used half of the chic shadow paint and will use the rest of it in the living room. But I'm sure I can be let off £1.07 ;)

Saturday

First of all I gave it a good tidy up. I cleaned the walls and removed existing old peeling stickers and decorations. I taped up the wall and started to paint chic shadow on the top half of the wall. Dave set to work on making the cupboard door.

The longest job was chipping all the old, peeling paint off the radiator. I didn't actually manage to get it all off but it dark colour hid the botched job.  This is the picture before I set to work.

By time I had done this Dave had made the cupboard door, he used hinges off the old one we threw out and spare ones he found in the shed. I just painted over them so you can't see that they aren't the same kind of hinges! The door knob is from our old kitchen cupboards!

By time we fitted the door, which also took quite a while, the radiator was ready for another coat. I hung the curtains and called it a day.

Sunday

I painted  a coat of blackboard paint, I was quite nervous about doing this because its so dark, there is definately no room for error. I waited to for it dry and added the stickers.

I am so pleased with the results and it turned out so much better than I expected. The room seems so much brighter and airy. The boys love it and so do we!

Here are some before and after pictures:

We are all so pleased at how the stickers look and and the blackboard paint looks so tempting to draw on but you have to leave it 48 hours.

The new curtains really smarten the room up, although the quality isn't the best it doesn't really matter as the black out blind blocks out the light. They are more for decoration.

What do you think, are you impressed with the £50 transformation?