Comments on: Some Thoughts on Home Decor and Furnishing … Inspired by a Friend

By: sue

sue — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 15:35:04 +0000

I find that you need to live in a place for a while before you rush out to get stuff: natural lighting through the seasons, breezes, spaces you use more than others…a feeling for the place helps.

To be honest..how long do you really want to look at an object for? Decades/the next fifty years? Can you move it around and put stuff in other rooms…rearrange…recreate…use it in another way…recycle it…?

If not…is it an add-on rather than an add-ing?

Do we literally ‘buy’ too much into the concept that furniture and decor and all of that is :”lifestyling”? A good impression is nowhere near as memorable as the thoughts and feelings and events that happen around our decor.

The energy that happens around them is the real furnishing of our lives.

By: harmonsmith

harmonsmith — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 05:35:44 +0000

A home speaks volumes about its owner and a nice and beautiful home makes a style statement that creates an unforgettable impression on everyone visiting the home. One can either design the interiors Decorating a home can be exhausting and if you don't have the skills and abilities in your back pocket you need some decorating help. Professional interior designers and decorators typically have decorating tips, tricks and ideas to get your end result faster and with less cost and frustration,My house was decorate by Nina . A professional in this regard and in my low budget she did her job very well

By: Jihan

Jihan — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:14:12 +0000

Honestly, I think decorating is only good to a certain extent. I know quite an amount of people who spends too much money on decorating. My mother decorates a lot, and she has a lot of delicate displays and picture frames. I think decorating is a big hassle, considering when I live with her, I already accidentally broke and bumped into many of her decorations. Most items are crystals, glass, ceramic, etc.

I don’t mind decorating, but to me, it’s kind of a waste of money. Since I don’t enjoy hanging up pictures in my home anyway, all my furniture and utensils for my apartment costs only about $2,800 all together.

By: bethany

bethany — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:21:08 +0000

Thank you! We have been living in our house for almost four years now, and while we’ve bought some furniture our front room (the largest in the house) is still empty…and I’m ok with that. I’d rather finish our master bedroom and office, and we don’t have any extra cash to spend on furniture anyway. I’m glad there are others out there who feel the same way.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 14:31:31 +0000

Craigslist is the best! As long as you’re not in a hurry you can always find what you want at the price you want to pay. And don’t forget curbside shopping! Some people may turn up their noses but I have a gorgeous set of mahogany (I think)nightstands that look antique that were sitting on the curb alongside the garbage. They are now in my guest room & I always get compliments on them.

By: CD

CD — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 07:08:37 +0000

Another vouch for Craigslist. I lost most everything during our 2000 remodel when the contracter went belly up, the roof wasn’t finished and everything got ruined in the rain INSIDE the house…

Over the last 7 years I have completely (but slowly) outfitted my house with second hand Pottery Barn (and some IKEA for my office). The plus being that it has ALWAYS been fun, too. I’m in San Diego and bought a full set of leather furniture from Hollywood – folks with WAY more money than me who like to redecorate :). A mahogany daybed from an artist couple having a baby. My child’s twin bed from another couple. My fireplace (cast stone – new $4000, Craigslist $250) last weekend was our latest find, sadly from a very sweet couple losing everything in a job loss.

At any rate, I have a story behind every piece of my furniture and I don’t stress if the kids or animals get a scratch here or there.

If you wait a while, and have cash – you can most anything you need on Craigslist (assuming you’re in a Metro area)!

By: Nikki W

Nikki W — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 03:34:54 +0000

Don’t forget freecycle. We moved this past year into a large old house, and I have been able to pick up some very useful pieces (including bookshelves, dressers, and organizers) by patiently waiting until someone offered up theirs when they moved. It has been a wonderful way to save the earth and be frugal. I’ve also added some fun pieces – a bench for the backyard, and a dining room chandelier- that I wouldn’t have had the budget for at all.

By: Ricky

Ricky — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 02:13:37 +0000

I recall my Mom telling me that Italians in Toronto in the 1970′s (and presumably earlier) would traditionally put all their money into buying the best home they could get and leaving with only the most essential furnishings, and added gradually as they earned the money to buy them (without credit).

By: sunny

sunny — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 01:22:15 +0000

Not filling your rooms only applies if you don’t have grown kids! If you don’t fill their rooms when they leave they come back. I didn’t fill their rooms the first time, but I learned my lesson we now have a guest bedroom and a yoga room :-)

By: nebula61

nebula61 — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 23:44:08 +0000

I couldn’t agree more with the Spartan style–I love open spaces and left my formal dining area empty on purpose. I draw the line at echoing, though. If the house, echoes, it’s TOO Spartan!
Fill it up until the echoes stop–lots of rugs and tapestries if you don’t like furniture!

By: JC

JC — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 23:30:49 +0000

I’m a big fan of finding nice vintage/antique pieces via Craigslist or mid-level used furntiure shops. The older stuff is usually solid wood – instead of the veneer that is now used in much of the new (affordable) furniture lines.

Once you have the basics covered (table+chairs, sofa, and a mattress…) and you have a steady income and are no longer moving around too much – I favor a slow acquisition strategy of quality pieces (new or used) to replace or add to what you have.

I’m hoping this will be the year of the bed. Last year was the year of the new TV. The year before that was the year of the new sofa.

By: pam munro

pam munro — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:25:42 +0000

Go to a real furniture store? Are you kidding? There is SO much great used/vintage furniture out there and most of it MUCH nicer than what you could get today and solid wood, too. Only the oak dining room table and chairs here were bought retail & that was at a much-reduced priced from a store that was going out of business!
And there are SO many discount home accessories now available at various discount outlets….We recently got a computer desk with hutch for $30!! from a Salvation Army (It’s from Denmark? Ikea quality – which is birch veneer & would have cost $200+ elsewhere).
We have gotten great upholstered armchairs at thrift shops and for Xmas hubby got me a beautiful new Oriental-style area rug for $60 from a downtown bargain store! And there are so many decorating tips on the net now – check out http://www.pointclickhome for some. Then steal the ideas! There is also DIY – I still have the solid maple dresser I got right out of college and refinished myself by hand! It’s now proudly in the living room near the vintage dropleaf desk.
And all the art we have has been gotten at thrift shops, too – except for the REAL French 30′s Perrier poster I discovered in a used office supply store for a fraction of its worth! Make sure you have a vehicle for hauling so you can snag your finds! Now we have a truck and in the old days I always had a hatchback.
(The other thing about vintage furniture is that you can probably SELL it again for as much as you paid for it, making net sum outlay = zero.)
For more frugal tips check out http://www.myfrugallife.com/blog_pamphyila.html

By: spaces

spaces — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:21:10 +0000

One of my financial regrets is buying a new couch when I got my first good job out of school. It was stupidly expensive and didn’t hold up very well.

By: Jules

Jules — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:47:26 +0000

My rule of thumb is, y’gotta Love it. It’s no use buying cheap furniture if you’re going to replace it, but there’s no point in buying expensive stuff if you hate the way it looks. I often joke to my boyfriend that the Dutch have no taste in furniture, because every single furniture advertisement we get makes us both wince. Our IKEA stuff looks much better than anything else that’s sold.

Once we were just wandering through a thrift store, and I saw this old pitcher/basin set, the sort of thing that farmers used as sinks in the days pre-running water. We both fell in love with it. It’s now ours. Our entire apartment is more or less the same–we see things we both love, and most of the time they’re not at all expensive. Check out http://small-chicken.livejournal.com/312325.html#cutid1 for a before-and-after shot of our apartment.

By: luvleftovers

luvleftovers — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:25:42 +0000

Almost everything in my apartment was bought at a trusted aution gallery. I and my mother have bought furniture (1920s Hoosier, 1880s corner cabinet, 1920s secretary, 1920s dining room server I use as a bureau, an 1840s wardrobe unit, a high-quality repro of an antique 4-post cannonball bed), old silver, Wedgwood lamps and decorative items, antique linens and laces, and 1880 dress that wasn’t finished that I converted into a Halloween costume, kitchenware, framed items, coins, jewelry, baseball collectibles, stamps, you name it. All very inexpensive. I think the top price was $200 for the pre-civil war wardrobe unit. You can use items like these in so many ways and frame, drape or convert them into something you can use. (just be careful if you refinish furniture – talk to the auctioneer or an expert as you may destroy the value – both financial and historical – if you change the original finish).

I too, waited a long time to find a bed. I think about 10-12 years before I found that well-made mahagany cannonball. I only paid about $150 for it and it will last at least 2 more generations. Old furniture was made to last so it’s worth so much more than I’ve paid. I love my antiques!

By: karry

karry — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:56:30 +0000

Auction! Seriously, estate auctions are a goldmine! Check out auctionzip.com and root around. You won’t believe the deals you can get.

By: Robin Crickman

Robin Crickman — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:49:36 +0000

Another wonderful site for furniture is auctions.
My parents (many years ago) used to go to the
area auction house many Saturdays to get new
furnishings for our home. Quite a few of the
auctions were estate dispersals from very fancy
homes located in much more upscale areas than
where we lived. Many lovely pieces came home
with us over the years.

More recently I have gone to farm auctions to get
equipment for our farm business and found that
the farmer (or his heirs) are frequently selling
the furniture they won’t need in their smaller
home (these are usually farm retirement auctions).
Heirlooms and antiques can be expensive but just
good usable chairs, couches and beds are often
very cheap, especially if nobody else came for
those items.

By: Saver Queen

Saver Queen — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:42:09 +0000

Here are my tips:

Shop at antique stores! You can get well-built furniture and nifty finds at significantly reduced costs. (But still price-shop – just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s a good deal).

Use handmedowns – @Brandon – couldn’t agree more. Most of my stuff has been handed down from when my sister got married. My mom gave me a ton of stuff when she moved, too.

Watch for sales. We did buy our leather furniture from The Bay but we got 75% off for custom-ordered stuff that wasn’t ever sold.

Nigella Laweson uses interesting tin cans to hold flowers – I like that idea!

Frame interesting cards, notes or other little things that might end up hidden away in a memory box. Makes free, uplifting decorations for your walls.

By: palm

palm — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:24:01 +0000

This is good advice. I’ve yet to meet people who were really happy with the decorating choices they made when they bought a bunch of furniture upon moving into a new place. You learn a lot about how you want your life to work by living with what you have, which is what we’ve done.

We’re urban people and we live in a small space, and people have repeatedly commented on our clutter-free aesthetic. But recently, with another baby coming, we’ve actually gotten rid of even more rather than adding to our furniture. It makes childproofing much easier.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:19:42 +0000

RE: Juliska

No, it was violet and green with little purple flowers. Not at all suitable for a boy! But very cute for my girls. And soon to be sold at a garage sale, with the funds from the garage sale set aside to pay for the redecorating supplies!