Room for Improvement

I've been invited to take part in the Room for Improvement challenge by MoneySupermarket. They've chosen around 200 creative bloggers in the UK and given them £50 to improve a room in their house. MoneySupermarket's aim with the Room for Improvement project is to showcase how creative we are as a nation when working on a tight budget.

So last Friday my £50 arrived in my Paypal account and I set to work deciding which room to makeover and how to make the pennies stretch as far as possible. Since moving into our new house we've done quite a bit of decorating but the spare bedroom that I use as my craft room hasn't been touched. And the 1970s decor, whilst being bright and cheerful I guess, isn't to everyone's taste! Here's a picture of what the room looked like before:

Nice wallpaper! And what you can't see pictured are some even nicer purple flower power curtains! There's also a cupboard to the right of the photo which I've had since I was a kid. It used to be a wardrobe, but my dad put shelves in it to make storage. It's got green doors as the teenage me thought that would look cool, and I didn't know it would end up in a purple craft room! Definitely in need of a makeover.

After a week of painting, trips to Homebase, putting up shelves, shopping for storage boxes and making a few accessories, this is what my lovely craft room now looks like:

Thank you so much to MoneySupermarket for giving me the money to make this possible. This is what I spent the £50 on -

B&Q paint - £13.98
Homebase shelves - 4 @ £3.99 each = £15.96
Brown storage box from Pound Stretcher - £4.99
Turquoise baskets from Pound Stretcher - 2 @ £0.99 each = £1.98
Glass jars from John Lewis - 2 @ £2.75 each = £5.50
S-Hooks from ebay - £2.79
Magnetic board from WHSmiths - £4.19
PVA glue from WHSmiths - £0.99

Total spend = £50.38

Doesn't it look so much better? The paint covered the wall paper pretty well and the shelves are just what I need - I'm loving the extra storage space (many thanks to Andy and Geoff for the DIY assistance!).

I transformed the magnetic board using some pages from the vintage atlas I found on holiday. It was my first attempt at a decoupage-type craft, but I'm pretty pleased with it. The magnets are made from buttons, just like the ones I have available in my shop.

The S-Hooks are perfect for hanging my scissors and tape on. I also made a storage tub using a recycled yoghurt pot and some free butterfly paper from craftseller magazine. It's great for storing the craft tools I use on a daily basis, rather than having them spread across the desk.

You'll be able to see the entries from other creative bloggers on this board on Pinterest next week. The overall winner also gets £500 B&Q vouchers, which would be very handy as we continue to get our new home just how we want it.