I received the following question from frugal friend Vallari…
“My husband and I just bought our first house, and I was wondering if anyone could share some ideas about decorating or furnishing our home… on a budget? Thanks!!”
So… what works for you??
Do you have any tips or ways to save on furniture?
Or what are some of your favorite DIY home decor ideas {or places to find deals}??
Leave a comment & share!
I furnished my living room and dining room with clearance items from Hobby Lobby. Best place ever!!
I am going through this right now. I went from not owning anything but a mattress and a tv to suddenly needing to furnish a whole house! Ashley Furniture is gorgeous affordable middle of the line furniture. And Target, Amazon, Home Goods and Ikea are great for everything else! I’ve also been relying on blogs for inspiration and ideas (for example younghouselove.com has some creative approaches to nice decor).
Craig’s List! Best place ever for good quality stuff at a fraction of the price.
I second that! I’ve found great quality furniture for a quarter of the price there.
Here, here! Craigslist has been a jackpot for me! I have some pretty nice stuff that I got for either really cheap or FREE!!!!
Hello there!
My advice is to do a search for any thrift shops in your area. Goodwill, Salvation Army or church run shops. I post about this all the time. I am always AMAZED at the bargains I find in these places. Don’t look at a piece of furniture as it is…see it for how you can make it work. I just purchased an upholstered chair that I would have had to pay $1000.00 for …easy. I paid $41.00 at the Salvation Army. I will sew a simple slipcover and I will have this chair for years.
Check the ‘FREE’ section on Craigs list on a weekly basis. You won’t believe the things people are giving away because they need room or are moving.
Look for well made pieces that you can paint or complete a simple refinish on. Stay away from junk furniture if you buy new. My mantra is to try to purchase the very best you can afford. 28 years ago I bought an Ethan Allen sofa that really stretched out budget at the time, but we made it work. I still have that sofa today and it is as good as new.
Have fun setting up your home and always make sure it reflect who you are.
Janet xox
http://theemptynest-janet.blogspot.com/
I bought furniture from the thrift store and reupholstered it.
When we got out house we had very little. We bought the plain white ceiling fans from Wal-Mart and painted them to match our kids rooms. Aslo craigslist is a great place to find furniture/t.v. and other things. Best of luck to you.
I love the check out thrift and antique stores. I have gotten several very inexpensive pieces that with a little paint, contact paper, etc. have been amazing. I actually have a two dining room chairs that I only paid $4 for the both of them and I already had white paint to paint them!!
My mom does this and it really looks amazing..she used flat sheets and staples them onto her walls. It looks like fancy wallpaper. When she is bored she simply changes the style/color sheets she finds at like the dollar stores or discounted. It is a cheap “paint” on a room especially if you haven’t figured out how you want to decorate it yet! She staples the ends tightly, tops and bottoms and you seriously would never know they are sheets.
I did something very simular, only I used diluted liquid starch instead of staples. I got the idea when we lived in military housing and we weren’t allowed to paint the walls. I found really inexpensive fabric on clearence and redecorated a wall or two in each room. I filled a little plastc tub with a starch and water mixture (probably a 1:4 ratio of starch to water),soaked the fabric in the starch mixture until it was good and wet. I then wrung out the fabric, letting the starch mixture drip back in to the tub. I placed the fabric against the wall, starting at an upper corner and just smoothed it all the way down to make it lay flat against the wall. It helps to pre-cut the fabric to the desired size before you get it wet. When it was time to move, a little water in a spray bottle helped remove the fabric from the wall. I then just washed the wall down with water and it looked as good as new!!
We have a Habitat for Humanity Restore. Everything is super nice and if you know what you need they might have it! There is something new everyday.
IKEA is great if you have one nearby. Thrift/second hand stores are also good places to look. Keep an eye on Target’s clearance section-they are constantly changing out their home section and you can get super cute, trendy pieces for cheap!
I am a big advocate of “Ooops! Paint”. You can usually find it at Home Depot, Wal-Mart, and Lowe’s for $5/gallon. (Wal-Mart is a bit more $$$). This is the paint people return b/c they don’t like the color… When dealing with paint, let it dry before you panic. One time, I put one coat on, and it went on looking like brown/green baby poo. I nearly flipped, and had to call my mom! When it dried, and we added the 2nd coat, it was a beautiful dark green… so, when painting, don’t panic! I would look at Big Lots, Tuesday Morning, or http://www.freecycle.org for anything else you are looking for… Freecycle is a great network where people GIVE AWAY FREE stuff that is cluttering up their homes. I have a TV stand that I changed the hardware on that I got on Freecycle, a computer desk, etc. I have also used Craig’s List for items. If you are doing any landscaping, Home Depot will sell ripped bags of supplies for $1… Good luck!
Buy Postcards or Bigger size Pictures, look for interesting picture frames at Garage Sales (even if they need to be painted).
You can find Michaels, Hobby Lobby and other Craft Stores that will have 50% off Frames (GO ASAP since they don’t last).
Splurge on the Matting for the picture. They also have Poster size pictures at the Craft Stores. My first set of pictures were 5×7 Impressionistic paintings that I had framed in 8×10 frames and the pre-cut matting ( I saved a bunch and got sooooooo many compliments!!.
Also, Paint is Cheap, Paint your walls, furniture from garage sales. As Nate Burkus says “You want your home to look as if you acquired your things over a period of time”
Also, If you don’t ABSOLUTELY LOVE something, Don’t buy it, you will regret it. Good Luck
Ashley Furntiure is great for furniture on a budget. I used the 40% one item coupons at Hobby Lobby for one item at a time, framed my own photographs with frames from the Christmas tree shop, looked forfree 8x10s from places like Shutterfly, snapfish and Walgreens. my mother in law made curtains for my son’s room. Clearance items at TJ Maxx… My biggest piece of advice – be willing to do it a little at a time over a period of time with an idea of your end goal. If you want to do it all at once, you probaby will spend more money.
forget EVERYTHING and go buy paint. That is the easiest, cheapest way to add character to your home, not stuff. Walmart’s Kilz satin paint is top rated by consumer reports. When you have selected your colors and painted, everything else is icing on the cake. That’s when you start shopping at yard sales, antique stores, hobby lobby, salvation army, and so on.
First I’d check out your local Freecycle group (http://www.freecycle.org), see if you can get anything that you need there (for free) (I’ve gotten some great stuff off of my local one and gotten rid of some stuff there too)….
Next I’d try thrift stores and yard sales….
Craig’s list and walmart are also great resources….
You beat me to the Freecycle idea, Robbie! One member in my area was trying to landscape her very bare yard from Freecycle. Great idea.
Look in the paper and online for estate auctions. Often you will find sturdy furniture that is made of real wood (instead of particle board and MDF)for a fraction of what you would pay new.
Stop at the thrift shops in your area, habitat for humanity, and other local re-sale shops. I bought lots of furniture, nick nacks, pictures, dishes when I first bought my new home…as for couches, loveseats, etc., I bought them second ad online, or at the thrift shop and got some slipcovers, inexpensive pillows, etc….great deals and it will make your house a home…good luck!
You know how people *name* their houses, in the UK and such? I’m going to name my place “Freecycle” — because that’s where most of my furniture came from!!!! Go to Freecycle.org. People are always looking for new homes for their stuff.
Also, go to the FREE section on Craigslist.org at Stuff for Sale.
We have gotten some great deals at Goodwill. Also one person mentioned Hobby Lobby clearance which is also great. Estate sales, garage sales you name it, if you have the time you can find just about anything you need.
I’m an interior designer and actually just bought my first home too. I come across this question/dilemma a lot wig friends and clients and Here are some of the best advice I can give
*buy one high quality piece per room like a good sofa that will last 10 years (rather than buying a new one every 3 years)…. Saves money in the long term
* go neutral with major pieces and add color with pillows, drapes and area rugs from target, etsy ad ikea.
So spend on the most importan piece in each room then be thrifty on everything else! DIY projects are always a cheap way to add personallity!