I thought it was time to give my 11 year old daughter’s bedroom a bit of a makeover. Not only was she out of the very young girl phase, we had double bed bunks in her room and they were a nightmare to make and she was the only one sleeping on them most of the time. We were also lucky to receive my late mother-in-law’s brand new double bed as she couldn’t take it with her to the nursing home she moved into. Instead of leaving it to collect dust in our shed, we thought she may as well use it.

When I asked her what ‘theme’ she wanted, she told me ‘peacock’ themed. Slightly unusual I thought but totally doable, that was until I started looking online for bed linen and decor and thought it was way out of my budget. So I decided to try and make do with a lot of the things I already had and incorporate a couple of relatively cheap new pieces and she was quite happy with that.

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen dozens of peacock pictures at thrift stores in my time but do you think I could find one when I needed it? Not so lucky on this occasion but I did pass by the above white peacock print a couple of times in my favourite thrift store before I decided to purchase it. Not exactly what I was looking for and it had suffered a fair bit of sun fade. I gave it a bit of a makeover and it turned out pretty good.

1. “White Peacock in a Magnolia Tree” limited edition print – $15.00 (thrift store) and enhanced with watercolour pencils I already had
2. Peacock fabric print lamp – $5 for fabric (lamp already owned and used other products already owned)
3. Cane bedside table – FREE from Freecycle (already previously owned)

I was trying to get a bit creative with the wall art in her room and found a lot of inspiration from online stylists. The beautiful pink chenille bedspread was already in my collection, just waiting to be brought out again.

1. Dream catcher was a souvenir I purchased in Arizona on a trip to the USA back in 1999.
2. Clipboard with changeable art – Peacock print from internet & clipboard already owned. This can be interchanged with seasonal prints and my daughter’s artwork. I had a glitter print of a deer clipped in for Christmas.
3. Peacock feather dream catcher – $4 purchased on ebay (my daughter is a big fan of dream catchers and suffered terribly from nightmares when she was younger. These help!)
4. Metallic Picture frame with printable 
5. This framed embroidery was purchased secondhand for my wedding. It was $5 and I thought it fit in just nicely in the group of wall art.
6. The white faux fur cushion was a new purchase at $12 from a discount variety store. It’s not something I like doing, buying new that is, but I thought for the price it was okay and it matched the mat I bought.
7. This peacock https://theleafsnation.com/account/ cushion cover was a new purchase also only for only $5. I have heaps of cushion inserts.
8. My aunt embroidered this cushion for my daughter when she was born.
9. This pink chenille double bedspread was already in my collection. My sister had quite a few and she sold me this one many years ago. I just love bedspreads. I don’t know how quilt cover sets became a ‘thing’. They’re a nuisance to wash and keep from fading plus a hassle to put the doona into. It’s way too hot in our climate for doonas, except in winter, and I’d rather still just put a bedspread over the top of a doona instead of a cover.

The Barbie doll house was my daughter’s birthday present last November ($40 secondhand) and while she’s still interested in playing with them, it will stay there. When she tires of her Barbies, I’ll turn that into a reading nook as she’s an avid reader. The white faux fur rug was only $6 (I see they’re $19 now so I must’ve got it when they had it priced wrong.) The curtains were already there. I just gave them a good wash and an iron.

The wall clock was also a new purchase at only $12. It fit into the colour scheme I thought and the size it was, my daughter has no excuse for knowing what the time is. The wall plaques behind the bookcase were already there.

Everything else are just her little bits and pieces, lots of books, jewellry, makeup, perfume etc. The bookcase was already owned. The CD/Radio player was a purchase from our local tip shop at about $5 (from memory). It works perfectly.

So for around $60, I completely changed the look of her room, in a theme she wanted and was happy with. I could’ve waited and kept looking in thrift stores for a clock, rug and large cushion but I kind of wanted it just done. If you’re prepared to wait, you can find all those things at thrift stores and if not the right colour, you can always change it. I’m in the process of making over my son’s bedroom in an African safari theme and I’m holding out buying anything new. It’s been hard but I’m slowly starting to piece together a few African inspired pieces for his room. Stay tuned for that makeover, coming soon!

If, like me, you love to craft, reuse, recycle and make do with items from around your house, I’d love to share more ideas with you. You can subscribe to my mailing list here and be the first to hear about new projects and other great ideas I find for using up the things in our home that may otherwise end up as landfill. Together we can help save the environment, one baby step at a time.