Take a tour of my secondhand house!
If you came over to my house and took a tour, you'd hear me saying, "Oh, I got that for free from my Buy Nothing Group/a trash pile/the abandoned house/a friend" ad nauseum.
I can't really invite all of you here (!), so let's take a virtual tour of the frugal things on the main level of my house.
Small note: I am not a decorator
One time I posted a pic of my living room on Instagram and someone was like, "This doesn't look at all like the work of a decorator."
And I was like, "Ummm, that's because I'm not a decorator." Ha.
My superpower is saving money, not doing interior design. So, just view these pics in that light, ok? 😉
My bedroom
I've already given you a tour of my secondhand bedroom, so click here if you want to revisit that.
Kitchen/Dining Room
My kitchen table is from the abandoned house; my dad and I refinished the top and I painted the legs.
The mismatched chairs are a combo of a hand-me-down from a cousin, plus two Buy Nothing group chairs.
On top of my table is a Buy Nothing group napkin holder, plus some secondhand cloth napkins in a Buy Nothing group container. I know it's not terribly sensible to have both, but hey, sometimes I want a paper napkin for something very messy.
The toaster oven in the corner is from Buy Nothing and sits on a refinished Buy Nothing table.
Eagle-eyed readers might wonder why there's a string on top of my clock. It's because Chiquita will play with the blind string if we let it hang. 😉
On the ledge, a green mug from the abandoned house serves as my key bowl. Because the key (ha) to not losing keys is to put them in the exact same place every single time.
Look in the left cabinet in this picture of the abandoned house's kitchen, and you'll see the mug!
My toaster is from my old house, and my kettle is an eBay purchase.
My sponge dish (where I leave my sponge to dry each night) is a soap dish from Buy Nothing. The plant, a cutting from Sonia, lives in an old candle jar.
My kitchen rug is from my Buy Nothing group.
The other side of my kitchen is also populated with free/cheap stuff, including my Facebook Marketplace knife block, which contains multiple knives from the abandoned house.
The water for my daily coffee sits in a reused lemonade bottle from Aldi, and my chia seeds are in an old tomato sauce jar.
My dishes are pretty much all from Buy Nothing, Goodwill, and the abandoned house.
Living Room
My living room side tables are all from Freecycle, Facebook Marketplace, and Buy Nothing.
Almost everything on the built-ins is from the abandoned house (the mirror is from Goodwill).
The table lamps are secondhand from Facebook Marketplace and Buy Nothing, and the wall art is from Buy Nothing.
The plants in the window are almost all cuttings from my plant girly.
Spare Bedroom
The bedroom that used to be Lisey's has basically nothing brand new in it!
- bed frame: craigslist (a throwback!)
- nightstand: abandoned house (click here for before and afters)
- lamp: hand-me-down from Book Club Elaine
- little bowl: abandoned house
- dresser: freecycle
- lamp: Buy Nothing
- mirror: hmm, I think that might have been a new purchase long ago!
- pink table: Philco brand from the abandoned house
- pot on table: Buy Nothing
- plate under pot: Buy Nothing
- pink chair: Buy Nothing. Remember me kinda regretting choosing to redo that one??
- flower prints on wall: Buy Nothing
- little white chest: Buy Nothing
- basket holding cat toys: Buy Nothing
Bathroom
My bathroom is pretty basic, but there are a few frugalities in here.
My little bowl is from the abandoned house and a reused Oui yogurt jar (purchased on a markdown) holds my makeup.
My little watercolor on the wall is one I did with Sonia, and the frame is a very, very old one that maybe was originally from Goodwill?
I can barely remember, it is so old!
My shower curtain liner is a fabric type, which means I can wash it over and over again without having to buy a new one.
My personal care product selection is pretty minimal; really my only skincare product is this Cerave lotion. I don't have much of my asset portfolio tied up in personal care products. 😉
The hair straightener in the basket is from eBay. 🙂
Office
Moving onto the office....
On the left, the painted bin from the abandoned house holds my exercise clothes, which I unceremoniously throw in there straight outta the laundry, unfolded.
My shredder is from eBay, and my mirror over my piano is from Facebook Marketplace.
The sewing caddy is from the abandoned house.
Bookcase: repainted from my Buy Nothing group.
The "Meow" airplane wing is from Lisey's time in aviation mechanic school. 😉
And lastly, Chiquita's cat tree is from Aldi; fan is from Facebook Marketplace.
And that pretty much covers my main level! 🙂
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When I finished putting this post together, I sort of wished I had gone room by room so I could go into more detail, but hey, we're gonna call this good and hit "publish" anyway.
You have a lovely and welcoming home, and it is wonderful how "rescued" pieces of furniture and accessories make up a cohesive look thanks to your painting skills (and dogged determination in some cases). It all comes together beautifully! I think the striped rug beneath the piano is a great amd fun choice. And I'd love to do a plant cutting swap with Sonia.
Your home looks so bright and cheerful, like its owner! I love how you saved things from the abandoned home and other places and gave them a new life!
I have a Snoopy keyholder 😀
I confess to breaking into a big smile when I saw the title of today's post! You've created a lovely, intentional home. Everything goes together because it spoke to you in the first place--the Instagram "decorator" comment was as off base as it was rude.
@N, AMEN!
Your home is lovely and warm and an amazing example of how you can have beautiful things without, sometimes, even spending anything. I am so envious that you have such a great buy nothing group locally (We definitely do not.)
You may not be a decorator, but you are a first-class decorative recycler of found and used objects--and that is a real skill. It takes a lot of creativity and work to transform the many items that you have done in your home. You've got some top DIY skills!
Just lovely! I think you have a very good eye for putting things together in a cohesive and pleasant way!
Your house is beautiful, Kristen! (Just like its occupant!) Fun story about keys and key bowls: Our key bowl is a lovely handthrown bowl we received as a wedding present. When DS#3 was getting used to having his own house key, he insisted on keeping it in his room, for whatever reason. One day he came back from a walk and later was panicking about losing his key--he couldn't find it. "Oh, I can't be trusted!" he bemoaned. We hunted and hunted, and then I had the thought to look in the key bowl--the place I'd told him many times to keep it--and there it was. "Oh...I guess I put it where it was supposed to be!"
EXACTLY. Every time I break my key bowl rule, I end up having to hunt for my keys.
@Karen A., that's hilarious!
@WilliamB, And yet, he has never put it in that bowl since. Despite having a lovely key bowl, very handy to the front door, DH and I are the only ones who avail ourselves of it for our house keys. When DS#1 first got a house key (they usually get one when they're 12 or so), he was so proud he kept it in his pocket at all times. Then he came to me in tears because he couldn't find it. After careful questioning, he retraced his steps for me and I learned he'd been jumping on the beds in the room he shared with his brothers. I wondered out loud if maybe, just maybe, the key had fallen out of his pocket and down between the beds, which were sort of wedged together...and there it was. He was so happy to have found it, and learned a lesson about putting his keys somewhere NOT in his pocket unless he was leaving the house!
@Kristen, DH tends to be a little absentminded about putting his 'effects' as we call them (keys, phone, wallet) down on any horizontal surface he comes by. The upside of living in a small house and having me as his wife is there's relatively few places he can put them that I don't notice them and can tell him where I last saw them when he's hunting.
@Karen A., Your son and I have a lot in common!
It's lovely. It's easy to see that you made a welcoming home while saving money and resources. Kudos!
I have a lot of the same marinara sauce jars from many years ago and use them to store many food items, both liquids and dry goods.
You have done a wonderful job of making a lovely home with your freebie/low cost finds! I would feel so at home there. (I especially love those built-ins!) The abandoned house turned out to be quite a blessing for you, didn’t it?
It really did! It came at just the right time. 🙂
@Kristen,
Sounds like God provided what you needed. You just had to add the elbow grease to get things in shape.
Everything really is beautiful- so cheerful and welcoming! Thanks for having all of us over for the visit! 🙂
Your home is lovely and inspiring.
When you buy, do you plan to get a home big enough for kids and grandkids to visit? I can’t remember if you’re in a 3 or 4 bedroom .
I loved my big house and can see it filled again someday, but we downsized for a season. Now I wonder why the only home I own is so large. 3600 sq ft v the 1900 sq ft I’m in now. Rental. Moving back to big home next summer. Interest rates mean selling seems crazy.
I'm currently in a 4 bedroom rancher, so I have one spare room for visitors, and the other extra bedroom is my home office, aka blogging headquarters. 😉 I honestly don't know how many square feet the house is, but since it's an older home, it's not enormous.
I feel very indecisive about how large of a home to buy, which is why for now, I'm still renting. The next few years of my life hold too many question marks for me to feel confident purchasing a home. So, I'm staying put until I feel more sure!
@Kristen, Kristen, no matter how your family grows they’ll squeeze in if needed so as to have family time.
I love this as my post split home is completely furnished from my buy nothing group. I gave everything away from my transitional apartment to a single dad escaping abuse, so karma works:-)
When I first discovered the buy nothing group, friends seemed a bit skeptical that all the "running around" was worth what I saved to get things people just wanted to get rid of. I thought it was a valid question as it was rather hit and miss sometimes.
Every time I needed something- not wanted- I would see what it would cost on Amazon, or a good used price. Then, I'd put an ISO out on the group.
If I got it, I put the money I would have spent in a Vanguard account.
Within a few years, I had a down payment on an owned home!
@ms.b214@gmail.com, that is some genius financial maneuvering! Kudos
@ms.b214@gmail.com, clever! And well done!
I love how you invested the money you would have spent! And good on you for helping someone else getting out of a marriage.
@ms.b214@gmail.com,
Brilliant! I bet your current home is spectacular!
I join in the general applause, Kristen!
And I have one of those blue glass violin vases. My second-grade teacher had one that I coveted, and a friend to whom I told the story as an adult gave me one as a gift. I've since found its "fraternal twin" in brown glass.
@A. Marie, I also have a blue one. I think they are from the 50s, or older.
You really did make a home out of a plain old house. An important distinction there.
Random question: How come you have a separate bottle for coffee water, rather than just filling from the faucet when you make your coffee?
Well, I heard water is better for coffee if you let it sit so that the chlorine can evaporate (we have city water).
However, given that I have an extremely undiscerning palate when it come to coffee, the effect of this could very well be lost on me.
But the other advantage is that the narrow bottle opening makes it easy to pour water into my coffee maker, which is on the opposite wall from my sink. So I carry on.
@Kristen, Interesting. I have never heard that. I, too, have city water. I just fill the pot itself with water from the tap and then pour it into the maker from the pot.
Your home is lovely! Thanks for letting us tour it
Your home is lovely simply because YOU feel safe and happy in it! Thanks for sharing!
This too. Peace is beautiful.
It's amazing to me how you were able to furnish your home with so many free and frugal finds. It looks lovely. I'm coveting your cereal bowls. Thanks for the tour.
I wish our buy nothing group was as good as yours. Its mostly baby stuff and if someone does have something different someone snatches it up before anyone else has a chance and it's usually the same person. But your home is so cozy and welcoming!!
@Sonya, Ours, too, but I find if I ask for something specific, someone will usually come through with it. I was into bread baking for a long while and wanted the type of pan you use to make long baguettes. Somebody had one!
I'm outraged on your behalf that someone dissed you for not being an interior decorator. Sheesh!
I think your place looks wonderful and comfortably lived-in (a compliment in my lexicon) and it must bring you a great deal of satisfaction to have made it so while being frugal.
Thanks for the tour.
Mostly, it just made me laugh because I am not even remotely qualified to call myself an interior designer. Ha.
I am, however, qualified to show it is possible to furnish a home in a reasonably attractive way for very little money. That's much different than the way most interior designers operate!
@WilliamB, Really how many "normal" people consult a decorator for their homes? I think looking at magazines and Pinterest for ideas is the closest the majority ever come.
Kristen, your home is so inviting, bright, beautiful, comforting and comfortable. Just like you! I really enjoyed the tour and learning the provenance of your items.
You have made a lovely home for yourself. It is bright, cheerful, and functional. I noticed the sign in your office that reads, "She needed a hero, so that is what she became." I just love that! I have a small sign in my office, purchased at Goodwill when my eldest was a teenager that reads, "Never, Ever Give Up."
On another note, my home is also made up of hand-me-downs, curbside finds, thrift store purchases, estate sale treasures, and auction wins that I have collected over time. Many things have interesting story... a history...a meaning. On rare occasion, I have broken down and bought a new item out of necessity. However, I do believe that everything we could need or want has already been made - especially coffee mugs.
Very pretty home.
My home decor is also from buy nothing and thrift stores.
You did a great job in your house! It's so cozy looking, I could move in tomorrow 😉
So much peace and calm happiness emanate from your home! Nice way to start my day!In a world of overconsumption this post is a breath of fresh air.
I have never watched ANY of those redecorating/reno show son TV. A few of my friends and neighbors are always unhappy with their homes ands spending $$$ on many “upgrades” and they talk incessantly about those shows! Ugh! (I’m spending more time with my BOOK CLUB friends these days!)
Thanks for this post!!
And I'm over here normalizing formica countertops. 😉
Honestly, formica is a very durable countertop material; I ended up with granite at my last house, but I sort of missed the practicality of my old formica.
@Kristen, I truly prefer formica! I do love the beauty of stone, but prefer it in less-used items (e.g. we have a small granite cafe table, marble cheese board, etc.). My family is not at all interested in having to be careful with workspace countertops. : )
Your home is lovely (my favorite is seeing how Snoopy is caught in time with his ears straight up, clearly b/c he loves your piano playing)
It seems that the most popular (unpopular because they keeps getting passed along) and available items are little side tables.
Who cares if something is IGram worthy or not? It is your home, and you have frugally turned it into a fully functional dwelling with little spots of beauty throughout.
One time I looked at all my pieces of furniture and did a tally: 20% of the items were bought brand new; the other 80% is salvage/second hand/inherited or a gift. That thrilled my cheap little heart to no end!
Kristen,
This sparked a memory… one of the earliest posts I read of yours was written about a tour of your office. I remember feeling so inspired and impressed by items you had upcycled and rescued. I just searched for the post and found it (search “a little tour of my office” dated 2/17/11)!
What is different: you liked to spray paint everything black and you only had one plant because you couldn’t keep them alive!
What’s not different: your writing tone and core characteristics. Your home has always been cheerful, beautiful, and warm just like you!
Oh yes, I did used to paint more things black.
And my old house had so little natural light, I had a terrible time keeping plants alive. But my front window here has SO much light, it's way easier. 🙂
Cheerful, inviting, warm and homey.
Well done, Kristen.
I love upgrading my home at garage sales and estate auctions.
The hunt is the fun!
I just picked up a 90's entertainment center for free, will paint it and wallpaper the interior and turn it into an imaginarium for my niece's young daughter. Puppet theater, whatever she can dream up. I made one for her mom when she was 5 and she still talks about it.
I’m always impressed with what you do to refresh older objects, especially furniture! Your Buy Nothing group always makes me envious! Getting decent stuff from mine would be a full time job refreshing their Facebook page to make sure I was “first” to claim something.
Being able to refurbish furniture is a great skill to have.
Curious why you keep your coffee water in a bottle. Is it different from your tap water?
Kristin asked the same thing earlier in the comments, so I'll just paste in my reply.
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Well, I heard water is better for coffee if you let it sit so that the chlorine can evaporate (we have city water).
However, given that I have an extremely undiscerning palate when it come to coffee, the effect of this could very well be lost on me.
But the other advantage is that the narrow bottle opening makes it easy to pour water into my coffee maker, which is on the opposite wall from my sink. So I carry on.
Fun Post!
We began renovating the River House November, 2023. That is the first time I joined Facebook and started using the market place. We have made about $2200 selling items from the 5,000 square foot, 1912 house. I was very hesitant to try Market Place. I was afraid of security issues especially. But I am so glad I jumped in. Hubby and I just travelled an hour each way to pick up 6 wrought iron chairs for $65. They will sit around the filled in pool/ new fire pit once I rehab them.
I have kept my eye out for nearly a year and finally found the right pieces in the right location for the right price.
Patience is the name of the game, isn't it?
I am a big fan of previously loved items which are often more interesting or work better than something you get brand now. Furniture, for example! I deactivated my FB account, so I can't check the Buy Nothing Group. But my group wasn't giving away items as nice as your group!
You have a lovely house; I have floor envy, seeing your real hardwood flooring. Looks like oak floors, lucky you!
About 95% of my home furnishings are secondhand, and many are antiques from parents and grandmothers. (I swapped out my items for theirs when they passed away.) What my Mom called "early matrimony," obtained right after WW2, is now called "granny chic" or "grand millennial" and came from a fancy furniture store that was destroyed in our city's big tornado. I wish I had photos to show you!
I'm thrilled that the fad of painting over the mahogany is now fading away bc I would never, ever ruin the mahogany finish on Mom's dining room suite. That suite is in my LR-DR along with an extra matching breakfront cabinet bought from an antique store; Grandma's 100-year-old buffet and breakfront cabinet; her coffee table; Dad's hand-built cedar chest that was his semester project in high school woodworking, 1937, used as a sofa back table; and a French Provencial silk sofa from an estate sale that I got for $200. I also have antique or secondhand whatnot shelves holding my other grandmother's china cup collection. I'm starting to incorporate more plants and I'm using Grandma's antique plant stand to hold a nice big pot of ivy, which has several strands trailing down toward the floor.
The den sofa/loveseat and end tables are the only items bought new from a "new" store (in 2001), along with the shelving in my office, which came from Aldi. I think of my BFF in Florida when I see those end tables bc she used her discount on Senior Citizen's Day to get them for me (I wasn't old enough at the time) and I paid her back. I have a Wayfair gas "fireplace" that doesn't require electricity in there; if another Snowmaggedon occurs, or winter electric outage, I can stay in the den and be warm.
Grandma's dining room table does duty in the eat-in kitchen area, as does a Craigslist-obtained entertainment unit designed for an old-style 20th C. TV. I put (trash-picked) square baskets in the latter, and they hold stockpiled food items. I also painted the undersides of the shelving to match my blue dishes, and then installed the shelves upside down so the blue shows up better. I had the white-and-gold-glitter Formica painted over with Granini paint to look like granite. It looked good at first, but did not hold up with all the scrubbing you have to do in a kitchen. So now I need to redo or replace the counters.
My bedroom furniture is Grandma's guest room furnishings, which were my mom's bedroom furniture, and they are also 100 years old. I found a matching console in Florida and you can't tell it wasn't part of the original furniture suite. I swapped the bed out for an Ikea bed from Craigslist and bought the mattress on a 3-day holiday sale. The insulating drapes are from that fancy store chain based in Bentonville, Ark., aka Walmart. Can't afford new windows, so these'll have to do.
My parents 1940's bedroom suite is in the guest bedroom.
With the exception of one lamp from Walmart bought in the 1980s, I have yet to buy a new lamp; all of them are antique hand-me-downs, garage sale-sourced, thrifted, bought in antique stores, or rescued from the trash. I also have a rolltop desk and a couple of "library tables", as they were called -- all antiques. A TV stand was a stereo console in its former life. My foyer furniture is a Daddy-built grandfather clock (built in 1976 as his Bicentennial project); his mom's dresser; and a hallway table from the other grandma.
I've redone 2 bathrooms since moving here. Had a wall knocked out of the master bath (behind it was a closet), and put in a bathtub; it had previously only had a freestanding shower stall. I had to replace the 1964 toilet with another one I didn't like. So that one got replaced and the other toilet moved to the little "potty room" off the laundry room (it's '64 toilet also went kaput). This little room has a repurposed cabinet that was a bathroom space saver in my other homes; we just took off the legs and fastened it to the wall. Most recently, it has been re-floored with leftover vinyl planks from the LR-DR flooring project.
I have scads of wall decorations, having gone overboard with the "gallery" look. But I like it, enjoy looking at my "art" collection, so that's that. I have an ecletic mix of old and new; expensive and extra cheap; stately and scavenged. A sign purchased in a craft store sums up my decor: "This isn't clutter; these are memories."
I do love my hardwood floors! As a renter, I much prefer not having carpet; somehow, carpet other people have lived on never feels quite right to me.
So I am very happy that there is absolutely no carpet on either level of this house.
(A couple of floors in my hospital have had carpet in their hallways, and that has always seemed wildly unsanitary to me! They're replacing the carpets right now and I'm so glad.)
@Kristen,
I don't like carpet because no matter how careful you are, the traffic patterns turn into "cattle trails." Carpet doesn't last very many years. While I could not afford "real" hardwood, the "luxury" vinyl planks I got sorta kinda look like wood and will last a lot longer than wall-to-wall carpeting. Also, it's much easier to clean. Especially when my dog is shedding all over the place.
Back from my vacation and dealing with a ton of work today (huffing and puffing), plus training my replacement, which slows one down, so I'm just finding time to pop in and say I love your idea to go through and point out the many items you got for nothing or very little because they aren't brand new. My local buy nothing group is a real dud, but I hope to see it improve. Right now I don't really need anything, so I can wait. Thanks for the fun tour - it was a day brightener!
Lovely!!! You’ve done such a good job making a home <3
I have the exact same blue bottle shaped like a violin!
We are members of the same club. 🙂
Amazing and so very inspiring to see so much reused and made beautiful. The best thing though for me are all the Snoopys!!! My own little girl has just gotten way into Snoopy (like her mama). Kindred spirits!
Snoopy fans unite!
@Kristen, Yes! 🙂
Love the hardwood floors, built ins, living room window, your plants and how much you saved from the abandoned house!
I love the built-ins too! I've never had them before, and I like 'em. 🙂
Your house is so pretty. My apartment when I was single was pretty, but i bought my house, got married and had three kids all within a four year span, so my house never got made pretty and now it is so full of the accumulated crap that comes with children that I don’t even know where to start. So I don’t, and I figure when I’m an empty nester, maybe I will feel motivated to make my house pretty and declutter. Right now, I sort of feel like keeping children alive is the best I can manage most days.
Oh yes, my house is definitely tidier and less cluttered than it was when all of my kids were young!
Also helping: the one kid (ok, adult, I guess!) I have left at home with me (Zoe) is one of my tidiest children. She was the sort of kid who would just declutter her room on her own, and she still operates like that. So we have two clutter-averse people here. 🙂
@Kristen, I'm unfortunately the opposite. I swear I attract clutter.
I loved this so much!!! Thank you for sharing your beautiful home with us. Well done building a comfortable and lovely space with so many free and almost free items.
Last week a friend and I did a similar thing in real life. My husband and I are renovating an abandoned home and she and her husband renovated a barn into an Airbnb. We took an afternoon and walked through both spaces—me detailing all our plans and her telling me how they did what and where each item of decor came from (almost all of which is secondhand). It was such fun!
YES! I love that you guys both did this. 🙂
@Kristen, and Amanda in Va., and everyone,
In one of the Tightwad Gazette books, Amy D. (aka the Frugal Zealot) gave us a tour of a friend's renovated house and told what all he did to it to make it livable and beautiful. He used lots of salvaged materials. IIRC, she also told about what she and Mr. Frugal Zealot did to their old farmhouse and also about how a tightwad Bed and Breakfast owner decorated their house. Those were some of my favorite articles in the Gazettes.
Your home is beautiful, Kristen! Pretty, peaceful, calm and practical (I love all the light - and your built-ins, too!). You've done a marvelous job making it a beautiful home. I also repurpose those Oui glass jars (bought on sale, of course) - they're great for so many things. And I remember Book Club Elaine from the meetup - hi, Elaine!
@Melanie, HI!
Your home is beautiful, inviting and serves you well. No need to hire a stranger to come in, paint all the walls gray, and throw out your well-made furniture just to replace it with cheaply made fluffy new furniture and doodads.
I'm so glad to see the lamp is still working. My sister gave it to me years ago because she decided to upgrade (I think it was from Ikea). It was light blue (which she may have painted) and I painted it a darker color. Yeah to keeping things that work out of the landfill!
Interestingly, I've never been able to use the buy nothing group for my area, even though it's not far away from you. Thinking that I was just stupid, I asked my daughter to take a look, and she had no luck either. She was a frequent user when she lived in Northern VA and now uses a different one after moving out of state. She's on it A LOT and makes friends through both giving and receiving. They seem to vary a lot locally.
Well, whoever said you're not a decorator obviously has no taste!! Your home is absolutely adorable , fresh, and welcoming. One question: you did not mention the provenance of the kitchen windowsill duck! He's so cute!
I love your house tour. Thank you for opening your door, as it were, and letting us all traipse inside. So many great finds utilized so well! And I'm totally crushing on the color of your bathroom! What a lovely, calm and welcoming color!
Love it! So many creative ways to build a nest.
I would consider it a compliment to have someone say my home doesn't look decorated. Most "decorated" spaces I see look sterile and unnatural. I want a place that looks like I've purposely surrounded myself with things I love. Like you, there is a frugal story behind 99% of my belongings. I'm particularly amazed at the amount of original artwork I have collected from 2nd hand sources.
Lovely!
It definitely has style and it's sooo cozy! Well done.
I love your place it looks so cozy and comfortable. I'm a firm believer that you can furnish any place really reasonable. When my son moved into his first apartment I furnished it for about $150 by going to garage sales and estate sales. It's amazing the stuff I found and he still uses some of it today.
I love mismatched chairs I think they make a room look so informal and comfortable. We have six chairs around our kitchen table in there in pairs that match because I just happened to find them that way. I also love to look a mismatched dishes for a collected look. We recently went to a croissant shop in Little Rock that had a mixture of different China plates it was so cute to see each fight that came out because they were each different. I love that collective look. Plus, you don't have to worry about breaking a plate!
Your home looks cozy! Whatever happened to the abandoned house? Did they fix it up? I would love to see before and after pictures of that!
I think your home is really lovely. it is amazing how you put things together. 🙂
What a cozy, bright little house! You did a wonderful job with all the rescued furniture and things you found. So cheerful and personal.
You are a girl after my own heart. I came over from the Non-Consumer Advocate and I'll be subscribing.
Awww yay!! Glad to have you here!
I think your home is lovely. It appears warm and inviting. Thank you for sharing!
My partner was bewildered and got a little emotional when he realized that everything I have now, I was either gifted or found for free to really cheap. I literally left my marriage with nothing but a trash bag filled with clothes and some hygienic products. I also had to rebuild my life from the ground up again.
Friends bought me my dining room table. Friends gifted me a couch and a bed. My daughter’s vanity I payed $50 for off Marketplace for her. Friends gave me bunk beds for my boys.
It’s incredibly humbling. Last year, I managed to get a car in my own name. I was financially abused something awful during my marriage and cars were never in my name. It’s used but has low miles, I maintain it and it was well taken care of. I managed to find a house to rent.
So believe me when I say how hard this post hits home for me.
Awww, I'm so proud of you! Look at you out here figuring out how to make it work.
What an inviting home! I love it….warm, cosy and friendly looking. Your stamp is all over it. Thanks for the detailed peek!
I like the butter dish repurposed as a napkin holder!
Kristen,
You are a fantastic role model for your children & for all who know you in real life and through the frugal girl!
Your home is absolutely beautiful. I admire the hard work you put into restoring and giving life to old pieces of furniture. And I am sure your Dad enjoys working with you on your restoration projects.
And the fact that when you put your mind to something, you do it…you did it, you became a NURSE.
I look forward to reading about your continued success and future endeavors.
I wish you nothing but the best,
Mary Ellen
Aww, thank you!
This might be one of my favorite posts yet!
Everything looks great. I love your place!
Your home is beautiful and I love it! Thank you for sharing it ❤️
Thank you so much for graciously sharing your home with me. You are so neat and tidy and quite artistic
What a fun post! Thanks for sharing with us.
rescuing items, whether they be chairs, tables, couches, lamps, is so rewarding. The best part, is seeing how you have done these things over and the placement of the items - that's what makes a cozy home!