Rollercoaster Mum: How to Change a Room from Pink to Turquoise on a budget

ShareThis

Thursday 20 March 2014

How to Change a Room from Pink to Turquoise on a budget

As some of my regular readers will know we have been doing up Bigger Miss's room as we had to move her out when the bathroom needed fixing. She was immensely pleased at this outcome as there had been quite a bit of green-eyed envy when Little Miss had her room done, even though this was nearly two years ago now.

Her room had originally had a pink theme going on as when she had moved in it she was your typical little girl and had wanted a pink room. In fact I remember at the time that she had complained it was not pink enough but now as practically a tweenager she no longer wanted pink (far too babyish) but her favourite colour turquoise.

The challenge of course was to transform a room on a budget. We have I think managed admirably and we are all (including her) really pleased with the result. Some things have had to stay because they were either too expensive to replace or no alternative could be found, stuff like her desk chair, ceiling light and blind. However I think the pink accents against the turquoise go rather well and if it was literally all shades of blue and turquoise it would be too much.
turquoise with pink accents room
This is probably the best view of the room - you can see the two shades of turquoise on the walls, the new sparkly curtains, the Lebus chest and the sparkly lamp! 
I'm afraid I don't have before, or even during pictures so you'll have to make do with the finished product. So what did we do and spend? Well there was a pot of turquoise paint (courtesy of Wilko) - used as was on accent walls, around the window and on shelves and then mixed with white paint for the rest of the walls for a paler shade as it is a very very small room and could be quite dark. Rollercoaster Dad reglossed the skirting boards and all that stuff and we freshened up the paint on the bed and the bookshelves. All this was done with paint we already had.
Lebus chest of drawers in turquoise shabby chic style
My biggest bargain - the little Lebus chest of drawers which really make the room - spot my beautifully made curtains again too!!
Our main challenge was to replace her small chest of drawers as they were total rubbish and had completely fallen apart. Rollercoaster Dad was originally going to keep the drawers and then try and rebuild the rest of it but then I found the best bargain ever on a local selling site. A shabby chic, painted and done up, Lebus chest of drawers that were only slightly wider than her original ones. They were the perfect colour and a steal at £30. The wood to have remade her other ones would probably have cost that, let alone the time to make them, and whilst not solid oak they are a damn site sturdier than the crappy flatpack thing we had before.

Next I needed to replace the bright pink chiffon curtains under her cabin bed. I still wanted curtains as it's quite nice to hide the stuff under there and make it feel more den like. The original ones were from Ikea and I had just used that iron on hem stuff to shorten them but feeling brave I got a few metres of sheer (and slightly shimmery/sparkly) turquoise fabric from a fabric shop for about £3.50 and after a morning of swearing at the sewing machine I had a pair of curtains (very chuffed with myself for that - I don't 'do' sewing!)
turquoise room accessories, Tiger stores
All the turquoise hooks and handles and the clever new drawers made by Rollercoaster Dad
Ikea light turquoise
Here you can see the accented shelves and the turquoise bendy lamp from Ikea - for reading in bed! 
Lastly I wanted a few little bits like hooks and cupboard handles to reinforce the turquoise theme. I had seen some stuff in Tiger stores a few weeks before so I went back and they had some great little porcelain drawer handles for £2 each. I also found a turquoise coat hook for £1 and a multicoloured, multi-hook thing for the back of the door for £4. A total of £13 spent - bargain! We also got a bendy lamp thing from Ikea (she had had a pink one before) and that was a tenner.
sparkly lamp and turquoise room
This is the other side of the room with all her special things and pictures. You can also see the sparkly lamp and the reused pink blind which actually fits in quite well. The white desk used to go right across the last chest of drawers but Rollercoaster Dad made it shorter so we could see our beautiful new chest of drawers.

turquoise room accessories
Some of her things fitted in already like the Fimo unicorn we made a couple of years ago, her soft toy rabbit's sparkly outfit and then we painted the shelves in the darker turquoise to store all the craft stuff.
surprise sequin sparkle effect
One bonus we didn't plan on was the reflected sparkle from the fluffy rabbits sparkly dress - it really is a disco bunny! At the right angle it makes the room look like it has a glitter ball.
Rollercoaster Dad has magicked some little drawers for under her desk, which he has adjusted so we can see the pretty Lebus chest of drawers (he's good at that sort of thing) and we gave her our sparkly, lava style lamp thing which was sat in our living room hardly used and et voila - room transformed. She has one more wish and that is for a sheepskin rug for her birthday instead of her existing rug and you never know she may get lucky! Not counting sheepskin rugs I reckon we spent about £60 - £70 which isn't bad for a totally transformed room and a very happy little girl.

Please note I was not compensated for this post in any way and all the items mentioned were paid for. All words and pictures are my own.

7 comments:

  1. It looks stunning! I did something very similar for Miss Mac last year going from very pink to silver and turquoise (also her favourite colour). Her room is also small so I painted the wardrobe and drawer and walls pale grey and bought some stick on mirror shooting stars, a large silver framed mirror for one wall and a grey blind with a hint of glitter for the window. I also added bunting in turquoise along with bedding, a turquoise piggy bank, and other bits and pieces. I kept saying I was going to do a blog post and call it battleship grey on a budget (as I was horrified how dark the paint appeared at first) - actually, this is turning into a bit of a blog post but I just wanted to say ow lovely it looked and how you have inspired me to maybe get around to actually writing that post! Bigger Miss is a very lucky girl :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ohh you are so creative, I think her room looks wonderful nw and yes the pink really sets off the turquoise and I've also realised I'm such a muppet, if we ever want 2 shades of a colour I just buy them but I could have mixed with white, doh! Mich x

    ReplyDelete
  3. Beautiful room, I love both those colours. Her bed looks so cosy, like a little den x

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love turquoise, think it looks great! The pink and turquoise complement each other x

    ReplyDelete
  5. I absolutely love it, you have a real talent for this! I'm a big fan of turquoise too, and I really love the drawers, and the cupboard handles. I bet you are so popular with your daughter now!

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a beautiful room, I love those draws

    ReplyDelete
  7. That looks great - I really love the chest of drawers but then I love butterflies!

    ReplyDelete

Apologies for the word verification but I am getting so many spam comments I have had to activate it for a while. Thank you for bearing with me and commenting - comments really do make my day :)

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...