Being cheap but not looking cheap with a redo

This isn’t exactly a beautiful corner of my home, but it sure is better than it was before!

The ceiling here is two stories, to repaint the walls, I’d need to hire someone with scaffolding- I don’t do heights.

It’s a dark area, so I wanted to keep the paint light but the lower walls were constantly a mess because we stupidly used flat paint on the original job and every mark showed.  And I was out of the original paint. It was something I’d mixed myself to save money, I’d bought multiple gallons of oops paint and other clearance paints from the Habitat store, dumped them all into a giant bucket together and sprayed the ceiling and walls with the conglomerated color.  So, touching up was a gamble, I tried so many shades of white and never got close.

And to add to the screw up?  Yep, it was flat paint and every mark made by every hand that touched the wall waved at me for years.

NEVER USE FLAT PAINT ON STAIRWAY WALLS IF HUMANS (or dogs) GO UP THOSE STAIRS! 

Saving money is wonderful.  My mistake was in not saving any of that mix to match up later on.  And in using a flat sheen.  Big oops.

The compromise was to add trim about 4-1/2 feet up, and paint the lower portion to match the room upstairs.  This color and sheen will be easier to care for.  If I get marks that don’t wipe off, I can open the leftover paint and touch up.  And I can easily reach to do the touch up, no ladders would be needed on the stairs.

(Eeeek, a horrid thought! I’m dizzy just contemplating ladders on stairs!)

I am so relieved to have an inexpensive solution to this problem. After doing a big redo, I was ready for a budget friendly fix!

Here is another do it yourself, easy on the wallet fix from when we first built the addition.  To save money, I decided to tile the entryway myself.  The area was concrete, so no backing was needed.

My issue was that I couldn’t use a saw, or didn’t even have the right kind of saw.  So, I bought different sizes of tiles plus those little flat rocks that coordinate with them and put the floor together like a puzzle.  

No cutting needed!

We had discussed changing the stairs when laying the new floor upstairs, but the carpet was in good shape and seemed safer than slippery steps.  It’s an industrial carpet and held up pretty good on the stairs.

 And along the lines of trying to be budget prudent, if it is okay, you do not have to change it.

For now, the wall and door colors in the entry way are from a previous redo and also seem fine.  For now.  But I’d like to repaint the walls to match the freshly done ones and give that door a pop of color.  Maybe like a deep, but grayed down turquoise?