Reorganizing the Downstairs

The other day I wrote about my major reorganization of moving Lia’s Princess room upstairs to Zac old room. But that wasn’t the only room that got transformed. Reorganizing the downstairs room that was the Princess room was my next project and I had a day to do this before my daughter arrived.

Since Lia’s Princess room was no longer downstairs, I now had an empty room. One of Chris’s dogs has many health issues and she wasn’t sure if Crimson would be able to make it upstairs each night so she mentioned she would sleep on the couch downstairs with her. I wanted to surprise Chris and get a loveseat sofa bed and make the empty room into a sitting room and I thought I’d add the loveseat and a few other things. But I couldn’t find a a sofa bed in a one day. So I got my thinking cap on and since I always can pull something out of my hat and make something out of what I have, that’s what I did.

You may remember I had moved Zac’s twin bed out of his room to make room for the Princess room. So that started my transformation downstairs. I brought the bedframe, mattress and box springs down and turned it into a day bed! I had the old bed skirt from our king sized bed still so I reconfigured that to fit on the twin and it even was the right length in the drop and just the right color! I had a new gray fitted flannel sheet and a thick puffy throw that was the perfect length and enough width to drop over the edge. But now I had to come up with some pillows. The time was ticking away and I knew I had to complete this project before morning. Now remember, I’m the type that saves everything! Well it just so happened I still had fabric left from when I made the drapes and cornice in this room 25 years ago! I made two pillow shams from the drapery fabric and a center one from the cornice fabric. I didn’t have enough for the backing so I used a solid black. I finished my daybed creation by 4:30am!

What can I do about a table or shelf? Simple, I had four wire bins that Lia had in her room for her games and craft projects so I used those under the front window instead of table. I like it much better because with the wire, we can see what’s on display instead of a wooden shelf unit.

I had a small black iron stand that would work for a table next to the daybed but I needed a small lamp. So I called my neighbor Judy and asked if she wanted to go to Walmart. Off we went and she’s looking at lamps when she found a black metal table with two glass shelves with a lamp attached! This was perfect, it matched my wire bins turned table and again the things on display could be seen at any angle. I also picked up a perfect multi gray rug to finish the room off.

So I had a daybed, a shelf unit and a side table with lamp. I was so excited to have everything ready. I even brought a chair downstairs that I had recovered with the some of the same drapery fabric back in 2000. Talk about saving things! But I needed something else, yes! I’ll bring the old recliner from the upstairs den down to fill the other side of the room. I also bought a small cream through to bring in a contrast color and it also camouflaged the end of the throw that wasn’t quite long enough to go over the end of the mattress.

Oh and moved my little black iron angel stand from the corner when it was in Lia’s room to the other side of the black side table with lamp. I also found a new place to display the photo throw that Alex and Lia gave to Pop for Christmas in 2020.

I got everything set up and still had time to make meatballs the next day! Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep that week but it was fun to get the room completed. I didn’t mention any of this to Chris so when her and Bryon came in she was totally surprised with the new room setup.

Must people get all excited when buying new expensive furniture, I get all excited when I can turn a room into something cozy without spending much at all. The total I spend on transforming and reorganizing the downstairs room was less than $70.00! So again, am I frugal or cheap? LOL I love being creative and making something out of whatever I have on hand.