Top Five Budget Makeovers of 2019 and Budget Breakdown

Throughout 2019, we did several budget-friendly projects to cozy up our home. Here are my favorites. (Please excuse some of the screen shot photos. Apparently I didn't take progress photos on some of these projects so I had to go into Instagram to pull some things from there. Quality isn't great.)

1. Operation paint the doors

I think these doors are original to the house (1979). They really need to be replaced, and for the past three years, I’ve complained about them. Finally I said to myself, “You know what, I’m done complaining, I’m going to do something about those horrible doors.”

I really really liked the look of black doors, but I was so afraid to take the plunge and just paint my doors black. (I don’t know why! It’s just paint!) I finally got up the courage, and never turned back. I absolutely love them!

Paint Color: Sherwin Williams Black Magic (color matched at Home Depot).

Supplies/Cost Breakdown

Paint: $30

TOTAL PROJECT COST

$30

2. Refrigerator Command Center

The side of our fridge turned into a “dump all the random papers here” place. I can take mess, until I can’t take it anymore. Do you know what I mean? Usually at that point, it’s getting taken care of that very day, because I just can’t handle it. We needed some sort of a command center anyways, so I thought that would be the perfect opportunity to straighten that fridge area up while meeting another need. (That is a good decorating motto by the way: meet the needs of your family through decorating!) Things can be both pretty and functional! So here we are with a nice command center. In real life, it doesn’t stay perfect, but it is definitely much better!

Supplies/Cost Breakdown

Dry Erase Calendar: $15

Gold spray paint: $7

Clips: $3

TOTAL PROJECT COST

$25

3. Modern Gallery Wall

This wall had been staring at me blankly for over three years. THREE YEARS! There is something about walls that is so hard for me. I found some inspiration from Chris Loves Julia, and wanted to recreate a similar look, but without the price tag. (Those floating frames are expensive!) I found some similar budget-friendly frames at Hobby Lobby and waited until they went 50% off. I love how it turned out, and I especially love having favorite snap shots on the wall!

Supplies/Cost Breakdown

Picture Frames: $45

Pictures: $15

TOTAL PROJECT COST

$60

***Get a similar look for even cheaper by using these frames from Walmart! (Note: They are not float frames!)

4. Dining Chairs

We were in desperate need of new dining chairs because after 10 years, our “wedding present chairs” were falling apart! I had my eye on some beautiful black Windsor chairs and was trying to convince my husband that $125 for 2 chairs would be OK to spend if we really loved them. I was going to wait for the huge Way Day Sale in the summer and see if they’d be an even better deal then. But, not soon after, these beauties popped up on Facebook Marketplace—eight of them for $150! Of course, they were not the right color, but we went ahead and bought them anyway. That price was just too good to pass up.

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll remember the big debate over whether or not to paint these chairs. I was torn because they were so pretty as is, and they were antiques (which I didn’t even know until I went to pick them up). A lot of people said, “Don’t paint!” But in the end, what I really wanted was black Windsor chairs, so we went ahead and painted them.

Before you decide to start a DIY project, you always have to think through whether the time it’s going to take is worth the money you are going to save. Sometimes, it’s not, sometimes it is. Another thing to keep in mind is maintenance on DIY’s. A lot of times, things like chairs, are going to take a beating and may need to be painted again. Is painting yet again really going to be worth it? Well, you know what we decided.

Supplies/Cost Breakdown

Dining Chairs: $150

Paint: $0 (used what we had)

TOTAL PROJECT COST

$150

5. Chalkboard Statement Wall

(Yes, I know these pics are from Christmas...I haven't updated it for spring yet!)

Oh, this was so fun! I think this was everyone’s favorite budget project of the year because it was very dramatic! I had seen some inspiration, and thought, “That would be perfect for this wall in the kitchen that's driving me crazy!”

And so, off to work I went (of course documenting on Instagram in real time.) I liked it…by itself that is. It was a little glamorous for me, but it was OK. A lot of you liked it when I shared, but this was a HUGE decorating lesson for me. Sometimes, even if you might like something, it may not work in YOUR house! And that is exactly what happened here. It was nice by itself, but with the rest of the house, it was NOT WORKING.

It was time to start over...which was so fun to document in real time on Instagram. I got messages like, “Noooooo!!!” I think some of you were really invested in this wall! Fun memories! But what I had planned would be better for our home.

So off to work again, this time using the same paint that was in the rest of the dining room/kitchen area to pull it all together. I liked it much better!

To finish off this wall, I painted a piece of scrap wood we had with chalkboard paint and added an inexpensive picture light (which I spray painted) above it. I absolutely LOVE how it turned out!

Supplies/Cost Breakdown

Paint: $0 (used what we had)

Chalkboard: $0 (scrap wood)

Chalkboard Paint: $10

Wall Mount: $10

Picture Sconce: $25

TOTAL PROJECT COST

$45

TOTAL BUDGET MAKEOVER EXPENSE FOR 2019: $310

$310 is not a lot of money for a whole year. That’s only about $26 a month. Here’s my point. Look at what you can do with just $26 a month! Decorating doesn’t have to cost a fortune!

Look for good deals and concentrate on BIG changes for little money.