Family Room Makeover for $250

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I was challenged this month to do a room makeover for my family room or dining room with $250 of Better Homes and Gardens products (available at Walmart.)  I was excited to see what I could do to my family room because it has been sadly neglected by me.  I didn’t really notice that it was so pathetic until I did this challenge, actually.  But now I LOVE it!  Can you even believe how a few accessories and decor items can drastically change the look and the feel of a room?  Love, love, love this room now.

Here’s the before…

 

And after!!

Amazing transformation, right?

Here’s what I did for my room makeover:

1)  Clear the room of all clutter and existing decor.  I basically didn’t have any decor so that was easy.  Cleaning up all the toys was harder.

2)  Pick a few colors that you would like to accent your room.  I have these lovely white couches (one from IKEA and one I slipcovered.)  so I don’t have to work around any other color scheme (which is why I LOVE them!)  My favorite decorating colors right now are aqua and apple green.  So of course those are my colors!  I had these cute blue pillows from IKEA also and a few others, so I added in some BHG green pillows, along with that super cute brown ruffled pillow, the triangle colorblocked pillow, and the French laundry pillow.  All these together follow my rules and work GREAT together!

3) Ground your decor with neutral colored items.  Neutral colors include white, black, gray, tan, beige.  I like to include darker colors here and there, otherwise you feel like you’re floating away (which I admit, is sometimes a nice prospect.)  My BHG neutral items include  a few of the pillows, the frames, the clock, the lamp, the candles, and the bench.  So, basically everything I bought.  It doesn’t take a lot of color to make a room feel colorful.

4)  Shop the house.  You never know what you could find that could work.  For example, the chevron rug was in my daughter’s nursery but I borrowed it to see how I liked it.  Turns out I love it.  And then I bought another rug for her room so it’s not sad.  🙂  I also added a few accessories here and there.  I flipped an old artichoke produce crate over and put the lamp on it to add a bit more height.

5)  Add greenery.  Whether it’s artificial (like high quality stuff) or real, the appearance of greenery really helps your room breathe, literally.  If you have fresh plants, you will be creating oxygen!  And they are pretty.  (Always buy fresh flowers for room reveals!)

6)  Decorate the walls:  As you can see, my family room is abnormally large and I had to divide the space up into a crafting space, office area, bookshelves, and the living area.  So wall space is kinda weird to decorate.  But I did have this cute little corner that I decorated with the BHG white frames (which I didn’t even change out the pictures in!) and the BHG rustic clock.  The aqua frame is one I painted.

7) Think outside the box:  As cliche as this phrase it, it’s said for a reason.  I got the dining room bench to use as a coffee table because I knew it would be able to be used in multiple capacities throughout it’s lifetime.  Benches can always be used.  This one fits my dining room table perfectly, or I could use it for extra seating during a party.  I can take it outside (since the BHG dining stuff is pretty durable!) for outdoor sitting or entertaining.  I also like it as a coffee table because it has rounded corners so no one gets hurt on it and it’s not heavy looking to make the room feel crowded.

8) Accessorize:  This is the thing that really adds that extra something something to your  room makeover.  The little things like plants, framed art, books, trays, and candles.  They add that homey inviting touch.  I had this tray from World Market already and I put some of my favorite old books on it with a beautiful and delicious smelling BHG candle.

9) Add a little of your personality. This doesn’t necessarily mean tons of family photos (even though I personally am a fan of the family photos) but if you are trying to entice a buyer by staging your space you need to help them visualize themselves living there. So I added this cute little printable quote that really describes who I am (in a BHG frame.) So let’s look at that one more time, shall we?  Here’s the BEFORE:

And the AFTER:

I love it!  The pictures don’t do this room makeover justice…it is so much better than before! So here’s the lowdown.  With my $250 Walmart gift card, I purchased the following, all Better Homes and Garden brand:

• 1 Brown Ruffle Pillow
• 1 Colorblock Pillow
• 2 Green Trellis Pillows
• 1 French Laundry Pillow
• 1 Silver Lamp Base
• 1 French Laundry Lampshade
• 2 Candles
• 1 Dining Room Bench
• 1 Rustic Clock
• 2 White Frames
• 1 Silver Frame
• 1 Black Frame

And here’s what I pulled into the room that I already owned:

• Chevron Rug
• 2 Aqua Pillows
• 2 Green Pillows
• Accessories: brown throw blanket, existing pillows, artichoke crate, kleenex box, artificial plant, old books, tray

If it were this inexpensive to makeover all my rooms, I’d be done in a jif!  Well to be fair, there were quite a few things already done in this room, like the couch slipcover and the painted TV cabinet (and the bookcases, desk, and craft area.)  But still–it gives me hope! What room would you makeover with $250?  How about $1000?  You can enter to win one in the Room Refresh Pin to Win Sweepstakes!    It’s super easy to enter so go do it!

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In accordance with the FTC Guidelines, I am disclosing that I received compensation from Better Homes & Garden for my time and participation in the Better Homes & Garden Refresh Challenge. Although we have a material connection, any publicly stated opinions of Better Homes & Garden and their products remain my own.