Oh to live in paradise. At least we have readers like Clara (love the name, btw) so we can live vicariously through them. She and her family currently live in the Dominican Republic and she sent us the stunning makeover that she recently accomplished in her daughter Nadia’s room. We’ll let Clara do the rest of the talking. Here’s her letter:
I have been reading your blog for a long time now and thought you might like this makeover. We recently moved to our new home, and while we are tight with our purse we refuse to live in a drab place. Having finished acquiring furniture (we moved here with almost nothing), next we turned our eyes to our daughter’s bedroom, which badly needed some injection of color to cure an acute case of meh!
With a budget of 100 dollars I sure had my work cut of for me, but armed with inspiration from our tropical surroundings along with glue, fabric, and paint I succeeded at giving my daughter an inspired and inspiring space:
I painted the only full wall in the bedroom blue (it’s a local brand, not available elsewhere). I also painted the doors and closet with white latex paint. It was the most expensive and time-consuming task that I took on (so that says a lot).
The dresser/bedside table is from Ikea, I painted it and covered two of the drawers and the knobs with fabric. I also made new lampshades for some really inexpensive swing-arm plug-in lamps from eBay.
Almost everything was made with things I found around the house, which helped me keep the budget so low. Instructions for most of the projects are available in my first blog post about the makeover, and you can see more after photos in the second. – Clara, The Home in Paradise
As if we didn’t need more reasons to wish that we permanently lived on some island getaway. We love the fresh colors and affordable attitude that Clara brought to Nadia’s new room. Now we’re just left wondering when we when can pop over for a visit…
Have a fresh and happy weekend everyone!
I really love the color on the walls. So refreshing.
I love this! I especially am in love with the dresser. I love how you injected some color and pattern into it, while also adding different shades of blue into the room.
Great job!
For $100? I am floored, amazing! My favorite part is the Ikea dresser makeover, I wonder which Ikea dresser it is?
oops should have done some research, it’s this onehttp://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/75305709
love that pattern on the drawer fronts!
Awesome job Clara! And I’m totally jealous that she lives in the DR.
Great job! Love all the cute accessories!
I really like the look of the dresser with fabric. Such a cute idea.
I like the painted dresser knobs and all the fun colors/patterns. So cruel to show off the DR as the cold fall air is landing in MN!!
Wow, that is fabulous!
Am I the first to comment? Woo hoo! I think it looks great and I love the fabric on the dresser. Very nice.
What a lovely room! And an amazing use of $100.
Okay… I thought I was a good budget DIY’er… but $100!? Nothing short of genius! Love it, you’ve brought everything together beautifully!
Great Job Clara!!
Love love love this color palette! The dressers are amazing!
I love the use of blue for a girl’s room(and all rooms for that matter)- I mean I love pink but sometimes is just too much.
I am in love with the dresser and that is one of my favorite prints too!
I just madeover a blue lamp that would look awesome in her room:)
http://styleandcentsability.wordpress.com/
I love it! And $100, wow!
She did an awesome job on everything! Those dressers are on sale right now for $30. They look so cute here with the fabric but also look great stained.
I can’t believe she did it for that price! Great job!
it’s so bright and gorgeous! i’m thoroughly impressed that paint was her biggest expense. that woman is beyond creative!
What a beautiful job!! I especially love the lamps with the buttons hanging…how clever!
It’s such a great job! I love the dresser and the lamp..It’s so refreshing!
The dresser and the lamp are fabulous!
AND I LIVE IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC TOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
Ok, now that I’ve gotten the excitement out of my system, I want to say thanks for inspiring :). My husband and I have lived here (in the DR) for over three years now and have been lamenting the lack of availability of so many things that we see J&S (&B&C) using on the blog. Enough lamenting; it’s pro-active DIYer time!
Wahoo! Go, Kyle, go!
xo,
s
Stunning! Talk about more bang for your buck! I adore the dresser and would love to know how Clara put the fabric on it.
I think the dresser is my favorite part. And all that for under $100? Amazing.
Man, Clara’s got it going on! $100??? Amazing!
I think the ugliest part of that room before were those hideous wood-paneled closets/shelves. The submitter failed to show a picture of this in the final product. I would really like to see how that turned out!
The rest of the room looks awesome! Great color and love the lamp!
Hey Katie,
You can see those by following this link back to her blog! They came out amazing- such a transformation!
http://www.thehomeinparadise.com/2010/05/nadias-bedroom-makeover-part-2.html
xo,
s
looks like a magazine ad! Very inspiring!
I want to move in, okay I just want to leave on the beach ; )
Wow, what a great transformation!
What an incredible transformation (at an incredible price)! Way to go Adult Clara! That dresser has me swooning, but the whole room looks fantastic.
Love it all! How thrifty and fabulous!
I love how Clara totally transformed the Ikea dresser. It’s so cute and it definitely makes for a unique dresser. Matches the island feel of the room, too!
What beautiful transformation! The color is so pretty! Love the extra details and pictures on Clara’s blog too. The paper flower bouquet is my favorite! Oh no, now I have ANOTHER design blog to read every day! LOL
I love that wall color! I wish that I would have been so design savvy when I lived in DR. $100? I don’t think I would ever have been able to come up with something like that.
Such a gorgeous room. Almost made me consider having another child so I could have a baby girl and give her a room like this! LOL Great job Clara!
Hey guys. I wanted to let you know the next page/previous page button links aren’t working. I have to manually type in the correct url branch to see anything other than page one. Clicking next takes you to the comments for a random post. Just thought I’d make sure you were aware of the issue.
-Bethany
Thanks for the heads up, Bethany. We’re actually not seeing the issue though when we try the Next and Previous buttons at the bottom of each page (or the Next and Previous on an individual post). Is anyone else having the issue? Do you mind sharing what browser you’re using Bethany? Thanks!
-John
oh lovely! the colours are gorgeous.
thx for posting that!
Wow! So many lovely comments. Thanks John and Sherry for the feature. The praise means so much more coming from the authors of one of my favorite sites for a long time. You are welcome in Paradise any time.
And thanks to your lovely readers for the praise. You are far too kind.
Clara (the old one).
No, thank YOU for sending us the lovely eye candy! We’re so glad everyone’s loving your amazing makeover as much as we are!
xo,
s
looks clean and simple
I can’t believe the great result you got for a small budget! The color matching between the beds and the walls ties in the theme nicely.
It is quite amazing that she did all that with a 100 bucks, espcially since she bought the materials here in my lovely country, where paint, brushes, primers and such are not cheap at all.
Kudos to her and thanks for the inspiration.
Wow, talk about bang for your buck! That’s a fabulous makeover, it’s amazing what you can accomplish with a little (ok a lot) of creativity. Really brilliant job, Clara!
I love these lamps. Looks perfect. It’s really a great work. And only 100$… Amazing…
Wow! I cannot believe the transformation for a mere $100! What an inspiration!
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I just love the great color selection, bright and fresh.
Especially for smaller rooms brighter colors are so important.
Doing a great job like this within a $100 is sure worth a compliment.
Fantastic! It looks like a completely different room! So fresh, just like for a young lady. I really like the colors – even though I am all for using 2, maximum 3 colors, I do not mind more of them here. With such a small budget, this makeover is almost a wonder.
Check out my Reader Redesign!
http://bellissimoandbella.blogspot.com/2010/09/bathroom-re-do.html
Thanks for the link back to her page. Love what she did with those ugly wooden closets. She is great! And I love the bathroom she created for her daughter, too!
I’m dying to know where she found the sheets for the twin beds? Are they grey patterned? Or light blue?
Great makeover!
They are a really light blue flannel, Martha Stewart for Macy’s.