Charleston Room Makeover On A Budget Series

Some people call them sun rooms. Some call them Florida rooms. I’ve seen references to sun lounges and sun parlors. There are many variations of what these rooms are called and how they are constructed. Some include an outdoor living space, while others are completely enclosed and built as an addition to the house. Mine falls into that category and it’s time for a makeover. This is the first post in a new series,  Charleston Room Makeover on a Budget. 

Two of the walls have double windows and the third wall has a three paneled window. Unfortunately, the views from those windows leave a lot to be desired. The neighbor’s pool, and other neighbor’s back yards don’t make for views that I want to spend time gazing at. Ah, life in the suburbs!

With all the windows, it is a sun room, but it’s not a room that would typically come to mind when picturing a sun room.  It’s connected to our family room with French doors and we use the two rooms together as our main living space. In trying to think of an apt name for the room, I focused on the décor. This room features lots of touches of Charleston, so why not refer to it as our Charleston room? That’s settled!

When we purchased the house 11 years ago, this room had wall paper border of Rainbow Row. If you’re not familiar with Charleston’s Rainbow Row, it’s a section of houses that have all been restored to their former glory in downtown Charleston on East Bay St.  Each one is painted a different color and it’s one of the popular tourist destinations in town.

Photo Source: Rainbow Row Charleston SC

While I’m not a fan of wall paper in general, I liked this border and knew that one day, I would make this room match the Rainbow Row border.  The walls are painted a very light shade of peach that I love, so the walls are set.

I’ve been working my way to making this the room that I want it to be for a long while. Its decor has gone through a few changes, but now I am finally pulling it all together and changing the room into a fresh, light, welcoming space.  By painting furniture, adding some new furniture, changing décor items and curtains, I’m turning this room into the space I’ve wanted it to be since we bought the house.

Rather than trying to put all of the projects into one post, I’m going to do a series of posts, one project at a time. This series will focus on choosing decor and furniture transformations, no tearing down walls or adding new flooring or any remodeling. I have a budget to consider, so it’s a makeover, not a remodel.

As you can see from the before photo at the start of this post, the furniture is all very dark and heavy. I’m on a mission to change all of that with fresh paint and a couple of new pieces. I’ve used a couple of different brands of chalk paint and protective finishes and I’ll be giving my thoughts about what seems to work best. 

I posted a while ago about how I solved a problem of needing extra long curtains rods without spending a ton of money on them. That was the first step in the room makeover. DIY Curtain Rods has been updated with more details to begin my Charleston Room Makeover on a Budget Series.

I worked on this room a lot during June and I have several projects completed, but still more are on the “To Do” list. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to check all of the boxes from the list, but I’ll be posting updates to this room as I complete each one. 

I hope you’ll follow along to see how I’m giving this room a makeover on a budget. I’ll be sharing tidbits about Charleston along the way, too.

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Charleston Room Makeover Series~

Introducing the Series
DIY Extra Long Curtain Rods
Single Letter Monogram With Lace
Thrift Store Wall Curio
Coffee Table Tray
Chalk Painted Side Tables in Green
Annie Sloan Old White Coffee Table
DIY Open Frames
Coastal Coasters
Rocking Chair Makeover
Map Collage
China Hutch Makeover