Fresh Paint and a DIY Bed Swing Revamp a Sunroom Entryway for $500

Avery Michaels, who shares bargain decorating ideas on her blog and Instagram, Holland Avenue Home, knew her enclosed porch had potential. While mulling over design plans in an airport terminal, her project really took off. For a twist, she decided to leave the windows bare but add curtains and "a view" to an end wall in the 9x30-foot space. "Everything else fell into place from there," she says.

The makeover star is a bed swing Avery and her brother-in-law built for $150—a huge savings over the $1,000 swings she found as inspiration—using off-the-rack pine lumber, 40 feet of rope, and a twin-size mattress she owned. In fact, Avery spent only $500 on the entire facelift.

Avery's sunroom project involved woodworking, fabric dyeing, and sewing, as well as painting every square inch of the space. "The thing that surprised me most was how big an impact fresh paint made," she says.

To safely hang the swing, Avery and her brother-in-law installed screw eyes with hitching rings (properly rated for the estimated weight) into the ceiling joists. The hitching rings on each screw eye ease rope threading. They threaded 1-inch-diameter rope through each ring and through holes drilled into each corner of the swing, knotting the ropes securely at the bottom and top. Waiting to insert the plywood seat support until the swing was in place left room to work.

After painting the walls and ceilings white, Avery created a feature wall using deep blue Chalk Paint from Annie Sloan. The art is a framed piece of wrapping paper ($9, Paper Source). A friend gave Avery leftover epoxy to spiff up the concrete floor. For visual warmth, Avery dyed plain white curtains from IKEA in her washing machine and pleated the top for decorative top-to-bottom folds.

Avery picked up the tree stump—free for the asking—at a local antiques store. She sanded and sealed it, then nailed a piece of felt and furniture glides to the bottom.