Pinterest, my friend, is a dangerous thing.

You know what I’m talking about, right? I see you craft-making, cupcake-baking, domestic goddesses nodding in agreement.

I’ve always loved scrolling through the postings on the online pinboard-style photo-sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests and the like.

My problem is that I’m a great theory person, but unfortunately, it’s the practical implication that I have problems with. Case in point, that adorable coat rack you see that’s basically a piece of door casing topped with crown molding and adorned with cute coat hooks. Three pieces, no problem, right? Sure, as long as you’re not me, a person who doesn’t own a saw, has problems negotiating a tape measure and wouldn’t know where to find those cute coat hooks.

What made me turn the corner and embrace my inner handyman/Design on a Dime darling was, you got it, Pinterest.

When my middle girl announced she’d pass on the clothes for her birthday, and instead, asked for a bedroom makeover, I was excited. After all, thanks to Yahoo!, I was able to rewire plugs in my kitchen without electrocuting myself or blowing up the panel box. (Yeah me!) I figured I had conquered electricity, so what else is there?

We’d scoured the websites for a new bed, desk, chair and such – grand total, $700. That was about $600 too much in my opinion. I’m notoriously cheap, so, I did what any other mother would do. I devoted hours to figuring out how to make do with what we had.

Saturday morning dawned, bright and clear, and I made it happen.

The bunk bed was converted to a loft bed, courtesy of nuts and bolts from Marvins – cost, 37 cents – and decorated with a strand of purple Halloween lights for decoration – $3.47 at Wal-Mart. Under it went a repurposed papasan from the playhouse and a $5 Alan Cotton estate sale find – a horrible chest-type structure – that was converted to a fabulous footrest, thanks to a can of spray paint and a yard of fabric from the Singer store in the Covington Mall. Cost: $20.

Then, it was on to Sherwin Williams who created a trendy turquoise for her wall (Thanks, Ray!) and a roller. Cost: $8.64, since they tinted the paint for free.

On Sunday, I recruited child labor and we got to work.

The end result was a hit, judging from the expression on Mia girl’s face when she walked in. The $33 price tag had me smiling, too.