How to Shop Your House for Decor {$100 Room Makeover Challenge Week 2}

It’s Week Two of our $100 Room Makeover Challenge! The pace of this makeover is much less frantic than the One Room Challenge. I think because my expectations are fairly low for this ‘transformation’ – but I’m starting to think I’ll be pleasantly surprised! This week, I’m showing you how I shopped the house for decor and styled the little planked nook for a cool $5.50… haha #BIGSPENDER

If you missed last week’s Intro Post you can see it here. I broke down my inspiration for this living room makeover and laid out my plans for the four-week challenge.

If you need a refresher – this is the corner I’m focusing on today…it’s affectionately known as ‘the nook’.

STOP! ~~Hammer time!~~ I mean time for a history lesson… haha Why do we call it the NOOK?

Because that planking? It’s covering up a giant 1980s style television hole that was built into the original home. Seriously. This was move in day. Note: NOOK to the RIGHT. I know, you’re likely distracted by the mural and the faux brick painted on the wall and didn’t even notice the nook…. but the nook is there haha….

Here’s the only picture I could find of how we planked over it… because it made sense to take a terrible picture back then? I don’t know. Let’s just say, I think my photography skills have improved in the last four years LOLOL (I also wallpapered that wall right over the mural before deciding to just paint it white. Guys – I am a glutton for punishment sometimes…)

Okay, back to now.

The first thing I did was SHOP MY HOUSE = FA-RE-HEE…Holy Nelly and her Sisters… you guys – this is the BEST way to save money and switch up your decor.

Here are the items I ‘found’ around the house and where I found them:

Black Lacquered Telephone Table (It was my Gramma’s and it was in storage)
Black and White cityscape print (Also in storage)
Aqua pillow cover (in my linen cupboard)
Wood Round Slice (in my craft room)
Pink, aqua, cream coloured chevron throw (in my linen cupboard)
Ghost Chair (was in the living room)
Standing lamp (was in the living room)

Here are the items I bought to fill out the new space:

Five round baskets from the thrift store. The big one was $1.50. The rest were $1 each.

Step one was to just empty out the nook area so I had a clean slate. Then I moved in the telephone table. To be honest, I wasn’t sure it was going to work. It’s one of the most visually heavy pieces I’ve ever seen. It’s black and reflective and it commands a lot of attention and ‘design space’. BUT, the flip side is that I have tried half a dozen times to part with it, and I just cannot. I can’t let it go.

So the challenge for Step Two was to soften the hardness of the table…like really, really soften it. Enter the $5.50 baskets that I hung on the wall all willy-nilly. Then I added in some natural textures with the wood slice and pitcher with flowers.

I hung the black and white print just to give a bit of definition to that back corner so the ghost chair didn’t appear too ghostly. Added my toss pillow and the throw and voila! A newly styled nook!

PS While I have you! Have you considered joining my REINVENTION NATION Mastermind group yet?! You totally should 🙂

$5.50 down $94.50 left in the budget! Next week, I’m hoping to show you a fun DIY project I’m working on that will be on the other side of the room… It’s a bit of a risky one… so we’ll see!