Have I Ever Mentioned that I LOVE to Decorate?

One thing I love about moving is that a new house means I have a fresh slate to decorate; and I do LOVE to decorate!

The drawback to decorating is that it can be expensive, especially if you seem to be starting from scratch. When we moved from our Ohio home and into our motor home, we had planned on being on the road for several years. Instead of paying costly storage rental, we parted with many of our furnishings and only kept the most cherished of our belongings. 

When we surprisingly settled in Huntsville a year later and faced furnishing a home with basically nothing, I turned to Freecycle and decorating with thrift store finds. I couldn’t have been more thrilled with the results.

One short year later, when we decided to move back home to Ohio, we kept very little. Sure, I kept my table and chairs, our bright green Lazy Boy couch that I snagged at a thrift store when we first moved in our house, and a few odds and ends. Even then, we were pretty much starting over. That’s okay, because as much as I loved how our little house was decorated, I was ready for a change.

I love the idea of soft fabrics, flowers and simple, worn touches sprinkled throughout our house. After careful consideration, I decided a Shabby Chic decor would be a perfect compliment to our country home. Or at least that’s what my eclectic-whatever-appeals-to-me-style resembles.

The blue curtain at the end of the room is on the way out, by the way.

To achieve the result that I had in mind, I’ve once again turned to thrift stores and this time, my husband has recommended that we visit some of the antique stores that our area offers as well. I love to window shop in the antique stores and then try to find similar furnishings at the thrift store or flea market. This allows us to copy the look that we love without placing a strain on our budget.

I found this ugly chair recently at a thrift store. I know it’s not the most appealing chair, partly because of the low price of $4.99- (especially for a piece of that is solidly constructed)- and partly because when the nice man came over to help me load it up he actually said “You aren’t really buying that *bleeping* ugly piece of *bleep*, are you?” Hmmm...maybe someone needs to tell him that his response may not be the best for business, ya know?

I have to admit that the pattern didn’t thrill me, but I loved the style and the woodwork. The idea is to cover it eventually, but at the moment, it’s kind of grown on me. Go figure.

The ottoman doubles as extra seating and cost a mere $2.99- again, my thought had been to cover it, but since I’m decorating with a lot of shades of red at the moment, I’ve decided I’ll keep it a bit longer as well.

This antique chest is our real bargain. My husband and I have been scouring antique stores since July but haven’t found one for much less than $150. We found this at a flea market for only $35- marked down from $45! Don’t you just LOVE sales?

It now holds the cherished afghans that my great grandmother and grandmother made for me years ago. It’s also a great way to show off my husbands’ adorable handmade teddy bear.

I found this bookshelf last week for only $20.12! Did I mention that thrift stores have an odd way of pricing things? What's up with 90 cents, $1.91, or $20.12 anyway?

The shelf serves two purposes- 1) it displays our books and other knick knacks and 2) it allows me to give some height to the room by displaying one of my large, oversize wall hangings and some picture frames. We aren’t permitted to nail into the walls so this is a perfect solution to my dilemma.

My room wouldn’t be complete without an area rug- I snagged this thick, shaggy one for $20 bucks. Isn’t it great?

Finally, the item that we really splurged on, what I’m using as a sofa table- this little table with the black chairs was spotted by my husband and I in the corner of a little flea market. It may have cost $60 for the set, but we thought it was a pretty great deal.

I’ve dressed the table up a bit with some fake flowers and some more of our much loved pictures.

We had thought about painting the chairs, but decided that the black was a nice contrast with the rest of the room.

I didn’t even mention my slipcovers! As of right now, I have four! They are the best invention for fickle home decorators like myself. Oh well, I’ll save that for another post.

Do you want to shop at thrift stores but aren’t sure where to start? Make sure you check out my post, 10 Tips for Making the Most of your Thrift Store Shopping Experience.

Do you love to decorate? What is your favorite source for finding inexpensive, home furnishings and accessories?

Decorating a Teenagers Room on a Budget

A couple weeks ago, I shared a post about decorating with thrift store finds. Today I’d like to expand that thought and share how I have been able to create an adorable Paris theme room for my 13-year-old daughter for under $100!

You may remember from our quick home tour that my daughter’s room was originally purple with stenciled flowers. It wasn’t the worst room I’ve ever seen and I certainly appreciate the fact that the stenciling took quite a bit of patience and time but I can’t say I was overly crazy about it either. My daughter thought her room lacked originality and creativity. It doesn’t help that she is not a fan of purple.

She is a fan of Paris, specifically the Eiffel Tower, which was the reason for our road trip this past spring to Paris…Tennessee that is. She’s been planning an Eiffel Tower inspired room for quite some time and of course I wanted to make sure it would turn out extra special.

The first thing we did was select a paint color. My daughter really wanted to paint her room black. I know ICK, right? However, she is a teenager and really wants to express herself right now. I compromised with her and we chose black accents rather than black walls. I think this light powdery blue had a more French feel.

So we set to work painting her room and the transformation began. After painting, we applied an Eiffel Tower sticky to the wall that we’d picked up at Hobby Lobby with a 50% off coupon so it cost right around $5. The bedding came brand new in a bag from my favorite thrift store for $25. Looks cute doesn’t it?

As much as I love the way her room was shaping up, I found that the sticky alone on her wall needed to be jazzed up. So for an additional $10  for a little bit of paint and some stickers, we added a few creative touches. What do you think of this?

Adorable, if I must say so myself. Stop back tomorrow and I’ll show you how to create something similar.

I’d also picked up this curtain, brand new for $4 at that same thrift store. Originally I had planned to use it in the kitchen, and it may end up there eventually but for now, it works in my daughter’s room. Since Chelsea reads all the time, I knew she’d need a reading corner and somewhere to store her growing book collection. I found this little shelf at Wal-mart for $15. Had to pay full price, which I really don’t like to do, but the price was right (not overly thrilled with the quality- but what did I expect for $15)?   My daughter had also chosen the wall hanging that we propped on the bookshelf from Hobby Lobby during a 50% sale. If I remember correctly the picture was right around $6. 

See this huge floor pillow?

Also brand new from that thrift store I can’t seem to stay out of. I paid $6 for it and it matches her bedding perfectly.   

We also created this wall hanging with a tin basket I’d found for $1, a scarf from my daughter’s closet and a bit of stenciling.

Total cost? Around $72 for bedding and decorations and another $25 for paint (wall paint and fun chalk board paint for another project that I have planned- so stop back to find out about that later).

Her room isn’t completely finished yet, I still have one project (price is included in the cost above) that I hope to complete this week but I am thrilled with the results so far!

Decorating with Thrift Store Finds

We don’t have many home furnishings and what we do have are locked in a storage unit hours away. I just don’t know when we’ll make the trek to Ohio to claim our things.

In the meantime, we’d invited friends to visit and we had to have a place for them to sit. I decided to visit a few thrift stores hoping to find a decent inexpensive couch that we could live with, but what I found amazed me!

At our first stop, my son discovered this:

An awesome Lazy Boy couch for only $75! I couldn’t believe our good fortune! The other couches were all priced more than double at $250! I didn’t waste anytime letting the attendant know that we’d be buying it.

I also found an adorable brown, green and pink pillow to match, thinking I’d grab a brown throw to tone down the color since my daughter was not a fan. So, when I walked into our home and saw the color of the walls, my first thought was that I’d be repainting, but on a return trip to the thrift store to actually pick up the couch, I found these pillows for $4 each. Could they be anymore perfect?  

They match the couch and the wall and tie the two together perfectly!

I also found a few other items that I really adore, like this brand new chair for $75:

I plan to recover the cushions or purchase new ones.

I also found this brand new mirror for $20 and the wall stickies for $2, which I love since visiting the Statue of Liberty was one of our favorite trips.

Two sheer panels for the window- $4 each, new.

Rug for entry way- $6, new.

Rug placed in front of couch- $10, not sure if this one is going to stay in this room, but I love it and our puppy loves it. You’ll regularly catch him rolling all over it.

Second Mirror that is waiting for me to decide exactly where I want it to hang, only $25,  new.

Unique wood shaving wreath- $5, new. I’m also not 100% sure this will remain in this room, but like the rug, I really loved it. 

Final cost so far, $234 for the furniture and accessories. I’m really pleased with how it’s all coming together, what do you think? 

Not bad considering it all came from the thrift store, is it?