Progress in the Office for the $100 Room Challenge

This week's $100 Room Challenge post is all about progress, not perfection, in our home office/guest bedroom makeover.

If you're new to the $100 Room Challenge, check out the first post in this series to get an idea of what's going on. Then come right back here and I'll catch you up.

Inevitably in any project there comes a time when you're just working. And working. It's not pretty, it's not glamorous, and it's not really photo-worthy, but it's got to be done. That's the moment when I like to look for small victories and celebrate them, because I believe all the big things in life are really just made up of lots and lots of little things.

So here's what's going on in the office/guest room makeover this week.

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Framed Painting

I framed the poured acrylic painting I made last week. I was able to reuse a giant frame, so that cost me nothing but a few minutes and a broken fingernail.

Making Pillows

I worked on the pillows I'm making, using this easy pillow DIY method that I love. I found these beautiful batik cloth napkins at World Market, for $1.18 a piece and I'm using 4 of them, so that project is costing a grand total of $4.72. I'll hold off on those photos till next week's reveal post.

Building a Shelf

The biggest project this week was building a wood shelf to go above the computer monitor. I looked all over for shelving options, but none quite fit my budget. Then I realized I have lots of scrap wood in the garage which would be perfect for this project, namely because it's all free.

To make the shelf, I simply cut a piece of 2x9 board down to the width between the cabinets. Then I gave it a good sanding. Finally, I stained it with Minwax gel stain in "Coffee" which really brought out the wood grain and gave it that rustic look I wanted. Luckily for my budget, this is my go-to stain so I already had plenty in my stash.

I found these small shelf brackets at Lowe's for $11 and against all odds, the studs happened to line up perfectly so I didn't even need to use drywall anchors. (Similar shelf brackets here)

Tip: Make sure you find brackets that can support the weight of your shelf, plus everything you plan to put on it, and anchor them correctly into the studs or use good drywall anchors. You don't want a shelf-ful of books to come crashing down on your computer in the middle of the night. (I may be speaking from experience here, but that's another story for another day.)

That's it for this week - a lot of work, and not much to show for it yet. But that will make next week's reveal all the better, right? I've spent $16 this week, plus $10 last week and I've bought the paint for next week, which was $35. So I'm up to $61 already and I still need a few accessories to finish tying this room together. We'll see if I can keep it to under $100!

$100 Room Challenge Week 1 ~ Week 2  ~ Week 3 (You’re here!) ~ Week 4

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