Kids grow so fast!  Anna and Lauren had been sharing a twin sized bed for a while .  Bedtime was growing more and more complicated with the girls telling us they were, “squished”.  Buying a new piece of furniture, especially a bed, can be a big expense.  We decided to take the girls to a furniture store to look around at our options.  Of course, they were attracted to the giant princess bunk beds with slides.  With the small size of their room  and our budget I knew this wasn’t the best option for us.  We brought them over to the day beds with trundles and, although a little disappointed at first, they were soon persuaded that a “pull out bed” was the way to go.  Then we started looking at prices and, once we bought the bed AND the trundle, it was more than we could spend at the time.  Jeff and I looked at each other and knew we were going to have to go the route on this one.
We started scouring craigslist for daybeds and  were a little disheartened that most beds were priced at “new bed” prices.  While I wanted to give up Jeff kept looking and soon called me in to look at his “find”.  There on the screen was the hideous white rod- iron day bed with gold accents that I had once had as a little girl.  Is this be the best we could do?  As ugly as the bed was, it was cheap and the trundle was included.  Knowing the magic of a little spray paint, we called, made an offer and picked up the bed that night.
Here is what the craigslist ad looked like…
And here is the bed now. Â I let the girls pick the paint colors.
The colors match the re-purposed quilt quite well.
The final price of the bed with two cans of spray paint was only $46. Â Can’t beat that! Â Something we are learning from doing this daily challenge is to re-think a lot of things. Â Do I really need to buy a brand new piece of furniture? Â Can I up-cycle a used piece to make it work for me? Â How can I stay within my budget but still have nice things? Â How do I create a little less waste? Â These are all things we are learning and re-learning everyday.
