Master Bedroom Furniture Upgrade on a Budget

It’s official! After over 10 years of living in our home, we have finally begun addressing the master bedroom and bath!

My husband has been working tirelessly over the last several months tearing everything down to the studs and rebuilding.

I will admit, my carpentry and building skills are slightly lacking… So I’ve been keeping busy by replacing our old furniture with new (to us) and refinishing some of what we already had.

The intent with this was to make a safe, calm, peaceful place where we can have baby3 and adjust to becoming a family of 5. I did not want my projects with the furniture to affect the budget for the rest of the room, so finding alternative and frugal options was my mission.

My Goal

Between selling herbal remedies and some odds and ends, I came up with about $100 to furnish our large bedroom.

I knew for sure our large, awkward, and ugly vanity needed to go. I couldn’t use it without sitting on the floor and it always seemed to just collect clutter (and dust). A cheap faux wood bookshelf from Walmart that also needed to go.

There was a large wooden dresser, wooden nightstands, and an oak hope chest Bryce bought me while we were still dating. I wanted to keep these and spruce them up with a fresh coat of paint to help keep my budget on target.

I knew I wanted older pieces I could paint for their design character and simplicity, space for extra storage, and – of course, lots of room for houseplants!

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Furniture Pieces

For all of the furniture we are currently using, I was either able to reuse what we have had since moving in, was given by friends, or found for super inexpensive on Facebook Marketplace locally. Definitely check out your local Salvation Army for some good finds, too!

My mother-in-law gave us some of her left over chalk paint in Linen White (about a half a quart) and quart of wax sealant. The brush has been well loved over the years, but it was what we had on hand. You can find a new set of brushes on Amazon here!

The wax sealant gives the furniture a slight sheen and helps protect it against the elements. (And toddler hands!)

I did purchase two additional quarts of the Rust-oleum Chalked paint in Linen White and Aged Gray. (I’ve got about half a quart of each left.

For one of the projects, I tried switching to the Rust-oleum spray paint in Linen White and used two cans of Rust-oleum white primer. There was about a half a can of Blush Pink that was left over from previous projects I used as an accent for the hardware on some of the pieces.

I did use an electric hand sander with a rough grit paper that we already had on hand. Doing a rough sanding definitely helped the paint coverage.

My total cost for paint: $58

Dry Sink

The dry sink was a steal! A local family was moving and needed it gone quickly. We were able to pick it up for only $10! I removed all the hardware and painted the blush pink and also added some contact paper I picked up at Dollar General for $3.

Total for the dry sink: $13

Rocking Chair

The rocking chair was another awesome Facebook Market find! It had been kept out for years in someone’s garage and had definitely seen better days. This chair is definitely why I decided to use the power sander. The finish was SO THICK on the original chair and any little bit left over kept bleeding through the paint.

I tried with the chair to take a short cut with using spray paint. I completely underestimated just how dry the wood was. After applying all three cans of paint I had purchased, all that was accomplished was a spotty and partially covered mess.

A layer of linen white paint definitely helped equalize the coverage, but ultimately I switched to the aged gray and there hasn’t been any more of the original sealant bleeding through.

I removed the Hawaiian fabric but decided to keep the original pillows. The new pillow cases are made out of a large cream colored table cloth found at goodwill for only $3!

Total for the rocking chair: $23

Night Stands

We purchased two wooden night stands upon moving into our home, they were functional and we purchased them used at the time. I lined both of the nightstand drawers with the same honeycomb contact paper leftover from the dry sink and gave each a few coats of linen white.

I do still plan on purchasing new drawer pulls for both of the night stands, but what they have will work for now!

Total for two nightstands: $0

Desk

The desk is actually a repurposed sewing table we picked up from a friend for free! I was hoping on using it for it’s original purpose, unfortunately my sewing machine did not fit. The hardware was painted in blush pink, drawers in aged gray, and the remainder of the desk is in linen white.

Total for the desk: $0

Dresser

Our dresser was another purchase from when we originally moved in. It was used, the price was right, and I have secretly despised the eye sore that it was for years. I honestly wanted to re-home this with the vanity out of spite, but decided to give it another chance. I’m definitely glad I did!

I somehow didn’t manage to snap a before picture of this dresser, but simply imagine a muddy brown, sad wooden dresser and you’ll get the idea!

Total cost for the dresser: $0

Total Cost

My total supplies and furniture cost: $98!!

I was so please to find I had come within budget! I will admit, it would have been even less if I had not tried to take the shortcut with the spray paint on the rocking chair – but you live and you learn!

There are a few things I would like to add overtime, such as a small chair for the desk and to hang some of my vining plants around the windows but those can definitely wait until after baby3 arrives!

I have to say, I am more than pleased with how everything turned out and have found there is more room than I expected to put cleaning supplies and extra linens – which was my main goal in changing the furniture.