When presented with the chance to host both sets of parents for Thanksgiving this year, we said COME ON Y’ALL first and thought later. As we started putting our heads together, we counted 3 rooms in our home that were completely unfinished- including the DINING ROOM (kind of important for Thanksgiving), a guest room and the full guest bath. I’m talking wallpaper hanging off the walls, totally empty, no table no chairs kind of unfinished.
In just under a month and way under $1,000, we furnished and finished all of these spaces. Whether you’re moving into your first home or refreshing your current space, I know budget is always a pressing matter, so I wanted to walk you through each room and how we pinched some pennies along the way.
First up, our guest bedroom!
I had a rough vision of what I wanted for this space, and it was so much fun to see it come to life! It ended up being a little more rustic than I initially planned, but I’m here for it. I started with this Wayfair bed frame (just $160!) and built the theme of the room around it.
Next up was the mattress- the trickiest part about furnishing a bedroom on a budget. You want your guests to be comfy but not break the bank in a room you’ll rarely use!
My first inclination was to do a free trial of one of the boxed mattress companies to get us through the visit. After realizing how much extra effort that would be and wanting to get something more permanent, we landed on
this mattress from Amazon. It had 4.5 stars and over 6,000 reviews, so I felt pretty confident it was the one. We had a BLAST unwrapping it and watching it come to life, and I have to rave about how comfortable it turned out to be. I will say it looks a little goofy without a box spring, and we may end up adding a foam topper at some point, but for under $200, I couldn’t have asked for a better piece.
The last piece to pull the room together was the bedding. I had my eye on this Walmart duvet cover for quite some time, and I was thrilled with the price and the quality. In my opinion, it feels like Anthropologie for under $60! I stuck a comforter we already had in there since it was so opaque, and we were off to the races.
The rest of the furniture and lamps were all from thrift stores or things we already had around the house! The lamps were one of my favorite touches, ringing in at under $20 each. I found these ginger jar shaped lamps at Goodwill, sprayed them with my favorite bronze spray paint and added the burlap shades from Ross Dress for Less (my secret designer decor spot!).
I hope this helps stretch your imagination on ways that you can spruce up your place without a big investment! I’d love to know what projects you’re working on this spring in the comments.