When I first heard about a “Zero Dollar Update Your Space Challenge on Instagram I was immediately interested!

If you are new here, let me give you a quick life update! In March 2019 we moved about 25 minutes east of where we have always lived, into a beautiful two year old Bungloft. We DIYed and prettied up almost every square inch before we made the decision only 8 short months later, to put said pretty house on the market. We were not expecting a quick sale, in fact we figured it may take months. Imagine our surprise when 5 days later we not only had an offer, the buyers wanted a 6 week close….putting our moving date two weeks before Christmas Day. And to add to that excitement, we hadn’t found a new home to purchase back where we had come from.

If you know us, you know we are doers, go getters, we don’t get grass grow under our feet. With the help of a great realtor and friend, we quickly found our new home which just happened to be a new build inventory home. Perfect for our situation, it was empty and they were down for a quick close! It also came with flooring upgrades, kitchen upgrades, a gorgeous walk-in shower in the master bath….and then it quickly went south to builder grade cabinets, mirrors, toilets and boob lights every where.

Fast forward to the Zero Dollar Update Your Space Challenge.

If i’m being honest I was aleady toying the with the idea of wallpapering or painting an accent wall in our master bath because other than the big beautiful shower it was sad and boring. And one day it will be properly updated but for now I just wanted to give it a little oomph.

Luckily our entire new build home has been painted a decent colour that we can live with. All the walls in all the rooms are painted out in “Requisite Gray” by Sherwin Williams…it’s a lovely shade of greige.

Before I dove into the Zero Dollar Challenge, I headed to the basement (where the unpacking is never-ending), and went through my bins of leftover project supplies, I was specifically looking for peel and stick wallpaper. Luckily I had just enough of a pattern we had used in the Mary Street Flip house in the summer (click here to check out that fun project!) to do one wall in our master bath. Originally I figured I would wallpaper the wall, change out the mirror with one i’ve used in our last two houses (this will be 3!), and paint the light fixture. Of course once I got going, things seemed to snow ball and here is what we accomplished, - keeping in mind everything we used, we had on hand!

• wallpaper one wall in “Twigs” pattern peel and stick wallpaper by Roommates Decor

• spray paint the light fixture with Rustoleum flat black spray paint I had on hand

• put up towel hooks

• DIY an existing picture ledge/Fintorp rail from Ikea into a towel rack of sorts

• spray paint old kitchen hardware black and drill two extra holes on cabinet doors

• paint bathroom door “Limousine Leather” by Behr in a satin finish & add new matte black Schlage Canada custom interior hardware

  
  

Once the wallpaper was done and the builder grade light fixture spray painted and reinstalled, things escalated quickly. Before I knew it I had DIYed a picture ledge by painting it black and adding an Ikea Fintorp rail, had my husband take off the door and take it to the basement so I could paint it black and install new matte black hardware.

And I did get a few comments (and even some snarky remarks??) about how I could possibly have all of these materials just laying around my house. You could only wonder that if you are a new follower…if you’ve been here for at least a year you know we did a TON OF PROJECTS IN 2019 and had some amazing partnerships with some great brands….hence our stock pile of materials. This is a great example of why it’s ok to hoard certain things!

All of the decor pieces you see have been used in previous rooms in previous homes, including the vintage inspired rug originally used in an entry way (a WAYDAY purchase last year!). If you scroll through my blog, Instagram or Facebook you will see every single thing has made a previous appearance, some more than once! It’s why I always recommend shopping your house, you too can easily refresh or makeover a space without spending a dime!

Who is up for the challenge?

Michele xo