Where it all began…

We are all familiar with budget-friendly projects, but time is a valuable resource too, and I was craving a way to spruce up my basic builder grade bathroom quickly and affordably before an upcoming photo shoot.  I knew I didn’t want to put much money into the bathroom because we hope to one day do a more thorough renovation.  I knew $100 wouldn’t be quite enough, and $300 was more than I wanted to spend.  So I settled on $200.  And for sake of alliteration, decided to challenge myself to a two hundred dollar reno in two days.  (You can read all the details of my budget friendly bathroom reno here.)

Also, earlier this year I had seen my talented friend Kay @onceupona1912 spruce up a bathroom at her local art center for just $200 in 2 days.  The transformation was remarkable!  Thus the seeds of inspiration were planted for the idea that became The #2Days200Dollars challenge!  Here is the space Kay transformed – isn’t it incredible?!?!

While brainstorming about the #2Days200Dollars reno, I felt like this was an amount of time & money that many people could relate to.  And things are always so much more fun when people join you on the journey, so I decided to put out an open invitation for others to join in!  And I loved seeing so many of the results!

Here are some incredibly inspiring transformations, along with budget friendly tips from each homeowner that YOU too could apply to spaces in your home:

Melissa

IG: @houseofhilchey

Space Transformed: Bedroom

Melissa’s Budget Friendly Tips for Transforming a Space:  “Paint is the cheapest and most impactful tool you can use.  Shop your own home, use what you have.  Make the gents at your local hardware store do the cutting for you. -it’s free!  Get creative!  For instance I used staircase handrail brackets instead of shelf brackets.  They were only $3 each!  Shop the sales. My striped pillow cover was only $6 from H&M home.  Did I mention paint? Paint is awesome! You can find miss mixed paint for a fraction of the price, and if you’re only doing a little accent color like I did, you can just use a $5 sample pot. (It was plenty for what I needed!)  And finally, hit up your local second hand store for good deals on home accents . A mix of new and old is always a winner in my books.”

Lisa

IG: @casaderami

Website: www.casaderami.com 

Space Transformed: Bedroom

Lisa’s Budget Friendly Tip for Transforming a Space:  “Once you know the exact look you’re going for, source out your items, and then source them out again to fit your budget. It’s a lot easier to find similar looking items at a much more reasonable price once you’ve envisioned the look.”

Rebecca:

IG: @recreatedbyrebecca

Space Transformed: Closet turned Office Space

Rebecca’s Budget Friendly Tips for Transforming a Space:  “My top budget saving tip is, use what you have first. I knew to organize the space and make it pretty I would need to buy some things that I just didn’t have, but I started with what I had first and built off of that. Being able to clean up the existing shelves and move them to fit my needs was such a budget saver for me. I also searched my home for storage containers that were no longer being used, my kids old pencil boxes now house craft materials and I’m using an old antique leather camera box as a stylish catch all on the desk top for the things we use every day.”

Sonya:

IG: @buildingthefarm

Space Transformed: Laundry Room

Sonya’s Budget Friendly Tips for Transforming a Space: “Making over our laundry room on a budget was important for us! Here are a few tricks we used to make the biggest impact for the least amount of money. We decided on using a bold paint color combined with a simple board and batten wall treatment to make a big design statement without costing a lot. For the shelf above the washer and dryer, we used an old board that had been left over from construction. All it needed was a good sanding and a few coats of tung oil to shine (which we already had!) For accessories, I made sure to shop during sales in order to save the most money. With these tips, we were able to make a big change on a small budget!”

Shelby:

IG: @urbangrayhome

Space Transformed: Bedroom

Shelby’s Budget Friendly Tips for Transforming a Space:  “My best budget saving tip is to pick the one piece you want to be the anchor for the space be it a bed, a rug, or lighting then go to work with coupons, competitive price matching and price adjustments! Once you have that settled it’s amazing how creative and resourceful you become building the rest as you go along.”

Amy:

IG: @maisondemings

Website: www.maisondemings.com

Space Transformed: Exterior Garage Doors

Amy’s Budget Friendly Tips for Transforming a Space:  “My top budget savings tip is to consider the power of paint. We painted our garage door as shown here to create faux carriage doors and also painted our exterior door to match. It really increased the curb appeal of our home exterior. The best part was that we were able to use paint we already had from a previous project.”

Sydney:

IG: @frankieandgrae

Website: https://www.frankieandgrae.com/

Space Transformed: Reading Nook

Sydney’s Budget Friendly Tips for Transforming a Space: “The 2 days 200 dollars challenge was so much fun! It helped motivate me to make a few upgrades to our reading nook. If you’re looking to upgrade a space on a tight budget, My number one tip would be to use what you have on hand! And get creative with it! We had a lot of fun and only spent $80!”

Brittany:

IG: @white.farmhouse

Space Transformed: Entry

Brittany’s Budget Friendly Tips for Transforming a Space:  “Often we have multiple spaces in our homes that we want to update or improve, or at least I do! Rather than getting a specific space set in your mind that you want to improve, look at what you currently have available and see if there is a space that you can improve with what you already have. For my front entrance I wasn’t planning to redo it at this time, but I had just enough leftover shiplap to redo this space (but not enough to redo the space that I really wanted to start on) and I had a bit of paint leftover. I had 1 extra hook leftover from a previous project, I had this bench that was from my outside patio that I was just going to put in storage and lastly I didn’t want to spend money on a white rug so I thought why not try bleaching an inexpensive jute rug from Ikea!”

Nana:

IG: @what7hearts

Website: www.what7hearts.com

Space Transformed: a Walkway going down to the garage door & basement

Jude:

IG: @thathomebirdlife

Website: thathomebirdlife.com

Space Transformed: Porch

Ann

I am SO impressed with what these ladies did in JUST TWO DAYS with 200 DOLLARS!  It’s truly inspiring, and I loved seeing the transformations that took place!  Many people expressed a desire to have another round of the #2Days200Dollars Challenge, so I’m planning one for the upcoming winter.  I will be giving you all more advance notice so you can plan to join in, and I’ve already got a fun twist in mind for it too.  So start brainstorming, and keep an eye out for more info just after the holiday season!