A Makeover for a Military Family

Being a military spouse and moving around often can be difficult in many ways. Even just making the furniture fits each home you move into can be a struggle.The amount of money I have spent on curtains is hilarious, well, at least I think so. My husband may tell you differently. At each new duty station, military families end up buying things to make their house a home. Then, when PCS (permanent change of station) season comes, we must get rid of things constantly to make sure we are under the amount of weight they are allowed to move with. The military moves you often. You are settled and staying somewhere for a while, or so you think. That’s why this makeover for a military family is so important to me.

Bedroom Before

Moving with the Military

When families need to quickly make each and every house you live in a place that their family can enjoy and feels like “them,” that’s how I feel I can step in and help. A way that I have found to give back to the community is to help with a makeover for a military family every few months. This community that I have been a part of and that has welcomed me for years; helping them to love where they live, and to help those spouses make their houses into homes as quickly as possible with a room makeover is so fulfilling.

How it Started

A while back on my Instagram stories I asked if there were any military spouses who were struggling with a room in their home that they needed my help with in the DMV area where I currently am living. Happily I got a good amount of people who reached out needing help and after planning and designing I finally got to go finish one of those spaces!

Let’s Start Designing

This family loves the traditional style with hints of modern thrown in. They loves jewel tones and everything olive tree; this was the greenery at their wedding instead of flowers. As a Roman Orthodox family, a big part of their lives is their faith. so they wanted to be able to incorporate that and the meaning behind it in their special space as well.

makeover for a military family bedroom after pictures

To achieve the more traditional style that this family loves, but budget friendly, we looked for things on Facebook Marketplace and resell groups in their area. These are a great resource to anyone looking to find budget friendly, high quality items in your local area.

The Design Board

I made the family a design board with items that would be good to have for the makeover for a military family. The budget was $1500 total, so I knew we needed to find things that would make a big impact for less. I knew the things that they wanted to keep in the room that were important to them and I went from there.

design board for makeover for a military family with rug and olive tree

A great option for style and budget is to pick rugs that are printed instead of hand woven. A printed rug is less expensive than a hand woven one. A printed rug holds up better to spills, and moves from house to house well. An area rug can make a big impact in a space. Changing out rugs is one thing that can be done easily in spaces to quickly make them “homey” without a lot of other big changes.

You will see that although I kept the same color (blue) curtains that the homeowners already had, I did change the tone and fabric. We went for more of a slate blue and picked a velvet fabric. Keeping the curtains swagged to the sides was a perfect budget friendly option. The curtains were going to left open most of the time and the area for the bed was perfectly centered.

Check out this before and after!