It's week three of the $100 Room Challenge and I'm SO super excited because I finally get to show you a sneak peak of my progress in turning our little one's nursery into a big boy room. If you're just joining in, the $100 Room Challenge is hosted by Erin from Lemons, Lavender, and Laundry and the goal is to decorate/update a space for just $100 in one month.

If you're thinking to yourself that there's no way to update a room for $100 or less, check out my post here to see the room that I tackled for this challenge a couple of months ago.

The big project for this room is turning the queen size bed that used to live in my guest room into a bed that's fit for a toddler. Getting a new bed was out of the question with our budget, so we decided to use what we already had. 

After a lot of brainstorming about how we wanted our home to function for us, my husband and I decided that the best plan for us would be to turn the guest room (a room that only got used a couple of times throughout the year) into a playroom for our little guy. That meant that we needed to do something with the queen size bed in there. At the same time, we were in need to update the nursery for our little one to a room safe for a toddler. So we decided that the best thing for the budget would be to try to reuse the bed to fit the needs of our little one.

This is what the bed frame used to look like:

The bed is a platform bed that I made with my dad about 7 years ago. If you want to check out how we made it and see more pictures of what it used to look like, check out my post here.

Now let's get started in transforming this bed!

Step One - Remove the Legs

In order to make the bed safe and lower to the ground for our little boy, I decided that it would be best to cut the legs off. With the help of my dad who thankfully already had a circular saw, we stood the bed on its side and very carefully, cut off the legs.

Step Two - Sand

This was my absolute least favorite part of this transformation but also the one that provided the best result. In order to make the bed fit the decor of the big boy room we are going after, I wanted to sand down the bed so that I could see the grain of the wood with a lighter stain. So that meant A LOT of sanding to get the current stain off. I borrowed an electric sander from my dad and started with the coarsest sandpaper I had, like this one. With my 60 grit sandpaper in hand, I spent the next 3 days stripping the stain off the bed frame.

Step Three - Stain

Once I stripped as much stain as I could off the bed frame, I was ready to stain. I wasn't able to get the old stain completely stripped, but I got as much as I could sanded off. I wasn't too worried because I planned on giving the bed a light coat of the stain I had left over from our home office shelves DIY. 

I only gave the bed frame one light coat, using an old t-shirt, I dipped it in the stain and lightly applied it to the bed frame. Then, I wiped off any excess stain with another clean old t-shirt. The result was a really nice light stain that still allowed the beauty of the grain to show through.

Step Four - Apply Polyurethane

Before DIY the shelves in our home office, I had never used polyurethane before. I simply just stopped after I had applied the stain and called it a day. But after doing some research, we decided to use poly on our office shelves to ensure that they were protected. I loved how the shelves turned out, so I knew that I wanted to do the same with the bed frame. We used a polyurethane in a satin finish, so it didn't leave a glossy finish but provided a nice protective layer over the stain. Luckily, we also had some poly leftover from our home office project. But I only had enough for one full coat for the bed frame. I'm not too worried about it and if we ever end up getting more poly for another project I will give the bed a second coat, but for now, this is how it's going to stay.

Step Five - Add Casters

After I let the bed dry for a full 24 hours, I installed four 5" casters that I found on Amazon for $29.87. This lifted the bed off the floor a little and allowed us to moved the bed with ease whenever we are making it since it's going to be located against two walls. I love how the casters give the bed a little of an industrial look, perfect for our little guy's room.

Step Six - Add Pretty Bedding

If you read my week two post, you know that I purchased some nautical themed bedding for the new bed. I was so super excited to get the bed together once the bed frame was finally done that I immediately put it all together. 

And that's it guys! That's how I transformed the queen size bed that used to live in our guest room into a bed for our little guy, Lucas. I'm pretty sure he loves it as much as I do.

The Budget

TOTAL: $82.86

That leaves me $17.14 left to spend to finish off the room. I'm trying not to panic right about now. Focusing on getting all of my creative juices going and scouring my house to see what I can repurpose for the room. Check back next week where I finally get to show you the completed space with hopefully not going too much over budget..

Week 1 // Week 2 // Week 3 // Week 4

Make sure you check out the other bloggers participating below, it's truly inspiring to see all that can be accomplished with just a $100 budget!