How to Makeover a Master Bedroom on a Budget
Do you have a room in your home that you spend as little time as possible in? A room that’s uncomfortable, ugly or a mess? We did too.
This post will show you how we updated our master bedroom on a budget and hopefully give you the inspiration to get it done, too!
YOU GUYS! We finally did it. We have a room that we don’t completely avoid! 😂
Tell me if this sounds familiar:
I would shut the door and avoid the mess.
I would think, “one day we’ll have a nice room,” or “We can’t have a nice room right now with the cats” or “When we hit the lottery…”
But if this last 18 months taught me anything, it’s that there may not be a “one day”.
We have a large master bedroom with an incredible view and we did not enjoy it nearly enough.
There is absolutely no reason to wait to make your home comfortable and beautiful, even if you have
pets or kids or are on a budget!
Your home is the place you go at the end of a long day to relax and feel comfortable. It’s really hard to
do that when the room looks like chaos.
Unfortunately for us, this was the state of our bedroom. Chaos.
So we decided it was time to make the space over and just enjoy it in the meantime.
This, of course, meant not spending too much money, as we want to save as much as we can for that big renovation.
So we had to get creative, and you can too!
I’ll show you exactly how we revamped our large, long room without breaking the bank.
The assessment.
When considering a makeover, first assess what you’ve got, what you like and don’t like, what you want to change and any potential challenges.
To start, Brad an I have a grand idea of what we want the house to look like.
It includes completely changing the layout of the top floor (where the master is). We will add a bathroom, walk in closet, open the walls blocking the view, adding more windows, etc. etc.
It is the grand plan, and I have no idea when it will actually happen.
So I avoided doing anything to the space because I figured “it’s going to change anyway, why spend money twice?”
But we really weren’t enjoying the room at all.
Our bedroom had:
- Cat items everywhere
- Open shelves that we didn’t use
- A couch that was meant to be in a sunroom (not so much to relax in)
- One very old rug
- No curtains over most of our windows due to a beam that prevents a curtain rod from hanging normally
- Sandalwood paint on the walls
And I was just tired of it.
But we also had:
- A very large, long room
- Ample closet space
- Molding on the ceiling
- Vertical lines in the paneled walls
- Builtins
- A large wall of windows with an awesome view
I also knew I needed to get creative if I was going to pull this off without breaking the bank.
The plan.
Absolutely, the first step in any DIY is to make a plan.
You should have a basic idea of the dimensions of your space as well as what you think you want to do with it.
This does not have to be a fancy rendering, and mine certainly wasn’t. Just draw out a map of the floor plan with the dimensions added in.
You can then easily redesign the space on paper, move furniture around and play with new ideas without breaking your back by physically moving the items in your room to figure out how you like it.
Moving a pencil is MUCH easier than moving furniture. Trust me!
Solve potential challenges.
Consider potential solutions to the challenges you identified.
Since our bedroom provided some challenges (probably more than most rooms do), I had to also figure out how to overcome them with my plan.
For me, this always means a lot of creative thinking with pencil and paper and scouring Pinterest for ideas.
Even if you’re not an artist (I certainly am not), I always eventually find a solution by drawing it out. There’s something about putting pen to paper that helps to clear my thoughts and see it.
We’re all visual people I guess.
Figure out your design
When planning, it is also important to create a design plan and make sure you stick with it (as best you can!).
We all enjoy different styles, so whether yours is farmhouse, MCM, traditional, it’s all gravy. Just pick something that you’re going to continue, certainly in the one room but also all throughout your home so it looks cohesive.
Putting it down on paper really helps to solidify your ideas and will keep you focused so you don’t waste your money on things that won’t fit in with the rest of the room.
Getting physical samples is also incredibly helpful in this stage. Fabrics, paint swatches, flooring, drapes, pictures of light fixtures: the more you have the better to determine what will look best in the space.
This will also help you save money and time as it will help you to stay focused instead of side tracked with “all the pretty things” and impulse buys.
Implement your plan.
Now, get to work! Get pumped for your DIY adventures and just get started!
Seriously.
I have a full time job and am very limited on time, but by utilizing my time wisely, I was able to get the entire room done in about a month.
Don’t rush it or pressure yourself. It is uncomfortable to live through a makeover (especially if you paint 🤣) but try as much as possible to enjoy the process.
Utilize that hour or two before or after work. DIY in your pj’s with your coffee nearby.
It’s a wonderful thing.
I had a lot of DIY solutions for the multitude of challenges in the space. It would have been easy to burn out, but I try to thoroughly enjoy the process.
(Though I did take a break from painting for a while after I finished 😂).
Our Makeover.
Note that the following links will bring you to the specific post on each of the following DIY projects, with full instructions.
DIY MDF shaker cabinet doors
The first thing I did was paint the built-ins and added DIY MDF shaker cabinet doors. I knew I wanted to make this area of the room more attractive, but also more useful.
Open shelving is incredibly difficult with pets. It collects dust and hair so quickly, so I wanted to close off a few of the sections to make my life a little easier.
Here’s the before:
Making these out of MDF made them both easy to make and inexpensive.
I absolutely love how they turned out. They may be my favorite addition to the room.
Lots and lots of paint
We painted the ceiling, walls and moldings. The ceiling alone made the room look so much better, cleaner and bigger.
Painting is one of those wonderful DIY tasks because you can shut out the world, pop on an audio book and just be in the zone for several hours. I love it.
Until my arm falls asleep 😅.
Tip for purchasing paint for the walls: go with the full coverage option, even though it’s about $10 more.
Unless you have a very tiny room, you’ll end up having to purchase two cans at $30 to do a second coat than just doing the one at $40.
So it seems like you’re saving money upfront, but you’re not. You waste about $20 and about 4 hours of your life. Go with the full coverage, one-coat guarantee stuff.
Trust me.
Removed paint from window hardware
While I was working on painting the room, I also removed the window hardware and got all that paint off the beautiful, maybe original? window hardware.
This is one of those jobs that you overlook and think, “Yeah, maybe later,” that only takes a half hour or so but makes such a huge difference in the end.
All I did was unscrew the hardware and placed it all in an old saucepot (this pot is kept in the basement strictly for DIY projects. Don’t use it for cooking afterward!), added some baking soda, brought it to a boil and let it boil in the pot for 15-20 mins.
When it’s done boiling, the hardware will be hot!! Remove with tongs or a slotted spoon and DO NOT TOUCH THE HARDWARE WITH YOUR HANDS!
You’ll see that most the paint just peels off in the pot.
For the remainder of the paint, use either a scrub brush or if you have a small wooden scraper, like the flat side of a chop stick, that will work to scrape the remainder of the paint off. It should come off easily.
If not, let it boil a few more minutes.
Over-the-window curtain rod shelf
If not the shaker cabinet doors, the over-the-window curtain rod shelf is my favorite aspect of the room.
This allowed me to hang a curtain rod from below the shelf, where the wood beam was previously preventing me from doing so.
It also allows me to display all of my favorite things.
I love the addition of the décor, and love even more that it’s out of kitty’s reach, so I don’t have to worry about him eating plants or knocking anything off at night.
Peel and Stick Flooring
Possibly the biggest transformation was installing peel and stick floor tiles.
While it’s true that they are no replacement for real wood, they are a fantastic temporary update until we (eventually) get to change the layout of the second floor and will put in wood.
When we moved in, we painted the (very stained) cork floors with deck paint. This worked for a couple years, but after five, it was peeling in multiple places and looked pretty rough.
It certainly didn’t give off any cozy feeling when walking on it either.
Seriously, it looks so much better than what was there before. And it was a simple weekend project!
Quarter Round Molding
We then added quarter round to the moldings to cover the spaces between the floor and walls.
This gives you a nice finished look and covers any space between the floors and the wall.
Cat Updates (litter box, jungle gym, toys)
We also updated our kitty jungle gym, along with our cat toys and DIY litter box.
A little paint goes a long way. Why are these things so bright in the first place?!
The green, walnut and black looks so much better than the old hot pink, red wood and carpet 🤣.
You CAN have a beautiful home with pets!
Lighting
We also gave the fan an easy DIY update and switched out the ugly, paint-covered boob light.
I could have gone with a bigger fixture on that one.
Oh well.
It’s still better than the previous D-cup on the ceiling.
Add in your furniture.
We furnished our home with almost 100% hand-me down furniture up until recently.
I highly recommend this as furniture is expensive and you can get beautiful items from your friends and neighbors.
I’ve received Ethan Allen chairs and vintage wood dressers. Really nice things that I would not have been willing to purchase. And it was free from dear friends who just wanted these things out of their houses.
What a wonderful exchange!
However, Brad asked for a new couch for Christmas for the living room. It was a tough purchase, but I must say, it’s beautiful. And SO comfortable.
And that meant that we could bring the old living room couch upstairs to replace the wicker one.
You guys, this was a chore. We have a difficult stairway with a lot of turns and it was not easy to get that thing up there with just Brad and I.
But somehow, we did it. And we didn’t kill ourselves– or each other 😂.
And I love that it’s a neutral color in that space. As much as I love that wicker couch, the brown one fits in much better, and is better for curling up to watch a movie or ball game.
Entryway table with hairpin legs
I then made this DIY entryway table with hairpin legs to fit perfectly under our very large mirror.
It’s 8ft long, super sturdy and kitty loves to walk on it and survey the room like he owns the place.
It has built-in storage and was SO easy to build.
Chair Updates
We also had some (hand-me-down) wicker chairs that matched the couch.
These chairs are wonderfully comfortable, but the pattern did not match anything in the room AND it was completely clawed up by you-know-who.
My mother-in-law helped me to re-cover the chair cushions. And by help, I mean she did it for me.
She is SO GOOD at sewing—and I am most certainly not.
She used the old cushions as a template and reused the zipper on the old cushions.
They came out so nice 😊
The smaller chair didn’t require any sewing.
The cushion just pops out, so I simply wrapped the new fabric around the chair and stapled it underneath after making sure the fabric was pulled taught without any wrinkles.
The gray looks so much better in the space. Goodbye, colorful chairs!
Rugs
I decided to purchase new rugs as well. You can certainly use an old rug if you have one that’s in good shape. I did not.
This is the first rug purchase I’ve ever made, so I was a little nervous, but I think I did ok.
I waited until a holiday weekend to get the best sale and I ended up getting 60% off. They were still expensive, but not nearly what I would have paid normally.
This is a great idea if you have a plan and know what you want. Delay gratification for just a little while to save your wallet.
They are excellent quality. And I love them.
Decor
I did also purchase a few other things for the space. I spent about $60 at IKEA, so nothing too excessive.
This blanket is wonderful. It is cozy and warm but also does not show every single cat hair that sticks to it. It just kind of blends in which I certainly appreciate. It’s also very easy to clean. And little man loves it.
I also got two large pillows and pillowcases for the bed. These instantly made the bed look more comfortable and luxurious.
And I got new covers for our (hand-me-down) throw pillows. They’re in great shape, but matched the old couch and I was ready for a little more simplicity in the design.
White it is.
As a side note, pillow covers might be my favorite way to get that bang for your buck when decorating your space.
They are inexpensive and so easy to change out to give your room a completely new look.
If I decide when the fall and winter roll around that I was richer colors, it is such an easy and inexpensive change and a great way to add that element into the space.
Try it out!
I also brought up some artwork that I LOVE. Before this makeover, I didn’t bother to bring any art upstairs in the bedroom. Not a single piece.
This one fits perfectly above our bed and between the two windows. I absolutely love it and makes the room feel much more “homey”.
Recap
All in all, I spent under $1000 to finish this room.
While yes, this is a big number, it includes the floors (which was about half the cost), cabinet doors, paint, wood, quarter round, new rugs, fabric, hardware, light fixtures and everything.
Considering all the updates we made, that cost is really not very much at all and was completely worth the time, money and effort as we now use the room so much more, can enjoy that view and hang out with our little kitty in his space.
