My Free Living Room Makeover
Written by Mrs Money on January 7, 2009 – 8:07 pm -Before
After
We all know I like to take on home improvement projects that are just too big for me sometimes. That’s just my personality. A few weeks ago, I decided that I was sick and tired of our living room and having it feel like a cave. I wanted to brighten up the room, so I decided I would paint, especially before we replace the flooring. Using the Points I had accumulated, I redeemed them for a $50 gift card to Home Depot. I went there, picked out my primer and paint, and went home and got started.
I spent many, many days off working on priming, taping, sanding, trimming, and finally painting. It took me a few weeks with me working off and on, but I love the end result. The best part for me? I didn’t have to spend anything out of pocket. Using my bank’s rewards program and my own time didn’t cost me a penny. Also, I reused everything that I had existing: curtains, pictures, decor, and lamps. That was really inspiring to me. I decided on a light neutral color because I wanted the room to feel open and airy. The only windows in this room are pictured here, and they sometimes don’t provide enough light. Now the room feels so much cleaner and bigger! Next project up is replacing the flooring!
Do you like my frugal transformation?
Posted in DIY, Home Ownership | 10 Comments »
January 8th, 2009 at 10:17 am
I think it looks great, you did an awesome job. Want to come paint my house? I have a still unfinished red room waiting for me to strip 80 years of paint off the trim. We’re terrible about finishing projects. You did good!
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January 8th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Looks great!
My husband is feverishly saving up for a new TV. While we are in process of moving out the old TV and entertainment center I’m going to take the opportunity to paint our living room. It’s still plain white and I hate it.
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January 8th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
I love your room! Those are my colors too, but my walls are just one color (pretty close to your bottom color) with off white on the ceilings, baseboards, and doors. I have neutral couches and maroon scarves on black rods over my windows. I did laminate flooring which is reddish-brown, and I love how it all turned out.
I hadn’t even thought of doing the two-tone with a second piece of trim the way that you did, but now that I see it, WOW, I think I just made an addition to my “to do” list.
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January 9th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
Miss M- I would love to! We’d have a great time.
Ashley- I think white would be better than what we had. I called it “Army Green”.
There wasn’t a white wall in this house. I’ll come help you paint too!
momthing1- Thank you! I love the chair rail, and luckily I didn’t have to put that up!
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January 12th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
wow, VERY nice change! while sometimes i wanna shoot myself for owning a home (esp. in this market), the times i accomplish some nice makeovers like this make it all worth while
Good work!
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January 13th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
J. Money- Thanks! Sometimes I feel the same way. More often times than not lately!
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment!
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February 24th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
Nice job Mrs Money.
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February 25th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Sue- thank you!
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October 15th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Wow, that really brightened up the room! I did a makeover on our living room about three years ago. It was all white, so I decided to paint one wall dark bue. It looks pretty sharp. I made blue curtains (from $1/yard material from Walmart), and bought a $50 couch from Salvation Army that matched the color of the wall.
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December 29th, 2009 at 5:26 am
[...] made several upgrades, painted pretty much every surface of this house, and replaced a lot of flooring. I’ve put a [...]