apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

the new accessories are cute... but why not paint the walls? that would really make it feel like a new space.

Probably paint would max out the $50 budget?
I personally like the airiness of the white.

for only 50 bucks this ain't so bad

Pretty amazing for fifty bucks (especially loved the added ribbon to the duvet cover and the color-blocked window treatment), wonder what she could do with $500...

Honestly, I can't believe that cost 50 bucks. Two plants and a few pillow covers? That looks like a $20 IKEA trip.

Cassis -
Maybe they factored in the price of gas.

Ah, I just read the article. She actually spent only $30 (plus $10 for the palm frond in the window). That sounds more like it for this effect.

I think this room looks cheap (because it is cheap), BUT I like that all of the projects are completely accessible. There's none of that "And here's the gorgeous MCM credenza that I found at a garage sale for 25 cents" stuff that you see so often in these budget re-dos.

Ha! "Civic pruning." It's like the opposite of guerilla gardening.

$50 to redecorate? C'mon, it's all about priorities. Most people spend more on cell phones and coffee. If you can't even afford to paint the room, it's pretty hopeless.

I like the addition of plants, but other than that, I think I like the "before" bedroom better.

christa, i couldn't agree more. this is the same problem some of the budget makeover tv shows have. they buy too many inexpensive things, and it looks it. why not buy one good thing and more good things as time goes by.
this leads me to ask, do people decorate a room completely and are done with it or do they evolve constantly?

ew yes i think i like the before. thats hardly a makeover. thats called adding a few things here and there.

i agree that it looks as cheap as it is, and it shouldnt have to

Agreed. I also prefer the before with the addition of the plants and perhaps the lamp/orb in the corner.

It was much, much, much better in the before picture...

i like the makeover with the exception of the print on the wall...too busy and tiny. that wall needs a big, bold matissey sort of print. also, i agree with the comments about paint...a gallon and a quart of paint would cost next to nothing (yes, i know walmart is the devil, but you can buy a gallon of eggshell wall paint for $10) and make a much bigger impact. i painted my living room a soothing blue-grey punctuated with big BIG white mums stenciled randomly about (using a stencil i made with an exacto knife and one of those cheapie dollarstore flexible cutting boards). cost: $10 blue-grey paint, $3 white enamel paint, $1 flexible cutting board. and to answer the earlier question: i NEVER stop redecorating my apt. it will have a totally different feel from one month to the next. since i buy most of my stuff from thrift stores or craiglist and sell my stuff on craigslist, it's basically a financially net neutral endeavor. it is driving my boyfriend nuts, however. also, while i do agree with saving for quality furniture rather than buy a whole bunch of crap, a girl does need to make do in the meantime (i mean, c'mon, are you going to have a nice sleigh bed and nothing else in your bedroom for the next year?). these "make-do" pieces can later be passed on to other light-of-wallet make-doers via craiglist or freecycle, so no harm done to either your wallet or the environment.

I like the before better. Less is more.

I still think it looks great, and it might be because I have lived with a minimalist palette for too long. Really, a little bit of color actually looks fresh to me right now. Still love the window.

$50? Yeah, I spent that yesterday just to buy a curtainrail and two cheap-but-nice pre-matted frames. It helps that the space itself is awesome to begin with, and that they have a print already framed. This would look a lot different if they started with a room painted institutional cream with beige carpets.
And to etslee - we could afford paint, but our landlord would go nuts and it's not worth the fight. Maybe better to see projects where you work with the space you have?

The 'after' is at least cute and has some sort of personality. A college-age personality, yes, but I don't quite understood the attitude of, "well if you can't do it properly...don't bother." The charm of it is that it's not permanent or costly. There're no craptastic built-ins, no laminate stapled to the walls, no cheap tricks like uhm, glueing moss/fake flowers/glitter to the walls. It can all be easily improved upon when the occupant has more dough. Would I encourage neutrals instead? Oh yeah. But if you are color-starved and need a bit of immediate gratification, I like this.

nessaneko...i feel your pain. i have beautiful hardwood floors now, but for five years i lived in wall-to-wall beige...on the carpet, on the walls, and it was super institution-y, cinder-block-y sort of architecture (if you can call it architecture). you can always get those bamboo carpets now a days to mimic hardwood floors/break up the beige monotony. as for not being able to paint the walls...i would die. that's the first thing i do, and i redo it frequently to give myself a 'change of scenery'...i think i'm a little bit bratty in thinking painting is an inviolable right! but, again, i think a big, bold, well-scaled art piece *higher* above the bed and on the opposite wall would make this room look less lopsided (both in terms of density of color and just, well...stuff). and if not big, then a cluster of prints grouped together not unlike:
http://gallery.apartmenttherapy.com/photo/052208alan/IMG_0759

you can buy frames like this for $11 (not going to make it in under the $50 mark, i know), and like the best things in life, the best art is often free, too!

littlebunnyfoofoo - yeah, those are the kind of frames I've been getting, just nice plain ones. I have a bunch of tiny 4 x 6 prints I collected while in Japan, and I managed to find a large black frame with a precut white mat which fits 6 of them in a grid, so I'm pretty pleased. Doesn't look quite like professional framing, but better than blu-tack! My dad's also an artist and I've managed to wangle a whole bunch of framed paintings from him, on the guise that it's better to have them hung here than sitting in storage at his place...
Luckily the house we're in at the moment actually has pretty nice colour and the floors upstairs are hardwood, but they're really paint-stained and kind of grotty so we've wound up putting bamboo mats down anyway. Downstairs is the real issue - deep red carpet with hideous mustard and brown patterning, which goes all the way through a weird-shaped living room and up the stairs! We have a big square of gray carpet to cover the majority, but it's ugly as sin and I wish we could get it replaced. Alas, our landlord is not so kind. *sigh* The issues of college decorating...

Fuss and bother, people. The room looks better and friendlier after the makeover. Put a rug in to "anchor" the bed and soften the floor, make the art bigger, and it's just fine.

I'm sorry, but this would look like ass close up (read: in real life). Taped together paint swatches? Ribbon sewen onto the bedspread? A Pellegrino bottle? I'm not advocating for the "if you can't do it right, don't do it at all" viewpoint, but there has to be a happy medium.

The before was way better...just needed the crap on the sidetable and the excess pillows throwing out and losing the blind (or whatever is hanging at the window).