Dig a Little Deeper

We have a grand plan to turn our office space (which was intended to be a formal dining room) into a closed-in office with pocket french doors and floor to ceiling built-in bookshelves, but it's not quite in the budget to get that done any time soon. With only a desk and a few random small bookcases, the space doesn't seem to have an identity or purpose. It is a very open space right as you enter the front door and directly across from the front sitting room. With those major updates not in the foreseeable future, I really felt like something needed to be done because the space didn't make me happy, and I was getting a little depressed staring at it, knowing that it was going to be a while before it looked the way I wanted it to look.

 I'm going to be honest, and I'm sure many of you will agree, that it's really frustrating to want things for your home, but not have the budget to do it. As much as I love bargain hunting and getting deals, sometimes you just want to do it exactly the way you see it in your head, and that's usually never cheap. So when your ideal isn't possible, you've got to dig in deep and find creative ways to make things work and make you happy within the boundaries of your budget. So that's what I did.

I love the new seating arrangement in adjacent from room, but the piano being in the same room makes it a little cramped. So as a starting point I decided to move the piano into the office to make it an office/music room.

I wanted to stick to a more neutral palate in that room, so away went the huge orange flower and in its place went a new minimalist collage wall. I got the black frames at Target with a 20% off Cartwheel discount. At $84 for six frames, I think that's the most I've ever spent on frames, but they're just awesome so it's worth it to me. All the images were purchased from various shops on Etsy and all were digital prints that I downloaded and printed at home. So easy.

With the piano in there I felt like that room had more purpose, but the accent wall on the opposing wall didn't make much sense, so my next step was to paint the entire room teal. Oh yes I did. And I love it. Maybe teal is over done, but I have always loved the color, and I felt like staying true to me and my style was more important than what is popular.

The color is Hallowed Hush by Behr.

I found a fiddle leaf fig at Home Depot for $15 and bought a cheap Walmart pot and painted it to give it a more modern vibe. I'll post more on that later.

This room update was so cheap and easy, and although it isn't exactly how I want it yet, I love it so much more now.

Here's a breakdown of what I spent:

Frames: $84
Art: $30
Fig Tree: $15
Plant pot: $9
Total Spent: $138