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If you’re new here, welcome to Jen Spends! It’s time to wrap up our Beat the Rush Gift Guide, and boy do I have an unusual idea in store!
I love watching those home makeover shows where the owners are shipped off for a few days while a room or their entire home is redesigned. I always thought it would be fun to be able to surprise someone with a beautiful new room. A few years ago, I had my chance! My mom was trying to think of a special gift idea for my youngest brother’s sixteenth birthday. She had a limited budget and was struggling to come up with an idea that she felt was suitable for this important occasion. Knowing that my brother desperately wanted to remodel his bedroom, I suggested that we tackle the project ourselves as a surprise birthday gift to him. My poor brother had been stuck with a Winnie-the-Pooh nursery theme that the previous owners of my parents home had done for their baby. My sister and I hadn’t minded it, but when my brother took over our room he couldn’t wait for a change!
(Excuse the lousy “before” pictures–I didn’t think to take photographs until we had already removed wallpaper border and made the room a mess.)
Mom and I set to work choosing a paint color, sourcing decor items and doing the work while he was in school. It was a challenge keeping my nosey brother out of the room. We didn’t manage a complete surprise (he guessed that we were redoing his bedroom), but he didn’t see the end result until his birthday. He was thrilled!
Total project cost: around $300. How did we do this on a dime? We used many of my frugal decorating tips, and:
- Made a big design impact with inexpensive paint in a bold color
- Scoped out clearance shelves for deals, including aluminum window blinds for $7 per window
- Spruced up existing furniture with paint and/or new hardware
- Made our own simple window treatments with $1 per yard fabric
- Created wall art by cutting out images from an old calendar featuring my brother’s favorite sports team
It may not be a typical gift idea, but a room remodel is a perfect solution for that person who “has everything”, or anyone who just needs a change of scenery. A new room can change a person’s whole perspective, and it’s a gift that lasts for years. If you don’t have the time to fit in the job during the hectic holiday season, wrap up a few decor items, cans of paint, or a collage of idea images, along with a note or homemade coupon promising the recipient that you will help with all the work.
Win!
I am going to get one of you started with your own great room remodel with the following prize pack:
- A coupon for $60 worth of Olympic ONE paint (Note: redeemable at Lowe’s, expires 12/31/11) This paint is low-VOC, great for the winter months when it’s trickier to ventilate
- A $20 Lowe’s gift card to help you buy paint brushes and rollers, or whatever else you may need
- A $40 Sears gift card for some home decor items perhaps?
- A copy of Good Design Can Change Your Life by Ty Pennington. Full of great decorating ideas and heart-warming stories about lives transformed by design.
Use the Rafflecopter form below to enter (this may take a little extra time to appear. If you are viewing this in email or an RSS reader, click to my site to enter).
Good luck, and thank you for taking part in our Beat the Rush event! You can see the complete list of giveaways (many still in progress) here.
267 Responses - add one
my one daughter just got married changing her room to a game/video room
vmkids3 at msn dot com
repain my room
I would love to tackle my bathroom. It’s hideous and needs to be re-done badly. lol
othila1985@msn.com
I almost don’t know where to start as every room in this house needs work! I guess the family room/side entry way would be project #1 – repaint, retile and recarpet.
We just moved into a new place and all the walls are butter yellow. I don’t hate it but it definitely doesn’t match us style-wise so I’d like to redo the whole place, one room at a time starting with the library/guest room.
Would love to tackle our Master Bedroom. It needs something to brighten up the white walls!
I just got my own sewing studio.. but it needs paint and carpeting!!!
I would like to tackle my kitchen. It is in need of a makeover big time.
I’m finishing up painting the living room right now. The next one on my list to get done over the winter is my bedroom. It hasn’t been painted in over 15 years, and it’s so dingy and yucky, I can’t wait to have it clean and fresh and new looking again.
3oink63moo484@gmail.com
our dining room is depressing and straight out of the 1970′s id go from dark and dismal to sparking and bright so happily.
Our bathroom needs to be gutted and totally redone.
I’d like to tackle one of our spare rooms upstairs. We made a really bad color choice when moving here seven years ago and it’s still haunting me every time I look at it.
Katharina angelsandmusic[at]gmail[dot]com
I would re-do the bathroom, it needs an update, thanks
re-do kids’ bedroom
I would love to tackle my living room. Its getting dingy since it is so high traffic.
I need to tackle remodeling my youngest daughter’s bedroom.
I would tackle repainting my kitchen and bathroom.
Thanks for the great contest!
bahjeep@aol.com
my bathroom
Converting part of my laundry room into a pantry.
I’d love to install built-in bookshelves and make a custom headboard for the bedroom. Thanks!
This winter I’m going to tackle the bathroom and repaint and redecorate that room. Thanks for having the contest!
We are trying to re-do our bedroom!
I’d like to paint the bedroom!
We would love to tackle finishing the basement (a project that was started but never finished!). It would be nice to get it done! Thanks!
I would like to redecorate my bedroom with a fresh coat of paint, a new dresser, and some cute decor from Home Goods.
I’d like to paint the kitchen
i’d love to tackle my backyard so bad. I dont have a green thumb but want to add a garden and other smaller items to spruce it up
I’ve always wanted to make my own dresser and shelves with cedar wood.
Awesome blog by the way and thanks for the giveaway!
Would love, love, LOVE to win this!
=]
Definitely my bathroom. I have finally found the decor I want and know the color family I want for the paint. Just a matter of actually starting it at this point. Good Winter project
My bedroom is lacking color. Would love to work on it!
I would like to paint my kitchen. That’s enough of a task for me.
chrisdeglen(at)gmail(dot)com
i would like to paint my spare bedroom
My livingroom and kitchen need to be painted.
We are trying to redo our family room this fall
carolkfoster at comcast dot net
i am redecorating my bedroom
marygardner49 at aol dot com
I would like to paint and redecorate my bedroom.
My study is badly outdated!
We’re tackling a crafting area
.
Our daughter who we lost-her room. It is empty right now but I need to do something with it.
spcale at yahoo dot com.
I’d like to paint the kitchen
I would like to tackle my family room. It hasn’t been done since I purchased my home and it’s due.
i would paint my bathroom it really needs it
We need to repaint our living room and this would help!
brich22 at earthlink dot net
my sons room.
painting the living room and dining room!!!
I want to redo the boys room.They have purple walls from the last tenant and they want blue instead lol.Thanks!
I need to repaint my daughter’s bedroom, to turn it into my son’s bedroom.
wallindeb@yahoo.com
We moved into our house 7 years ago, but never even took the Noah’s ark border off the old owner’s nursery which is our guest room. This prize pack will force me to finally update it! lol Thanks for the opportunity!
mosaic317 at gmail dot com
Would love to paint our bathroom! grammypenny@frontier.com