Hi friends, you've been hearing me talk about the grandkid's guest room makeover over the last couple of weeks and some of you have asked when I'll be sharing the reveal. Well, today's the day! As you know, we've been spending our homebound time painting every room in the house. I'm embarrassed to say that it's been almost twenty years since some of the walls have been painted and boy did it show. Goodbye butterscotch taupe and hello pretty light grey!

Of course, I couldn't stop at just a fresh coat of paint and have been tweaking each room as we go. Working with a small budget has meant that I've had to put my creative cap on and DIY many of the new elements in the rooms. We started in the grandkid's sleepover bedroom because the walls in this room were in the worst shape. Not from the grandkids but years of giving this room different functions and switching wall decor took its toll. Also, our grandson is five years old and about to start kindergarten and we still had him in a toddler bed. That had to change.

Shared Grandkids Guest Room Makeover On A Budget

Here is what that corner of the room looks like now after the makeover. At last, he has a big boy bed! He hasn't seen the new room yet and I can't wait to see the expression on his face. His Spencer the bear is keeping watch over the room until then.


In case you missed it, I made the large canvas art above his bed. You can see how I made them in my Buffalo Check Plaid Kids Room Art and Fun Kids Room Light Bulb Art Canvas posts.

We had a black curtain rod and decided to switch it out with the brushed nickel one in my office. Considering the bed doesn't get used on a regular basis, we purchased an inexpensive pine IKEA Neiden twin bed frame.


I painted the bed frame a dark grey Behr Premium Plus Paint & Primer in the color Mined Coal (PPU-18-18).


Here's the opposite side of the room before. You can really see in this photo what terrible shape the walls were in.


...and here it is now after painted Behr Toasty Gray (N320-2). We are so surprised how much this paint color brightens the room. It was hard to capture the true color on camera but it's a lovely soft muddy grey and I just love it.

The white IKEA Billy Bookcase is new too and I painted the back the same Mined Coal color as our grandson's bed.


This was the sightline from the hallway, directly across from the main bathroom. It was so embarrassing having guests see the shape of those walls.


...and here it is after. I'm not embarrassed anymore!

The charcoal grey blackout curtains used to be in my home office. When we moved them into the kid's room they needed to be hemmed. I shared an amazing no-measure hack to shorten drapes that you don't want to miss!


We've had the lamp tucked away in our storage room for a couple of years. Thank goodness we kept it because it's perfect for this room. My husband has had the small drawer unit since childhood and it was being used in my office. It's perfect for a night table between the crib and bed and serves as a dresser for things like pajamas.

I bought two twin duvet sets and altered one to fit the crib blanket and eventually toddlers bed for our granddaughter.

Less than a week after purchasing the bed and bookcase, IKEA closed the store. Talk about good timing! The storage baskets on the bookcase were purchased at IKEA and JYSK. The toys...well there's a lot more on shelves in the closet. 😏


Every kid's room needs a chalkboard, right? I turned part of a vintage dresser into repurposed mirror frame chalkboards. We attached a metal pen holder from my office to the base to hold sticks of chalk and a chalkboard eraser. I may make a cute label for it with my Cricut Maker and black vinyl, I just haven't decided what I want it to say yet.


This room makeover came closest to our maximum budget of $400 because of the furniture purchases. The rest of the rooms (coming soon) we either DIYed, upcycled, reupholstered, or repurposed the furniture and fell well below budget.

Here is a cost breakdown of the grandkid's guest room makeover. We managed to squeak just under budget by less than $10.

Update June 2020

We quickly learned that our granddaughter hit more milestones in her development since we last saw her before the Big C of 2020. The first thing she did when entering her new room was trying to climb into the crib and nearly toppling it over on herself. Goodbye portable crib, hello toddler bed!

So back into the room came the toddler bed that was formerly used by our grandson in this room before the makeover (see before photos). The dark brown color no longer worked in this space so I gave the toddler bed a makeover with the same dark grey Mined Coal (PPU-18-18) as I did my grandson's new bed. This is what the room looks like now.


Like I mentioned earlier, the grandkids haven't seen their new room and I can't wait for them to see it when the world returns to normal.


If you have any questions about this room makeover, please leave them in the comment section below or the Contact Me tab at the top. I love hearing from you!

If you enjoyed this budget-friendly shared kid's room makeover, I'd be so thankful if you shared it with a friend and pinned it to your kid's room ideas board on Pinterest.



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