In April, Rebecca shared a guest post about how she generates extra income by letting strangers pay her rent. She has homes in Portland, Oregon and New York City. When she’s in one city, she rents out her place in the other. By doing this, she’s able to subsidize her housing payments.
Rebecca’s full of good advice. Soon after sharing her story, she also entered the Get Rich Slowly video contest. In her two-minute video, she offered a series of budget-friendly decorating tips:
How does Rebecca save money while decorating her home?
First, she shops at thrift stores. Thrift stores are loaded with knick-knacks and furniture, and not all of it is junk. In fact, if you’re patient and particular, you can find some great deals.
Next, she scours Craigslist for decorating material. To make things easier, she adds her Craigslist searches to Google reader so that she gets automatic updates on the items she’s interested in.
Finally, Rebecca’s not afraid to make stuff. This is a great way to do some personalized home decorating. If you and/or your friends are artists, or even if you just find something you like on the internet or in a magazine, you have cheap sources of decorating material. (In our old house, I hung dozens of comic books on the wall of one room as my contribution to the decorating scheme. Kris just shook her head, but I loved it!)
What sorts of things do you do to decorate your home on the cheap?
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I liked the video. It’s a great way to get your point across in today’s society. Shop at thrift stores, search craigslist, and make stuff. Got it.
http://www.lifeandmyfinances.com
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Has anyone ever had success with painting their kitchen appliances? I have a mishmash of working beige appliances and I would like them to all be white. Any words of wisdom?
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Watch out for bedbugs in used furniture!
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Framing childrens’ and grandchildrens’ art an be surprisingly jazzy. Recently, we shopped a going-out-of-business sale at a local furniture store and picked up a great wine-inspired metal wall-hanging for our dining room.
Second hand furniture stores generally have loads of art at less-than-new prices. Although it’s not as cheap as the thrift store, it’s still good and the variety and quality are generally better.
We buy much fewer pieces than we did in our 30-something days. It’s easy to cultivate a love for a simplistic, streamlined look when you realize the $400 chair you bought for your front entry gets sat in by…well…no one. We also combine our love for travel with decorating by bringing home one piece per trip that we LOVE and that has memories for us as well.
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Sunny, there is appliance paint. I think we got ours at Sears- but it has been a LONG time.
Maureen- all of our walls are covered with “travel art”. Paintings that we purchased for $5 someplace is fabulous on the wall. Our kids’ friends used to call us the museum. It they had only known that all the art cost less than the couch! My son enlarged some of the photos of places we had traveled and hung them. My daughter has had lots of luck finding great art in thrift stores near a military base. We have very little furniture- but lots of art:>)
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@ Sunny – My dad once painted the front panel of a dishwasher in black (remember the 90s when black appliances were en vogue – LOL). It looked great and lasted as long as the dishwasher did. I don’t know what kind of paint he used. I suspect if you search for painting kitchen appliances on the internet you’ll find out what works and what doesn’t.
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I’ve recently been doing some painting in my house. First of all I waited to buy my supplies from the hardware store when I had a 10% off coupon – those are fairly abundant for the major hardware stores. I bought one brush, tray, tray liners, trim cup, painter’s pad, refills, plastic dropcloth, masking tape. I wash and reuse everything so I don’t have to buy more. Obviously the painter’s pads only have so many uses in them. I’ll do two rooms with them and then toss. Using the 10% off coupon saves me tax plus a little more.
As for the paint I’ll only use Sherwin-Williams cause it is such high quality and looks great on the walls. It’ll last far longer than cheap paint. I’m partial to cashmere quality cause it goes on like butter. Anyway SW usually runs a 30% off coupon in the coupon section of the Sunday paper every so often. Basically 30% off is $12 per gallon. I bought paint for 4 rooms the other day and saved $72. You can get other paints for much cheaper, but it doesn’t look nearly as good nor will it look good in 5-10 years from now.
So if you are doing things that you can use coupons with I highly recommend that. Don’t sacrifice quality on things that you plan to last for a few years.
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Rebecca great video. I love that thrift store. If I went there I’d probably would be broke. Such selection!
Paint is a great way to spruce up your home. It’s amazing what a couple gallons of paint can do. You don’t have to paint every wall, just a few.
People think that when you have to buy furniture you have to buy a set. Just add pieces that you like as you go.
The garbage provides lots of building materials. A lot of people are concerned about creepy crawlies but most of my garbage finds are wood, plastic and ceramic items that our little 8000 leg friends have no interest in.
check out my finds at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50294796@N03/sets/72157624912837498/
Sunny – you can buy appliance paint. I used melamine paint and it worked fine. Just takes a long time to dry.
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I needed a duvet cover for 2 bedrooms. Found duvet covers to be expensive and limited in styles. But you can easily make a duvet cover from two flat sheets, which offer a lot more variety and are a lot cheaper. You probably need a sewing machine, but you can try to use fabric glue, or hand stitch if you have the patience. Lots of instructions available online.
I also want a pelmet box over a large window, which would cost A Fortune but can easily be made to custom size and style with lumber, hinges, paint and scraps of fabric. But I would recommend testing your desired style and colors using cardboard first. Some folks make their pelmet boxes strictly out of cardboard, but for a large window, this is hard to do without it eventually sagging out in the middle.
Lots of DIY decorating ideas can give you a very expensive looking home without the expense. You can just google DIY decorating. I find a lot of inspiration from looking at magazines and websites that feature interior design/decor, and even walking around expensive interior decor stores, just to get ideas. If you see something you really like, you can ask yourself, “Could I make that or fake that?” and often you can. If you can’t think of a way, go home and google it, and I bet you’ll find instructions.
I second the recommendation to spend time at thrift stores or GoodWill. A fellow reader of a design blog recently found a pink Victorian revival loveseat at her local GoodWill for $70.. something that would normally cost upwards to $1000. You can also find sconces, mirrors, frames, sheets (for fabric), and other items that can be used in decor and would cost 10 times as much in a retail or antique store.
This is one of those situations, though, where you have to decide if you would enjoy doing these things, and if not, if your time is more valuable than the money you would save. I am in a lot of groups with people for whom this is a hobby, but if you have other hobbies, I can see how this might all sound like a pain in the rear.
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Oh I second the recommendation for paint, and would like to add some tricks to make a plain room look very stylish:
Break out of the beige-to-white safety zone. Use colors; you can always paint over it if it’s a disaster. You can do a whole room or pick a wall to be your “accent” wall and put a bold color on that.
Many stylish rooms have a chair rail or picture rail (the difference is the height), and you can easily get that look by painting your room two different colors (or two different glosses) on the bottom and top halves, and nailing in some trim at the border.
Another idea is to use vertical stripes (on the whole room or the accent wall), and they don’t have to be bold clashes of color, they can even be the same color in flat and gloss for a subtle effect.
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@Sunny, my husband has even told me about stainless steel paint, if you want that look. We haven’t been brave enough to try it on a major appliance yet. I know they make special oven or stove paint, which is heat resistant, so you may want to look into that for a toaster, also. I think Rustoleum makes some.
@Rachel very good warning.
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OMG! That was my fav thrift store when i lived in SF… got a rad picture frame there.
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I have picked up a lot of great things at yard sales. We got a beautiful piece of artwork for over our bed for $15. Also got a small bench for our front porch for $6. Combining store coupons with clearance got me a Tommy Bahama comforter set originally $269 for $80 at Bed, Bath & Beyond. Ebay can be another good source.
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i paint it all white and buy plastic white drawers and white wire racks for shelves and everything white is cheaper plus everything matches plus it makes a small apartment look bigger plus it’s never dark and gloomy plus it gives a very bauhaus look plus it helps to avoid clutter because every useless knicknack you buy or any pile of junk will stand out in the whiteness so you clean better, but if you add 1 orange vase and i looks like a religious artifact in a shrine. when it’s time to move out i can toss out the plastic boxes or anything worthless and break down the shelves into flat boxes and it’s easy to start over anywhere. modern minimalist gypsy decor.
it might help to know i’m slightly bizarre. i like it though.
ps- i hate used stuff (clothes, furniture, anything porous). it gives me the willies. used electronics are ok though.
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I’ve gotten a lot of great looking accessories at discount stores like Marshall’s & TJ Maxx. But that’s no secret; the real words of wisdom are to know when to stop! I rarely go into those stores any more because I’ve reached the stage when I’m more likely to improve my decor by subtracting rather than adding.
I also got a lot of great things by shopping Mom’s basement. She’s quite the packrat, and I scored a lot of vintage china and other nice things that she really had no use for. If I had more wall space, I would grab that collection of tintypes languishing in her cellar . . .
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Rebecca video was great, she really is brilliant! The video was extremely well done!
I like her approach to taking care of her real estate much like running a successful business, and by that, I mean keeping expense down by shopping at thrift stores and fully using craigslist!
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@other Sunny – we painted our old harvest gold appliances white, used spray appliance paint from big box store. Paint lasted for 14 years (husband did a great job of painting) – we just bought new appliances that probably won’t last as long as the ones we painted.
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Thanks Rebecca for those tips, amazing amounts you could save with those methods. Really like the vid as well.
Dwight Anthony
Financially Elite Blog dot Com
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#2 Sunny – I spray painted my icky beige stove white. It looked fantastic, until I started using it and the paint slowly peeled off. It’s been a couple years and even with the peeling, it looks better than it did beige! You can always re-paint it.
I agree with everyone who talks about framing travel/family art. I didn’t have time to put it in the video, but I LOVE buying cheap frames at the thrift store and framing maps. I even bought a book of old NYC subway maps and framed 4 of them to hang over my bed. The whole thing cost me under $40 and it looks super professional.
Thanks so much, everyone, for all the warm comments on my super-dork video. Makes me feel good that my dorkiness has gone to good use!
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For cheap art….especially trendy abstracts–you can easily paint copies of real art yourself (or make up something in a similar vein) even if you aren’t artistic!
Just get a large stretched artist’s canvas at an art supply or hobby store, then search for art you like on the internet at sites such as art.com and print out a nice copy (or make up something similar). Put it on a grid and blow it up as a sketch onto your canvas and then just copy it. Especially easy to with large one-color block type paintings–very sophisticated style and very easy to copy.
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@El Nerdo Loco that is a really good idea! I might only do that in one room, though, I think the white would overwhelm me if it was all through the house. But it’s excellent advice for gypsy living!
@Rosa, very good advice. When I am tempted to go to GoodWill or a garage sale and see what kind of neat stuff I can find, I remind myself that I first need to finish working on or incorporating the last things I bought. And THEN I ask myself if I actually need anything. If the answer is no, then something I already have will have to be tossed to make room for anything I *have to have* at GoodWill.
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Just livening up drab rooms with paint is a huge *wow* in decorating on the cheap. We moved into the FUGLIEST old house ever. LR had orange stained pine planks on the walls. Super high ceiling, but it was falling apart, a ghastly torn up linoleum floor. We sanded, primed and painted the walls, then painted the high ceiling a darker contrasting color. Tore up the linoleum to find 1910 raw fir floors underneath. We finished the floors ourselves, now a shiny deep brown. Our friends & family were stunned at what we did with the place.
We’re hard core second hand. CL, Thrift Stores, garage sales, etc.
I’ve spent free afternoons rummaging through the bins at the Good Will As Is stores. Stuff is just dumped into bins and you dig your way through. Super cheap because you get charged by the pound, not item. I’ve found antique furniture, vintage linens & hooked rugs, antique dishes & china, art, beautiful frames, and even a petite crystal chandelier.
Not to hijack this thread, but here are some things I’ve done with pretty art/picture frames:
1. Small oval frames look gorgeous with pressed flowers under glass, or even with pretty fabric attached to backing via tacky glue. Got some cool old black and white photos of the family or ancestors? Frame them & display in grouping.
2. Large vintage ornate frames – great for framing a mirror. Or, glue velvet to a piece of foam board, then frame it. Using pins, attach vintage post cards, ephemera, travel souvenirs, old photos, ticket stubs, etc to the velvet board. Keep it personal. Your guests will LOVE this display.
3. Use empty pretty frames & framed mirrors as their own collection, grouped together on a wall.
4. Frame cool old album covers under glass. The records may be trashed, but if the covers are in reasonable shape, why not use them?Especially those slick vintage 50s and 60s cocktail themed ones.
5. Peruse vintage magazines for advertisements, and frame those (I have vintage cosmetic ads hung in the bathroom that I gleaned from early 60s Life magazines scored at a garage sale).
Sorry so long, but second hand decorating is my religion!
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@ Lindsay– it’s impossible to do all white– there’s the hardwood floors, there’s office chairs that are only available in black, there’s the tv which comes in black only, and the stuff that goes on the shelves (books, records, cds) isn’t all white, there’s the stereo (though the computers are white macs)… we do white linens/towels/ bed covers/ etc though, to simplify the wash. and white plates means no more mismatches ever– maybe a little odd shape or something but easy+cheap to replace. anyway, a bit on the obsessive side i admit, but try it in one room & see how you like it. it’s strangely… restful to the eyes, and my wife no longer obsesses about cleaning (i never did– but that’s another story
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ps- stick also to modern simple lines– otherwise it looks horrid, like old baby furniture.
pps- also it needn’t be hospital white, especially with fabrics you can experiment with off-white like raw cotton/canvas etc which adds subtle changes without too much contrast (plus these fabrics are cheaper)
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how could anyone not love a video that features The Magnetic Fields?!
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JD might appreciate this..I finally stopped pretending to have adult taste and started putting up my collection of comic book art, convention sketches and prints. Ebay has a lot of promotional posters for not too much, many of them autographed. I purchased full penciled pages that were for a proposal for a series that was never published for $20 a page by a professional comic book artist! Also if you need some bold color quick you can’t beat nailing together boxes made up of furring strips with a colorful fabric stapled to them. We use those in our home office to cut down on the echo.
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are there any blogs or websites dedicated to this type of thing? frugal interior design?
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