Mum transforms dingy spare bedroom into stylish dressing room using bargains from Argos and The Range
A MUM has revealed how she transformed her dingy spare bedroom into a stunning dressing room - using bargains from Argos and The Range.
Monika Bacanskaite, 22, a make-up artist from Bridgwater, Somerset, had always dreamed of having her own walk-in wardrobe and glam room, but never had the budget to pull it off.
But when the mum-of-one, who has a son, moved into a new three-bedroom pad, she decided to finally do it on a strict budget.
Monika told : "I have always dreamt about having my own dressing and beauty room - probably most of girls dream about it so I wasn't an exception really.
"First of all I needed a spare room, so luckily when we moved into our new family home there were two spare rooms, so of course one of them was definitely meant to be my dressing room!
"This room was painted in dark navy and red colours, so first of all I had to do three coats of paint to cover it all.
"It took a couple of days, especially since being a first time mummy I didn't really have the time to do it, so my partner gave me a hand which was brilliant.
"The colour I chosen to paint it in was white as I just love light colours: it gives me a clean feeling and everything goes with it in my opinion."
Monika spent somewhere between £250 and £300 on the finished room - doing a DIY job instead of opting for IKEA's more expensive options.
"I'm so happy with the way my dressing room turned out,” she said.
"I didn't really expect it to look this good. Since staying all day at home with a baby while my partner is at work and with no-one visiting us, I did get bored.
"I needed at least a small break where I could just use my imagination and create. Decorating this room kept me entertained and I did really enjoy all the process, and it was so satisfying!
"Once my family started complimenting my room, I felt so proud of what I had done, and I appreciate all the nice words everyone says.
I'm so happy I didn't end up buying an expensive walk-in wardrobe and I actually challenged myself
Monika Bacanskaite
"I'm so happy I didn't end up buying an expensive walk-in wardrobe and I actually challenged myself so that in the near future when my son needs his room decorated I will do it with a bit of experience and passion!
"I absolutely loved decorating my dressing room. I love spending my time there.
“It’s just my own little place where I can do whatever I want, especially since being a make-up artist I love having all my products laid out so I get inspired by seeing them on what look I want to create next."
Explaining her process, Monika said: "Once the painting works were done I was able to start organising where everything would be. I was so excited to display my collections of make-up.
"I had already purchased a few furniture pieces from Argos and The Range before the lockdown.
“Since lockdown happened, I couldn't visit any more shops to have a closer look and get an idea of what it would look like in my dressing room.
"So I searched for some bits online. Amazon was great for it: they have lots of stuff that I didn't realise they would even have!
"So I started ordering bits that I thought would be useful, like wardrobe rails, hangers, shelves and so on.
"I had already two Argos bookcases that were the perfect size for displaying my make-up, so I was thinking about how to connect them together to make it into one walk-in wardrobe piece.
"I didn't want to spend hundreds of pounds on IKEA walk-in wardrobes, so I thought I would build my own one.
"I bought a wardrobe rail from Amazon and connected with it these two bookcases, so that made a perfect place to hang my jackets and a whole unit became stable!
"I had to drill the rail into the sides of the bookcases. I added an Argos cube storage unit in the middle of these two bookcases. I store my shoes here, and it fits just perfectly!
"The last thing I added was a shelf on the top of the bookcases to make them come together as one piece and it really turned out great - now you wouldn't think these weren't meant to be together!
“I purchased some stick-on LED lights off Amazon to stick them to the top of the bookcase shelves, so now the items I display there are looking even better. I am really happy how it turned out.
"I didn't stop there. I had my dressing table there with a mirror on a wall and it looked boring. So I got an idea that I could make some small shelves to surround my mirror on the sides and a large one on the top.
"We had an old bathroom cabinet that I actually took apart to make these little shelves around my mirror. I painted them and it made great shelves so nothing was going to waste!
"The large shelf on the top of my mirror was from our TV unit. We didn't use it, so I took this shelf and added it there. These shelves made even more displaying space for my items!
"The stools for my dressing table I bought from The Range and they were perfect - just what I wanted.
"I fitted another wardrobe rail in between the bookcase and wall to have a place to hang my knee-high boots and handbags.
"To hang them there, I used clothes pins from Amazon. In the end my room wasn't light enough, so I purchased some LED vanity lights from Amazon. They were so cheap and such a good quality!
"I got the rug off Wayfair - this app is amazing and has so many beautiful things on it! Both my mirrors are from The Range, which I love, as you can find so many gorgeous things there for your home and more!
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“My partner also helped me with drilling some holes in the wall.
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"In the end I would roughly say I spent a maximum of £250 to £300, but that’s including the rug, dressing table, mirrors and storage units.”
We previously revealed how mum-of-22 Sue Radford vacuums her LAWN with £600 cordless Dyson to keep it pristine.