Planning Your Next Room Makeover in 30 Days! - #27

Do you feel overwhelmed when you think about doing your next room makeover? It doesn't have to be that hard! Today I'll walk you through the questions to ask yourself to get the creative juices flowing, and help you plan what needs to happen and when, what tools and materials you'll need, and how to make sure you complete it on time. If you're inspired after listening and want to join me for my own room makeover this month, and if you need some inspiration, email me your "BEFORE" pictures! You can do this!

Got a question or feedback? Email me: serena@thriftdiving.com. Remember to follow me on Instagram @ThriftDiving to stay connected!

Projects Mentioned

• Download the FREE 30-Day Room Makeover Journal here!
• BEFORE & AFTER: Kids Bedroom Makeover
• BEFORE & AFTER: Tween's Bedroom Makeover
• Facebook 30-Day Challenger's Group (join for support and inspiration!)
• See one of my 30-day  Makeover Challenge videos (featuring everyone's makeovers!)
• I Built My Closet Organizer (see how I built the dresser).
• HomeStyler.com (free 3D software to plan your next room makeover)
• HomeStyler Tutorial (see how I use this to plan room makeovers)

Subscribe to my email list for 5 ebooks, printable, and checklists: https://thriftdiving.com/subscribe

Subscribe to my YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/thriftdiving

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Transcript

Serena: [00:00:00] Hey, what's up. It's Serena Appiah from ThriftDiving.Com, which is a podcast, a blog and a YouTube channel that helps you decorate, improve, and maintain your home. Using paint, power tools and thrift stores without sacrificing your budget, the environment, or a style. Welcome to Episode 27 of the Thrift Diving Podcast.

And today we are talking about how to make over a room in 30 days. That's right. This is something that I have been doing for quite a while. When we moved into this house, all the rooms needed to be made over. We had no furniture. If you remember from Episode One, The Story of Thrift Diving, if you haven't listened, click down below for that link and you will hear the story of how we bought this house.

There was wallpaper everywhere. We had no furniture. I mean, it was a lot of work and it has taken 10 years to get to the point, almost 11, where I feel like all the rooms are quote unquote done. I mean, a room is never done. Is it? Because by the time you make over a room, let six months go by and I can guarantee, you start looking at that room, like, wait a minute. I thought I made this room over?

 So now I feel like I'm going back and I'm redoing rooms because it's never done. But today we're going to talk about how to actually plan a roommate over so that you can put everything that you have, all your ideas, on paper and plan out what you're going to do.

So that hopefully you've got all the tools, all the materials, and you know who's going to help you, in all these amazing things that are going to happen in this room. You get it down on paper. I am going to tell you just for listening as a thanks, I have a free download for you for this episode. It is the Room Makeover Journal, and I will leave a link down below on where you can download that.

In fact, I just printed one out for myself because this month I am making over my kids' bedroom. Again, this is a room I've made over multiple times and I will leave links down below where you can see some of the things that I've done in this, this, well, oh, this room I tell you, you know, it's one of those rooms where it looks fantastic just maybe the first day and then the kids start throwing clothes everywhere and you know, the color you thought the color was great. And then you look at it and you're like, this isn't good. 

So this is like the third time I've been making over the kids' bedroom. But I'm going to talk a little bit about this room and what I plan to do in it.

And I want you to start thinking about the room in your house that you have been wanting to make over that you've been planning to do it. You just didn't have time for it. You're not sure where to get started. We're going to talk about all those things today and talk about some questions that you need to ask yourself to generate some ideas for what you want to do in that room.

So let's jump into it. . Now I've got three boys, my oldest one he's in his own bedroom. I made his over sometimes before and I will leave a link down below his room, turned out really cute, but my other two boys, oh, Henny and Kojo, they're 11 and nine.

Their room is not really a space that they use that often. You know, they don't have computers in their room. They don't have a TV in their room. We're, we're kind of old school in a way, because most kids of these ages have these things. Well, aside from the fact that they sleep there, they don't really use their room, but it's still an eyesore when you go past and you see this room and you're like, oh, we got to do something about this space.

So that's the room that I'm making over. And I'm going to walk you through this makeover that I'm, that I'm going to do, but as you're listening to this, I mean, you may, you may be out on a walk, you may be exercising at the gym and you're not able to click on this, but I am going to remind you to download this because I'm actually going to walk through this and go through all the questions and tips and tricks and just little things like that, that you should be thinking of as you work on yours, but I'm going to be using my room as an example.

So in this document that you're going to download for free, on the very first page, sort of like the title page, it actually has a start date and a finish date. And I think that's the problem that a lot of people get into with room makeovers is that they know when they're going to start, but they don't really know when they're going to finish.

And let me tell you, there are multiple projects that I guarantee because I have it, I'm sure you do where you started, but you never quite finished. And I think the difference between having a start and finish date versus just starting and not having a finish date, is that you're more likely to get distracted by other projects. Things come up, and you just put it aside and you never finish. 

Now, here's one thing that we've done at Thrift Diving, and it's been a while since I've done it, but we used to do 30-day roommate over challenges. Let me tell you these make-over challenges were so freaking amazing because it was me and whoever else signed up.

Right. All my readers and viewers. I mean, sometimes I would get a ton of people that would sign up, but with anything, not everybody who signs up is going to be able to complete it. Some people lose energy, some people, life gets in the way or things happen and they don't finish. But we would usually end up having a good 15, 20, 25 people who would actually complete the challenge.

And every week we would post in the Thrift Diving. Uh, 30-day makeover challenge group. And we would just post-process pictures like, "Hey, this is where I am. Look what I did today. Can't believe I'm making progress on this finally!" And then at the end, we'd have a big hurrah and I would take everybody's before and after pictures and I would post it and either a blog post or a video, and I'm going to leave a link down below if I don't forget to put it down there with some of the people's projects that I have highlighted. 

And what was great is that these challenges really forced people to get involved, right? Because every day they're posting in  the group and they're constantly focused on the fact that they've got to get this done. They've got 30 days and we're going to get this done and we're doing it all together.

So I actually need to do one of those challenges again. Typically I would do them either January. I used to do the June Room Challenge, which was amazing because it sounded great, but it was in the middle of the summer. A lot of times people wanted to be inside doing projects. So we would do one in June.

We would do maybe one in August. We do the August Overhaul Challenge. And then we've also done the November Challenge as well. And I think holidays is good because it's right before Thanksgiving, when people are having people come over to the house for holidays. If they're working on their living room, their kitchen, finally, they're  excited to get this place done because they know that people are coming over.

So we might do that in November. We might do that. I thought about doing it for August to do the August Overhaul 2021 Challenge. But I just, I don't know, I've been so busy with other things that didn't have time to organize it. 

So anyway, uh, getting back to the start and finish date. Unfortunately, even though we're not doing this together, you can use this as motivation to get you started on that room.

 On the front cover page of this booklet that you're going to get for free, it asks you to write down what's the room you're making over and what's your start date and your finish date. Try to come up with a hard finish date and maybe give yourself a one-week grace period. So for me, I would have liked to have started August 1st, but I don't know, man, this week, it's like I finished up a project that I had to do,

I think it was due like Tuesday or something like that. And once I finish a project, I usually need a few days to recover. So I've been kind of lollygagging in the last few days. It's like I'm not off, but I'm not really being productive, if that makes sense. So today when I started planning out this podcast and planning for this room make-over I thought, oh my gosh, today is the sixth.

The first week is already done. So Serena, you need to hurry up and get yourself in gear to get this done. So my finish date is actually going to be Sunday, September 5th. That's about 30 days. And putting this down on the front cover sheet of this document here that you're going to download gives you that timeframe.

And so you can start planning it out. And then at the bottom it actually says, "I, Serena Appiah, commit to transforming my space by the finish date." Fill your name in there and make yourself accountable for getting this done. You could be decluttering. Maybe you're doing your kitchen cabinets, whatever it is, you are making sure that you are dedicating your time and your attention and your focus to getting this done.

So usually where I like to start, when I'm thinking about a room make-over, is to ask yourself the following questions. Okay. And I'm going to go through what my answers are but think about that room that you want to do and what the answers are to your question. 

The first question is what is the room going to be used for?

 So if it's your kitchen, of course, I mean, it's for preparing food, but your kitchen may be a gathering space, right?  If you have friends and family over, you may never go into the family room. You may typically hang out in the kitchen. So if that's the space where you're hanging out, that's where you're doing the cooking, but it's also a hangout spot.

So you might think, okay, well, this is where I'm going to be inviting people into my home. So I may need extra seating. I may need some other things in this room to accommodate how I'm going to use the room. My kids, they don't really use their bedroom except for sleeping, but, you know, we're heading into the school year and honestly, I'm just going to be real straight with you.

I think we're going to have probably about two months of school and this Delta variant is going to just explode. Not that it isn't already exploding, but it's really going to get bad. Here in Maryland, I think we're doing pretty good, but let me be clear, the numbers are going up here. The numbers are going up and every day it's almost, it's like it's doubling. I've been watching the numbers.

So I predict in two months, the kids are going to back in virtual it that just, I just think that's, what's going to happen. So I know that this room is probably going to be used for virtual learning. And right now it's not set up that way. So I'm thinking of how I'm going to be able to make this room over, but to make sure that it's going to have enough space for the kids to be able to do that.

So think about your room and have a clear idea of what that room is going to be used for, because this makes it easier for you to decide what you need to put in there. 

So the second question is how do I want to feel in this room? Right? So if this is a craft room that you are putting together, how do you want to feel when you're in there?

Do you want to feel, I mean, of course you want to feel relaxed. You want to feel inspired. So when you know how you want to feel when you're in a room, it gives you an idea of the colors that you're going to pick, it gives you an idea of the furniture that's going to be in there. Like you want to feel relaxed ,maybe you need to have like a nice place where you can just kind of chill out in the corner and read. Maybe it's not just going to be used for crafting,. but it's going to be used for some other things. So think about how you want to feel in this room. And I can tell you that for most of the rooms in my home, I love open airy spaces and my house is not an open, airy home by any means.

It's a 1970s home and you know these homes in the 1970s and before. Probably the eighties as well. They're not open concept. They're very like siloed. You got a dining room, you got a kitchen, you got a formal living room. So all of these spaces tend to feel closed in, even though they're large rooms in my house, they tend to feel closed in. But I like my house to feel light and airy.

So that's why I choose light colors, lots of, you know, curtains and blinds, like things that are going to let the sunlight in. So when I think about room makeovers, that's how I design it. And I don't consider myself to be a designer, but I know there's certain colors that evoke a feel that a particular room gives me when I'm in it.

And it's got that color, pinks, purples, you know, all these feminine, girly colors that totally are not my tomboyish upbringing, but that's how I like to feel. Now. I don't know the kid's bedroom. That's a whole different story. I mean, you know, my kids are not picky at all. These are boys who really wouldn't care if there was just, Rugs on the floor and no bedding.

They just don't care. They don't care. So I'm going to choose light and airy for their room. I am going to do a black accent wall, but I mean, they wanted the whole room black and I'm sorry, that's just not going to happen. That is against light and airy. And their room does not get a lot of sunlight. So I still want their room to feel light and airy, but I also want it to feel mature. I want it to feel a little bit more grown up. I mean, 11 and nine is still pretty young, but my boys are not babyish. They're a little bit more mature and I want their room to reflect that. I want it to feel a little bit more masculine. So some of the bedding that I've already bought definitely has a masculine feel to it. So ask yourself, how do you want to feel in this room and then start thinking of colors and furniture and things that will compliment how you want to feel. 

So then the third question is who will primarily use the room? Now, of course, if you are doing a kid's bedroom, the kids are going to use it, of course. But think of the other rooms in your home. You know, you've got a craft room that, or let's say you've got a spare room that just has  a bunch of junk.

It might be a craft room for you, but maybe there's going to be like a small area for your husband or your spouse to do something else that they want to do. Or maybe it's going to be a guest room, but it still has to be a craft room for you. So you can design it with those ideas in mind of how it's going to be used, because you may not be able to take up the whole space with the crafting desk that you want, because you got to put a double bed in there. So keep that in. And I think that'll help you to dictate what's going to go into that room. 

Now, the other question, question number four, that you should ask yourself is what is my true style? And the reason why I say this is because a lot of times people focus on trends. I mean, we see things on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook and everything looks so great and wonderful.

You know, I personally think farmhouse. I mean, it looks amazing, but it's not really my style. Like it. Well, I don't know. I think I'm maybe more of a modern, I got more of a modern look, maybe eclectic, I guess. I really don't know to be honest with you, but don't go with just what is popular and what's in style right now.

Think about what makes you happy. You know, if you like shag rug, which I will be honest. I love shag rugs. Are they in style? I have no idea because I don't pay any attention to that. I just go with what I love. And I think that you should do that too. Don't feel like you have to stick with what's in, go with what you love and write it in here on the sheet.

 Like I said, download it for free. You can get it down below and fill these questions out so that you can start thinking of ideas. 

So the next question is, will I need help or can I do it myself?  In thinking about the kids' bedroom, I'm actually going to get them to help because I don't want them to think that they can just get a whole new room and mommy's going to do everything.

No, I'm, I'm going to make sure that when we're doing the painting next week, which has to happen next week, they're going to be involved. And I'm glad that I waited until next week because they were in summer school. So now that they're out of summer school, they can grab a paint brush and get started and help a little bit.

But you might have a project that you want to do for your kitchen. For example, maybe you want to paint the kitchen cabinets, but you don't feel like you can do it all yourself and you need your spouse to help. Or maybe you want to get your sister or your friend or whoever to help you. You have to make sure that you can plan that around their schedule.

So you might have an idea to do an August room makeover, but if the person that you want to help you isn't available, you may have to wait until they're available, so that could throw a wrench in your plan. When you plan properly, you can identify who those key players are that are going to have to help you.

And also like, if you don't know how to use tools and you have to get your spouse or your son, or maybe your mother, because you know, we women, we use tools, but whoever that person is that uses tools because you don't know how to use tools, you have to make sure they're going to be available to help you and maybe help you build something that you want for this room. Definitely get them enrolled in your project and coordinate it with their schedule. 

The next question is what's my timeline to finish the room. Now, remember on the first page we put a start date and a finish date, and I say, give yourself maybe a one-week grace period. I say 30 days is a good time because if you make it too long, if you say, okay, I'm going to do this in the next two months, that gives you a lot of time to sit around and do nothing. And then you're going to sit around for 30 days and, you know, just say, oh, I got to get started on this and you're never going to get started. So when you give yourself a tight deadline, like 30 days, then you know that each week you got to be doing something. You can't just sit around because you got to get it done.

Now you also to want to have somebody to hold you accountable. So if you're a part of the Thrift Diving Facebook group, you know, definitely check in, I will leave a link down below for those of you who are not part of the group. I don't post there very often. I know some people do post over there. I'm bad with social media.

I will admit, I do not post consistently as much as I should. You know, whenever we're doing challenges or whenever we're trying to get suggestions and feedback from people, the community is great. People will jump in and say, oh my gosh, I can't believe you did that. That looks amazing. So if you need a cheerleader or somebody to hold you accountable, definitely pop over to the group and you'll find that you'll get a lot of support there.

So the next question is, ask yourself what problems need solutions for this space. Right. So again, let's take the kitchen example. If you were doing a kitchen make-over, you may not have enough counter space. You know, maybe you've got like a breakfast bar or like an island. You may not have enough space there because you have too many people.

I mean, we shouldn't be having too many people, but some of us have big families and get together often. And maybe that's one problem. You don't have enough counter space. So maybe you need to put a table in the kitchen or some other kind of seating so that there's, more places for people to get together.

And the kids' bedroom, some of the problems that I have is that, oh my gosh. And I think this is just true for all kids, their clothes end up everywhere. Like they end up setting their clothes-- they're responsible for laundry, right? So they'll fold laundry. They'll take it to their room, but they don't put it away.

They sit it on top of their dressers and then they just pull from it. I have to admit I do that myself sometimes, but one of the problems is that the dressers that they have, there are two dressers I got from the thrift store over the years and the drawers are not very deep, so they're very shallow and just the height of the drawers.

And also they're not very deep and it's not that they have a lot of clothes. It's just whatever clothes they have, it tends not to fit very well. So they ended up just stacking things on top of the dresser. And then it ends up creating a huge mess. So I know that I need to make them new dressers. Am I going to have time to do that in this month? I don't know, but that's why I need to plan it now and figure out what wood I would need. 

Now, if you remember my closet make-over I actually did build some drawers. For my closet makeover and it wasn't that difficult actually to build the drawers. And since I just did that a couple months ago, I think I'd be able to recreate two more  pretty easily, to be able to make more space for them.

But I could easily go to Habitat for Humanity. They always have dressers there. They're going to be a little bit more expensive. Well, actually, by the time you take into account the cost of the wood, which is crazy nowadays, I may be better off just buying a dresser used and I am very well going to look at the thrift store to see what I can find, because that would save me time. And of course, you know, it's better for the environment to just reuse. 

But another problem is we don't have any space for virtual learning. So my youngest, he was in the laundry room all last year for 2020. Poor thing. You'd open up the laundry room and you know, you've got the dryer going and the washing machine going and you're like, oh, wait a minute.

That's right. You're in class. This is where he would sit. So I think what I'd like to do is to create little desks for them. Or at least for one of them, I think my youngest probably would be in his bedroom so that if he needs to go virtual, he's got a place where he would be able to set up his computer and not be in the laundry room.

So, and also being away from his brothers, too. It's very easy for them to walk by and open the door or, and just mess with him. And then I get an email from the teacher saying, oh, Kojo's, walking away from his computer. Hmm. Yeah. 

Another thing too, is the problem that they have in their room is that it doesn't get a lot of sunlight. So I want to make sure that the curtains that they're using is very light, very airy. I'm doing just an accent wall in black, but everything else is going to be maybe like a, not a bright white, but like a creamy white. And so I'm hoping that that will help to make the room feel just a little bit lighter. 

And another big problem that they have in this they are still sleeping on the same bed. They are sleeping on a king size mattress. It's so embarrassing but let me tell you the story. So a couple of years ago there was a company that reached out to me. It was one of those bed in a box companies and they said, hey, we've got this king mattress. Would you like to try it?

Well, my mattress, I mean, it was disgusting. We'd had it for so many years. It had breast milk. It had pee from the kids. I mean, it was just gross. Just gross. I can't believe I'm telling you that, but it was a gross mattress. So when they said, do you want to get a mattress? Sure. Let's, you know, I'll do a video, let's try it out.

I slept on that thing for one night. And after that I was like, no, my hips cannot take this mattress. It wasn't that it was uncomfortable, but for me it didn't work. So we gave it to the kids and they had one of those. Gosh, what do you call them? The, the beds that are up on stilts. Can't even think of it, but they had one of those beds and they used to sleep in that bed together.

It was just a little twin size. They were smaller. I said, perfect. Let's just put this king size mattress underneath of your, you know, your platform beds. So what I'm looking for platform? No, I don't think that's the word, but it's one of those tall beds and that's what they're still sleeping on. It's been a couple of years and they're literally sharing a king size mattress on the floor.

So that's a big problem because now they're bigger. They're older. There's still plenty of space, but once you get to 11 and nine, like you need your own beds. So several, ah, I guess maybe last year or so I found these two matching twin size headboards, and I love them. They look like, you know, when you see  those old desk, the like the campaign desks, right.

It looks similar. I don't even know what you would call it was that art deco. I don't know my style, but anyway, they're matching and it's very rare that you find a matching anything at the third store. So when I found it, I said, okay, great. I'm going to keep these, I'm going to make over the kids' beds.

And that's one of the projects that I have planned for this month. I'm going to take these headboards. I'm going to put some wood on the side. I'm going to probably make foot boards to go with them. Of course, I'll have to do that because there's no footboard. And then I'll get some wooden slats. And put those across the bed and just hope that it doesn't break, but I have to plan that I need to play on that and make sure that they're solid, secure, and I may strip them, but I'm not sure.

I don't think I'm going to paint them, but we'll see. We'll see. But anyway, that's a problem. And the solution is to make new beds. So as you're working through these questions, you start identifying things that you need to do. So now you can start making up your to-do list. You can start making your materials list.

And that's the next question. What tools and materials do I need? Well, based on the fact that I need to make beds, I know that I'm going to need probably some two-by-sixes for the sides of the beds, and I'm also going to need some wood for the foot board, but I'm also going to need. Well, do I need curtains?

No, I think I already got curtains for my room and I'm going to give them some of the spare curtains but based on the solutions that I'm coming up with, I can start making my list of tools and materials. Now in this document that you can download for free, there is a few sheets here where you can actually write down all of your materials and tools that you need.

And it's a little checkbox. So as you get it, as you secure it, or as you purchase it or borrow it from someone, check it off. Because now you know, oh, I, I got that. I don't need that anymore. Let me go to the next one. And what I find is that when you can plan out a project like a room make-over and just write down everything that you think you'll need, it makes it so much easier to get started because there's less times you have to run back to the store and  repurchase things that you had forgot that you needed. Now, are you going to need things that you didn't realize you needed? Of course, but if you plan this out, you're a lot more successful in getting your project done on time.

So think about everything that you need. And if there's things that you can borrow from people, tools, materials then by all means do that. 

And the next question is how much will this room make-over cost? Well, now that you know what tools and materials you need, you can attach a cost to each of those.

Sometimes you can just go to homedepot.com or lowes.com and look up how much things are going to cost. I know for a fact, to do the kid's room, to paint it. I'm going to need probably about four or five roller covers because I'm going to need to prime. The color that's in there. Now it's a dark green, so I have to prime over that.

There's no painting over that because it's, it's a pretty dark color. So I'm going to have to prime. So I know that I need one, probably two gallons of primer, and I'm going to need a roller cover. I'm also going to need a cover for the black paint. And I'll also need one for the cream color paint, but I also may need one for, um, well, no, I don't think I'll need a roller cover for the semi-gloss paint.

Actually. No, I will because I will need to paint their bedroom door in a semi-gloss. So that's four roller covers. Now, if I'm planning a budget for this, I could go to homedepot.com and I can say, how much does it cost for four roller covers and identify the one that I need. And if they're $5. Maybe I get a four-pack maybe it's $16.

Okay. That's $16 I know I'm going to have to spend, or I can take time to wash the roller cover. I don't know about you, but I hate washing roller covers and I know how wasteful it is to throw them away, but it's so much easier to throw it away. But we'll see, we'll see how we'll see how I do this because I need four.

I may decide to walk. But anyway, when you know what tools and materials you need and what projects you're going to do, you can map out the cost. And if you're only going to be able to spend say $500, that could determine whether you wash your rollers out or whether you does buy four, roller covers.

All right. So in this packet, there are some sheets that actually have your challenges, and this is where you can come up with solutions. So for example, Challenge Number One, there is no drawer space and the clothes, as I mentioned, end up on top. So my solution is to look for larger dressers and also teach my kids how to put their stuff away. How about that Serena? 

And of course the other challenge is that they need beds. And so the solution is to build new beds.  And also I need to sell their existing bed because I need space in that room. So I'm not going to go through all of the challenges that I identified, but I do have space on this document where you can write down four challenges and the solutions.

So again, this will get you thinking about your project. By writing it down, it feels less daunting because I think sometimes when you get started, before you get started, you're like where in the world do I even start? But when you write it down, you start thinking, oh yeah, I need to sell the other bed before I get started, because I need space in the room.

Let's say you've got a spare bedroom and it's really messy. It's really just been like the junk collector room. And you want to make this over into a craft room. Well, you know that one of the problems is that you've got too much stuff and that you've got to get this stuff out before you can even paint.

And so then you can start planning. Okay. How am I going to get all this stuff out? Maybe I invite over my sister-in-law to help me out. And then you start thinking of the next thing. Oh, well, we're going to need a large truck to get all this stuff out. Like, how are we going to move all these donations to the thrift stores?

Or are we going to have a yard sale? You know, let's plan that. So you start thinking of what you need to do. And I feel that once you start writing things down and making a plan, it feels doable. So don't let that room that, that just haunts you continue to haunt you because you can do something about it.

And when you have a list of materials, it makes you feel so much smarter because now you know exactly what you're doing, you know, who you need, you know, how much it's going to cost and you can get going. 

So, one thing that I like about this packet that I put together, is that it also breaks it down into weeks. And I think it goes up to let's see here. I think it goes up to week eight, even though, you know, most room make-overs I say start with 30 days, uh, four weeks, five weeks. But how it's listed out is Week 1, and I've got some bullet points here.

So you can say like, you can make a plan. Okay. What do I need to get done for Week One? Well, I know for me, I need to take measurements of the room and I need to list the bed for sale. And I think my Week One is going to be, I'm starting it today. I'm going to say it starts today. And then Sunday will be the end of week one.

That's only a few days, but I can at least take pictures of the bed and I can list it. , on Next Door or Facebook Marketplace, but I know I need to get that done during  these next few days. And I also need to plan out how much paint I need. So when you list out Week One tasks, it feels like small chunks that you can actually take action on.

And then once Week One gets done, you can plan for week two. I mean, right now I could actually plan for Week Two and say, okay, well, week two, I'm actually going to do the painting. I'm going to buy a new cozy rug. I'm going to paint the door. I'm going to buy the wood that I need in order to make the new dressers.

When you take each week and say, this is what I'm going to get done this week, this is what I'm getting, going to get done next week. You now, have a plan. Do you know what you're doing, and when, so that's what I want you to think about as you're listening to this. 

Use this worksheet this planning worksheet to look at one room in your space that you have been planning to, where you've been wanting to make over, but you just didn't know how to get started.

And I think this is going to help you come up with ideas so that you don't continue to allow yourself to be stuck. Right. Everybody wants a beautiful home. And I don't ever feel that people's home have to look like the cover of HGTV magazine. That's not the goal here. The goal is for you to be comfortable in your home so that when you walk into that room, you feel good.

You feel like this is your oasis. And we're spending more and more time at home. I mean, I know that it's summer, but fall is going to be here soon. And like I said, this virus is starting to rage out of control again in some areas. And so some of us are going to be spending more time  at home. So make sure that your home is as comfortable and affordable. So you don't want to go into debt, making these room make-overs happen, but make sure your home is as comfortable  and as budget friendly as you possibly can. And I think by using this worksheet, you're going to be able to do that. 

And here's what I want you to do. I want you to set those dates and when you get done, I want you to send me before and after pictures. So if you were listening to this and you were motivated to do a room make-over based on what you've heard here, based on the guide you're going to get for free, just click down. I want you to send me before and after pictures of what you were able to achieve, and I will celebrate with you. And you know, what, if you want to email me even before, like right now, if you listen to this and you're motivated, take a before picture and send it to me and I will definitely help motivate you to continue to get done that room make-over. 

Here's one more thing I want to tell you before we close this out. There is, a website that I love to use. It's called home styler and I'll leave a link down below. And I do have a video that I did several years ago on how to use Homestyler. 

What it is, it's a free site that allows you to create your room in 3d. So if, you know for example, your room is like 16 by 18. For example, let's say you're wanting whatever room you're working on 16 by 18. You can go in and set those parameters. You can look at it as like a 2d and you can look at it as 3d and you can start putting furniture in there. They have tons of furniture that you can just move.

I think it’s it like dragging? You can almost drag it right onto the room. And what you can do is you can start looking at your space. So if you're trying to change your bedroom around, but you don't want to move all these heavy pieces of furniture around just to see what your room would look like, like that, use a site like Home Styler and drag those pieces of furniture, you know, find the ones that looks similar to the size and style that you have and move those pieces of furniture around.

You can change the paint color of the walls. I actually did this. When I was redesigned. My master bathroom. I knew that I wanted pink. I love pink and purple. And I knew that I wanted to create a new vanity. I built the vanity from scratch, but I wanted to get an idea of what it would look like. Once I had all of those things in place and it was actually a pretty good representation of what it looked like by the time I was done.

And I also use this for my family room several years ago when I was making it over. I wanted to know what my sofa would look like in a certain position and chairs in different locations. And it looked like a pretty good representation when I was done. I liked how it. And decided to move forward with that plan.

So if you're doing a room make-over and you're having to move furniture around, or even bring in different types of furniture, plan it on homestyle or first, so that you've got a good idea of what it's going to look. 

All right, . That is what I got for you today. This is episode 27, I believe. Or is it 28? I never get it right. 27. I always like, don't get this information, right. But yes, 27 episodes and I am so happy that you're listening. I really hope that you've been enjoying this podcast. Be sure to go to Apple. Go to Google and leave a review. Let me know what you think. I want to know if this podcast is resonating with you, if you're enjoying it every single week, and also be sure to find me on Instagram, @ThriftDiving.

I'm also on YouTube. Don't forget. I do videos about every week or two, and there's a whole bunch of things that we talk about over there related to decorating, improving, and maintaining your home. And remember, you can always email me Serena@thriftdiving.Com. If you have a topic for an upcoming show, I would love to hear it.

All right. I will see you next episode. .