Hey! So here it goes this is my £100 mini makeover challenge! Dave set me the challenge of making his bedroom look at little fresher and brighter; the black wall was probably not the best choice in hindsight – and not one I made! My initial thought was to bring light in to the room through the use of colour.

Having used orange in the spare room, and still trying to keep a masculine tone to the room, my initial thoughts were to use black and white and monochromes. The only downside to this was I would be putting further black into the already dark room. Not one to give up (or admit I am wrong) I poured myself a strong tea and began deeper research for some inspiration. It was only when my mind began to wander that I looked around my lounge – you could practically hear the penny dropped when I thought yellow!! I am a massive ambassador for yellow when it’s done right. If you haven’t read it already, check out my Dayroom Daydream where you’ll see I have gone for a subtle Regency day room yellow. However this room needed a brighter, more vibrant, yellow to inject some much needed light and personality.

Now, as much as I love yellow, it can be a pain to find and even more of a pain to colour match with other yellows. I decided to source the hardest thing first, the yellow throw, and then work from there by matching to the throw. I did initially purchase the ‘Rajput Ribbed Tangerine Orange Yellow’ throw and cushions from a company called homescapes, but they arrived only to be completely different colours! With the yellow throw now physically in my hand and my work mug of tea in my other I set about searching shops that I could actually go into to see the colour myself, and reserved what seemed like hundreds of yellow cushions!

That night I picked Dave up from the station after work and we set off on The Great Cushion Search! We started at The Range, where we did get a frame – but no yellow cushions. Thankfully had better luck with our next stop at Dunelm where I’d reserved the Oxford Edge Slub cushions (which aren’t at primrose in reality). With the yellow locked down that left just me wall art and lighting to crack and three days left until my mental deadline of the weekend. Being a mathematician, Dave loves geometric patterns and prints (and actually these are very fashionable at the moment in home interiors). As I had the A1 frame from The Range I set about googling print ideas, the problem being and the one we all fall foul of is, the price jump when you want A1 size printing. However as the Yorkshire man in me rose to the surface I came to the conclusion I could probably recreate that print with some masking tape and concentration ( and a cup of Yorkshire Gold).

I grabbed a thick (50mm) masking tape, some scissors and the A1 piece of card we got from The Range. I then took a bit of time to work out the lines to make sure they were equal and symmetrical, you know the whole point of geometric haha, but I soon got it worked out and masked out the pattern. I then used a mini roller and some left over Farrow & Ball ‘railings’ I had from a piece of furniture to give the card a light roll, creating a distressed appearance. Pricey print – zero, Jack – one!

So with wall art and soft furnishing down, lighting left and still three days until the weekend I was on a roll. For lighting it was a case of replacing those Ikea basic lamps and finding a ceiling shade that gave more light, (which wouldn’t be hard since the original was black). With lamps I knew I wanted something white to stand out from the black background so sat down with my morning brew and trolled my top bargain homestores. Looking at The Range (if your picky), tesco direct, Dunelm and Asda living I picked a my top three lamps for Dave to choose from; a modern twist, a gadgety digital clock (for him) and the right one a white tripod lamp.

To my surprise the correct lamp was picked and I ordered the bargain tripod lamps from Tesco for just £20 each for next day pick up from store. For the ceiling I found a large ribbed silver barrel shade for just £10 brought my total spend to £86.66.

However I felt the room could definitely befit from some further decoration in the form of monochrome scatter cushions. The monochrome works both as an accessory and a method complimenting the yellow to the black just looking like the lamp Options. I did the same with the cushions selecting three with the two chevron (each end) found at very and the middle an embroidered Aztec from Asda living which I had seen weeks ago.

However I decided to ditch the chevrons and just go with the Asda as they are oblong rather than square which means they don’t completely cover the yellow cushions behind and at £7 each they were a bargain.

With everything now purchased and packed into the car it was just a matter of a 20 min and one cup of tea makeover before my work was complete – and all for £100.66. Ok, So I may have come in 66p over budget, but what is 66p when it comes to scatter cushion? Nothing, right?