Home decor is something I&#;ve warned you to curb your enthusiasm on.
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I&#;ve specifically said to not worry about having a bar cart when you&#;re 22. There are more important things to prioritize at that age, like learning what a 401k is.
As for myself, I don&#;t really decorate. I&#;ve gone at least a decade into adulthood without understanding what a sham pillow is, or even buying a cheap poster to hang up on my wall. As maniacally self-expressive as I am with my clothes, that requirement never quite extended to my home. The gene to &#;put my own stamp on things&#; eluded me, which was one reason why I haven&#;t minded not being a homeowner. Grubby linoleum floors? As long as I&#;ve got a place to put my head at night, sure, I&#;ll take it.
Plus, apartments always felt temporary for me. I moved to New York City to work and try to make the best use of my skills. That&#;s always been the priority. Not to have a nice place.
So then, why is it that for the past month my life has been absolutely dominated by home upgrade activities? Watching Craigslist like a hawk every morning for a brand-name bed, navigating new-to-me online auction sites in hope of snagging iconic furniture, or ordering swatches of fabrics that sheets come in before ordering the actual sheets.
Readers, I&#;ve had a change of heart.
Or maybe it&#;s lifestyle inflation. After all, I don&#;t have any real money goals to go after anymore. So four years after moving in with my husband, it&#;s occurred to me that it might be nice to actually do something with our home.
I can see myself staying around for a while now. And while I&#;m always trolling rental listings every now and then (just in case), I&#;ve realized that A. We can&#;t find a better apartment for the same price we pay now. And B. Upgrading to a nicer apartment isn&#;t going to significantly increase our happiness, anyway.
Feeling a little more anchored, coupled with a recent design-focused trip to Italy where I&#;ve suddenly started noticing everything more, and doing nothing with our apartment starts to feels almost&#; disrespectful, you know?
So my husband and I are making upgrades to our rental. Slowly. I&#;ve never believed in buying everything for your home at once. At least whenever I did that, it was a breeding ground for bad purchases.
The first project on the list was swapping out our $5 nightstands. My husband had picked up these wooden cubes from the salvage yard&#;meant as a temporary solution until we found something better.
Better is subjective. For me, it means something functional. I prefer to spend some time observing how we actually use our space before going out and buying things. I noticed my husband had stuffed books in the cubes just because the space was there. I knew that if we got traditional nightstands that we&#;d just clutter them up with stuff. So the best nightstand for us would be something minimal. And I view nightstands as an unsexy purchase. $200 for something I wouldn&#;t really appreciate all that much felt kind of silly.
That&#;s when I found the IKEA Frosta stool. At $14.99, the price was right. They&#;re lightweight, stackable, and easy to put away. And the cool thing about these stools is that they can double as extra-seating when guests come over. In city apartments, multi-functionality is such a plus!
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Fun fact: the IKEA stool is actually inspired by this much more expensive Alvar Aalto E60 stool, originally designed in the s. Isn&#;t it funny how good design lasts for decades?
The stool looks fine on its own, but I wondered if I could make it look a little less plywood-y.
The tried-and-true hacks for the IKEA Frosta stool is to paint or stain or decoupage it. But one of the more underrated ways to make anything look more expensive is by incorporating high-quality raw materials. Think marble, leather, stone, wood and fabric. I mean, there&#;s a reason why those materials make things more expensive, right?
Lucky for me, I had some leather laying around from another project. Why not just reuse the leather I already had and cover the top of the stool?
If I used leather, I could make the stool a unique-to-us product. Because the leather I had was vegetable tanned, a time-intensive process using natural ingredients. The end product is a leather that does neat things. When you first buy something made out of vegetable tanned leather the color is a matte pale beige. But as the leather ages, the color deepens and the surface develops a shine, called a patina. It eventually looks like this:
After we got back from Italy, I was so inspired by all the interiors I saw that after unpacking the first thing I tackled was the DIY nightstand project. Here are the steps and the finished product:
I had to iron the leather, since I hadn&#;t stored it properly and it got super wrinkly. I put the iron on a low setting (around 3-4), and used a brown paper bag as an in-between layer to protect the leather from burning.
Arrange the table tops on top of the leather. I had just enough leather to cover the tops, but if I had a bigger hide, I might have covered the legs as an extra-luxe touch.
Now mark cutting lines for later by tracing the table tops. Instead of using a pen or pencil, I used a bone folder to create a groove line. If you&#;re using a pen or pencil, I&#;d recommend marking the underside of the leather, so the marks aren&#;t visible.
Using a sharp pair of scissors, cut out the circles. I looked everywhere for some sort of hack for cutting out a perfect circle, but couldn&#;t find a solution that didn&#;t involve a compass, which would have pierced the leather. To get nicer edges when cutting freehand, try to take longer strokes with the scissors instead of shorter ones.
Here&#;s a close-up so you can see the subtle color difference between the leather and the original table top.
Apply glue to the table top, then apply glue to the underside of the leather. I used regular Elmer&#;s rubber cement, because that&#;s all I had. But if this was a &#;real&#; project, I&#;d use shoe glue since it&#;s stronger. And if you want a more even application, you can use a wider foam brush.
The most nerve wracking part! After you&#;ve applied a layer of glue to both pieces, now slowly line up the leather piece and gently press onto the table top. Smooth out the wrinkles with a bone folder or anything else you have laying around with a straight edge.
Here you can see what the layer looks like on the side. Ah, glue blobs are showing, oops.
Then attach the legs with a screwdriver (there are pre-drilled holes for you to follow). And here&#;s a side-by-side comparison&#;one stool with a leather top and one without. It&#;s not a drastic change or anything, but I think my version looks a lot earthier and high-end.
And the new nightstand by the bed.
After a few weeks of use, there&#;s already a coffee ring stain on mine, but I don&#;t mind it at all. As I mentioned before, the leather isn&#;t supposed to stay pristine, and hopefully, the tables will age in a way that&#;s unique to our usage patterns.
And that&#;s my $15 nightstand, which I hacked using materials I already had around the apartment.
Feature Image: The Luxe Strategist
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Buying furniture can be a major expense, especially in this era of quickly rising prices. Some shoppers are holding off making purchases: Inflation is pinching consumers across all income levels, and home furnishings sales are falling.
Still, if you don&#;t have a bundle of cash earmarked for furniture shopping but need to decorate a space (hello, newlyweds, roomies, and downsizers), you can learn how to save money buying furniture and score great finds. Here, learn how to save money on furniture with surprising techniques, including:
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&#; Finding free pieces at the curb
&#; Lucking out with returned or floor-model items
&#; Getting the timing right for sales
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As of , the average expenditure on furniture per family (or single person household) was about $716 in the United States. In more affluent households, the average annual spend was $1,490 in .
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When shopping for furniture, remember that it&#;s not just the cost of the table or chair you might be buying. You&#;ll also need to build in these extra expenses:
&#; Taxes.
&#; Shipping or delivery fees.
&#; Extra costs for assembly or for getting a piece up the stairs or around the hall corner and into a room.
&#; Possibly paying to have the old piece you are replacing (a bed or sofa, for example) removed.
&#; Stain-resistant treatments on upholstered furniture, which generally add to the value and longevity of a sofa, chair, or headboard.
Recommended: Questions You Should Ask Before Making an Impulse Buy
Now, for the details of how to save money buying furniture. Here are some smart secrets to try.
Many towns have bulky waste pickup days, and savvy people know to cruise curbs around town on those dates. You could find anything from still functional bookcases to an antique side table to patio furniture to a great lamp or two. It&#;s generally safer to avoid mattresses, box springs and upholstered furniture due to the possibility that bed bugs are lurking.
Many online retailers are eager to get your address and/or cell number as a &#;subscriber&#; so they can alert you to sales and special offers. In exchange for this information, they may dangle discount or free shipping codes for your first order. Yes, these messages can clog your inbox, but you can always unsubscribe once you score the furniture deals you want.
Another idea for how to save money on furniture: Go straight to the source. For more than 50 years, shoppers have been buying well-made furniture from manufacturers at Hickory Furniture Mart in Hickory, North Carolina. The Mart unites local independent furniture retailers, including custom order showrooms, factory direct outlets, furniture outlets, and dedicated manufacturers&#; galleries. Check their website to see the various vendors available.
Recommended: 15 Creative Ways to Save Money
Many consumers are confident enough to order items online, but with big purchases like a sofa, it can help to see products up close (and sit on them) first. See if your local department store stocks the sofa you have seen online or other pieces made by that brand, so you can get a feel for the fabric, design, and construction. That could save you the time, effort, and cost of having to return an item.
Many things are upcycled now for a more sustainable planet with less of a carbon footprint. That means taking something that could have ended up in the trash and turning it into treasure. Paint a lamp and pop on a new shade, for example, or refinish a worn out table or dresser to refresh its good looks and perhaps pop on some new hardware, too.
Recommended: Ways to Save Money While Living Sustainably
Are you starting from scratch to furnish a home? Experts say a furnishing budget generally depends on the size of a new residence. You might make a budget based on a percentage of the total cost of your home. Your furniture/decorating budget might range from a low of 10% to a high of 50% of the home&#;s purchase price, depending on your finances. And certainly, with the shopping hacks listed here, you can whittle that down.
Recommended: Tips for Furnishing a New Home
Department or furniture store credit cards can often run up staggering interest rates, something you definitely do not want when buying furniture. If at all possible, save enough money to pay for furniture in full and with cash or debit card.
Could you DIY something, like a bookshelf, wood bench, or Shaker-style dresser? Good old YouTube has videos to teach you.
Recommended: Why Saving Money Is Important
Another idea for how to save on furniture: Buy used vs. new. For starters, check Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist for deals. Many people are paring back or moving and want to get rid of things without adding them to a landfill. You can also look for bargains at antique stores, flea markets, garage sales, and thrift shops.
Recommended: Tips for Buying Furniture on a Budget
To cut costs, know when prices are likely to be lower. Desk chairs and office furniture are often on sale in the fall. Cyber Monday can be a huge opportunity for savings of all kinds. Ask the salesperson when prices will dip to make way for new merchandise on the sales floor.
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You might be able to get loved ones to help a bit with the cost of furniture; group gifting options on your wishlist items could allow several people to chip in. This is, as you might guess, especially popular for couples starting their lives together. Crate & Barrel, for example, often offers perks, such as free shipping (at a certain spend threshold) and 15% discounts on wedding registry purchases.
Here&#;s another way to save on furniture: Check out local auctions. You might be able to find old treasures, from sideboards to headboards, that make great statement pieces at an affordable price. Estate sales are also good sources for items like these.
If you can live with furniture that isn&#;t brand new and untouched by anyone else, you could score some great deals. On the Pottery Barn website, for instance, search for Open Box Deals, which are returned items that sell at discounted prices. Sometimes it&#;s just that someone didn&#;t like the color. In furniture showrooms, inquire about slightly damaged items (perhaps a table has a scratch you barely notice) and also ask about floor models.
With the right shopping skills in your toolkit, you can save money on buying furniture. By employing smart strategies, such as scouring estate sales and thrift shops, buying returned items, and negotiating on the sales floor, you can save a bundle on great-looking as you furnish your home.
This is not a question of better or worse. Some shoppers prefer snagging deals on used furniture and enjoy hunting for pieces such as a vintage oak dresser at a thrift shop. Others want new pieces, either because they prefer the style or they like the idea of owning something that has no wear. It&#;s a matter of personal taste, though buying used pieces, in addition to costing less, may help keep pieces out of landfill and sync with eco values.
Search for styles, colors, and lines you love, as well as comfort and function. A desk won&#;t help you out if it doesn&#;t have the drawer space you need, and a sofa is a fail if it&#;s not comfy and solidly made. Also look for solid wood, not composites or laminates, if you want a long-lasting quality piece. Some pieces (such as an upholstered chair) may come with warranties against wear and tear and stains.
As more people strive for sustainability and resist tossing away furniture, options abound for finding used pieces. Check thrift shops, donation centers, secondhand stores, estate sales, garage sales, Craigslist, and Facebook Marketplace.
Photo credit: iStock/Vanit Janthra
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