Furnishing a Home on a Budget

Furnishing a Home on a Budget

May 8, 2008, 5:43 am
Filed under: Budgets and Saving, home, Style & Beauty | Tags: budget, cheap, decor, design, free, furnishing, furniture, home, house, interior, save, style

 

Breath out, relax your shoulders and prepare to be creative with dressing your home.  Furnishing your house (or apartment) on a budget does not have to be stressful, but can actually provide the perfect reason to develop an interior design scheme that is very uniquely you.

 

First things first…say goodbye to matching!  You may not know this, but releasing yourself from the chains of matchdom is such a relief and a healthy challenge.  Learn what colors appeal to you, and do a little color-wheel research to discover what colors complement one another.  Some rules of thumb I’ve learned from experience: soft pastels accent earth tones very well.  Create an arresting scene: clash colors, sparingly; and couple elaborate textures with pieces sporting little to no texture. (I have a plush, deep red, faux fur throw that I liked to drape over my cream-colored chaise whose upholstery displays light embroidery.  I’ll tell you how I found those little gems, shortly.) 

 

Secondly, be honest with what you like.  For the longest time I avoided succumbing to stereotypical “girlie” styles.  But, you know what?  Flowery is alright with me, to a degree.  And, I like pastels, to a degree.  And, I like pink. Period.  So there!  Many more doors are opened to you when you allow yourself to test the boundaries of your likes and your dislikes.  Besides, not every new discovery has to be applied to your home; in my case, my wardrobe is pretty in pink, not my wall. 

 

Thirdly, the most important ingredient in furnishing a home on a budget is patience.  You don’t want to settle for just any old piece of furniture.  You want what’s right for your home.  This will mean waiting on sales.  Wading through estate/garage/yard sales.  Weighing the options given you via freebie sources.  Just remember, the home interior you create for yourself is one you’ll want to return to for many moons, so why rush to create a less than fulfilling space?

 

Here are a few ways to uncover that hidden treasure, that jewel, that furnishing waiting to be discovered by you!

 

Check out Craigslist.com.  This is a free classifieds website started as a way for one friend to connect with his other friends.  It’s grown to offer free info on jobs, personal ads, and every item under the sun available for sale and for free.  Many of the ads for furnishings even include pictures.

 

Drive around posh neighborhoods.  I found a pristine, country phone cabinet glistening under the summer sun as it sat discarded on the curb.  I knocked on the homeowner’s door to verify it was okay to take away.  They approved, explaining that it had a crack down the back of the table (barely noticeable!).  I drove away a very happy camper.

 

Sign up for local estate sale e-newsletters.  Though the Estate sales are hit-and-miss, (you’d be surprised what is dared called an “estate” sometimes) these venues can offer top-notch furniture that actually possesses distinct character.  And, you can often find them for hundreds cheaper than the standard offerings in today’s furniture store.  I once bought heavy, lined, cream drapes that, when hung, extended from ceiling to floor.  They cost me $25.  I got up on the ladder myself and quickly unhooked them from their old hanging posts.  It’s at estate sales that I also found the French Victorian Chaise lounge and plush, red throw referred to previously.  If you’re in California, get started by signing up with estatesaleshop.com, a company hosting sales throughout Los Angeles County.

 

Be vocal about what you like.  If you let a friend know how much you like this, that or the other you’ll stick out in their mind should this, that or the other become up for grabs.  I was giving away a lot of items before I moved to another location and remembered a friend who really liked one of the paintings on my wall.  That and one other piece of art now hang, comfy and cozy, in their new home.

 

Turn lemons into lemon-squares.  Maybe you know what you want, but it’s not in your budget.  Consider the essential characteristics of what you’re looking for and then look around your home or local store to see if something else will meet that need.  I wanted a long floor rug to distract from the ugly tile that ran the expanse of my long kitchen.  The knit table runner that I spotted did the job perfectly, fitting my color scheme and the floor of my narrow kitchen.  My comforter’s been in need of a duvet cover for quite sometime.  Instead of spending additional money, the thought finally came to me to use a couple old sheets.  I sewed them together leaving an opening at the top.  Not only do I have a duvet cover, but it’s dual colored in case I want a change of scene.

 

Decorating your house on a budget is an exercise of the right mind.  But, the end result is a home that is truly yours, one that expresses your heart and greets you and those who know you with its familiar warmth.

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