As my children grow, our “bonus room” has worn many hats. It started out as a free for all playroom where you couldn’t walk in there without crippling yourself by stepping on a lego landmine. It’s been used as our church based small group daycare room, and for awhile, we cleared out all the furniture and it was (unintentionally) used as a WWF wrestling ring for what seemed like every little boy within a two mile radius between the ages of 3-10; which prompted my latest, and what I hope is my final, bonus room makeover theme: Vintage Movie Room.

Our first plan of action was to create a movie screen that filled up an entire wall in the room. We decided to do a paint on screen vs. shelling out around $2,000 for one that would fit our wall space. Unfortunately our walls are textured, so this took a little more time, resources, vacuuming, and glasses of wine in order to accomplish this super tedious task. But it turned out well! We hung curtains on either side and lined it in light absorbing tape to give it a finished and theater feel.

Since my goal was to make as little room as possible for any sort of wrestling action, we went and purchased the largest and most comfortable sectional and ottoman we could find.

On the ottoman, I placed a basket I found at Thrift Town ($4.99) and filled it with goodies such as an air tight jar of popcorn for spontaneous munching, a cozy blanket, pillow, magazines, a vintage movie reel, and hide all my remotes here.

Speaking of vintage movie reels, I went a little crazy and decorated the room with a lot of them! Some of the ones I found even had film left on them. The kids were excited that one had Shrek. Very cool.

Our room has a stage area. Not sure why, but it does. I decided to use this area as a concession stand, complete with LED lighting. I ordered a custom wall sticker and found some vintage signs and decor at a local antique store. I also used two trays I had purchased from Thrift Town quite awhile back. One is a vintage tool box (red), the other was a really ugly tray I painted white and did a wax rub on. I filled the white tray with thrifted mason jars that I filled with treats (healthy and not so healthy). This is a fun way to keep treats fresh and displayed.

Love my vintage gumball machine (which the glass on has already been broken once due to a spontaneous game of tag during a sleepover, thank goodness for replacements)!

I also love my vintage laundry hamper I use to store pillows.

Though I am not a big “gaming” advocate, my kids are allowed to play active games like football, basketball, just dance, etc. They have two gaming station devices, so I hit cyber Monday and purchased two 32 inch TV’s for dirt cheap in hopes of eliminating arguing over who’s turn it is with the devices. To decorate the area up a bit, I found a vintage toolbox and filled it with vintage boxing gloves, movie reels, and baseball equipment, in addition to some great books I found at Thrift Town.

I filled up the cubbies below the gaming station with a ton of thrifted books and movies. Why pay full price when you don’t have too? Plus when the kids outgrow the titles, we donate them to their school.

So far the room is still standing and with the exception of the gumball glass replacement, everything is in tact! We all love the room and with the savings we made with doing the screen ourselves, and shopping vintage for decor, we were able to splurge on the sound and projector system. Yay Team Nielsen!

Happy thrifting!

Gina Doglione-Nielsen is featured every week on Good Day Sacramento’s Thrifty Thursdays, and owns GNJ Consulting which handles Public, Social, and Media Relations for Thrift Town Stores. Gina lives in Northern California with her amazing husband Josh, and is constantly on the go with three “very active” and “strong personality” bambinos; aka Team Nielsen, and loves every minute of it.