Last year I didn’t put too much effort into decorating our place, and mostly because I had become accustomed to dorm life and didn’t think we’d be sticking around in the same place for more than a year. But over the summer we signed an additional 2-year lease, so this is going to be our home for all of law school! Since we’re sticking around, I figured it’s about time to actually “finish” making it look nice. And since we’re students living 100% on loans, doing things on a budget is the top priority. I just finished up a “makeover” of our dining room, and all for well under $100!

Before:

Hmm…I probably should have cleaned up before I took that picture. As you can tell, this room was totally half-baked and isn’t really decorated at all. I had an idea to do an arrangement of black and white photos on the wall, but it got expensive after just one so that project was never completed. Changing the paint color that our landlord picked (mmm, don’t you love that minty green?) isn’t an option, so my goal was to come up with something a little warmer with more color that somehow went with the color of the walls.

After:

You like? It’s certainly a major improvement, and I can definitely live with it for the next year or so. I used this photo from the Behr website for inspiration on the color scheme because it had the same wall color as ours:

I liked the idea of working yellows and other warm colors into the mix. There are a lot of reds and yellows going on in other parts of our house, so I figured working in some more warm colors would help everything tie together. Let me show you what I did!

Re-upholstering the chairs: $15

I went to the fabric store and used a coupon on a fabric that was already on sale to re-upholster the chairs. Re-upholstering is easy! I learned when I was a teenager and it’s a great skill to have. My chairs (which were from Walmart) started out looking like this:

And I picked this warm merrigold-ish fabric.

All you do is remove the cushion from the chair (which is usually just a couple screws to loosen) and cut the fabric large enough to cover the chair with several inches extra around the border.

With the cushion face down, you use an upholstery stapler with heavy duty staples to attach the fabric to the cushion. I like to space the staples about 2 inches apart.

It REALLY doesn’t matter what it looks like at that point because this part will be face down and no one will ever see it. Make it as ugly as you want.

Then you screw the cushion back into the chair, and voila!

These chairs instantly looked more expensive and a lot more like real furniture.

Decorating the table: $25

Using the color inspiration that I showed you above, I went to T.J. Maxx and found a table runner and some candles that would go with the new chair colors.

Wall decor: $25

I spotted this wall hanging at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and knew it would go well with the rest of the colors in the room. I like it’s shape and simplicity a lot, but I admit I’m not sold that it’s large enough for this monstrous empty wall! I’m on the fence about keeping this one or getting a similar larger one at BB&B. But the larger piece is $50, so for now this one will do just fine!

Total room: $65

Here’s a final look at the room now:

Let me know what you think! I’ll be doing some of the other rooms in my house with the similar budget challenge, so I may do some more of these posts in the future. I’d love to show you guys the whole house in a few months when everything is done.

I’m off to do some last minute cleaning before my weekend guest comes! Thanks for reading!

-Lauren