Frugal Decorating with Thrift Store Bargains

Ladies, if you've been around since May, you will recognize this post...but I did, so much, want to share it again because it goes so well with my dear friend, Maria's linky party of fun and frugal wall art. If you have some great ideas, then by all means, drop by and share in the fun. Her readers would love to see what you come up with and so would she. :o) And do tell her that I sent you..I'm one of her biggest fans. :o)

Discovering my Unique Style…

If anyone is head over heels smitten with nostalgia, I must admit..I’m the worst!  It’s not that I want to ‘step’ back in time…but I love antiques!  Record players, typewriters , sewing machines, and kitchen utensils just fascinate me!  My family all love to dance: waltz, West Coast swing, square dancing, and fox trot…so we have collected a lot of old records too.  My home is filled with beloved treasures from the past. I know it's not romantic in the pink and frilly way, but I think that there is nothing more so than a rustic family home in the country.  PS. My mom bought this shelf for $5.00 at a local thrift store. It was pure pine..but I stained it oak to match the dining room table. 

Prints from Local Thrift Store

Every Tuesday, Maria Killam of Color Me Happy  hosts a linky party  of fun and frugal wall art  , so I have linked to this great show today. Be sure to visit her blog! I linked up since everything I used to re-decorate came from the thrift store! That's as frugal as it gets!  If you would like to see some beautiful projects and great ideas, than her Linky Party would be well worth a visit.

The best Christmas present I ever got myself, a public school record player ($25 on Ebay) plus .50 records from the thrift store, turned out to be a family obsession! We are re-discovering the music and dance of by-gone eras and even though our house is full of boys…they are crazy about dancing as much as my daughter is!    

Frish Frosh by Henry Mancini

We clean house to the sound of big band music via Henry Mancini and Frankie Carle. (Christian’s favorite is the Can-Can though. He’s never made the association with the dance though. :o)  So naturally, my house reflects this love to some degree but there is a problem….

Ecletic Decor or just Hodge-Podge?

Today, I want to talk about some decorating principles that are helping me to transform my house from hodge-podge to an overall style…and boy, have I ever needed help! I’m afraid I’ve been ‘living’ in transition.

 After 23 years of rental homes and decorating with gifts, cast-offs, and leftovers, my house had split up into decorating war zones…

I jokingly refer to my decorating style as the ‘White House” method. Over here you have the green room…and then the blue room and here’s the country cottage. Ahead and to the left we have the Victorian Era, and then the super-modern  Nasa Control center (four computers in one room!).   In other words, I was breaking a lot of rules for decorating that left the house seeming confused and cluttered with all the doo-dads and gee-gaws ( as we call excess stuff  in Texas).

Antique books from my father, 1950's photo of Grandma, Man and Wife cross-stitch that took over 10 years to complete while raising five little ones. (Tim and I bought it the first year we married. :o) It's so sweet that I thought I'd post this at My Romantic Home's Show and Tell.

Identifying the Problems  

The more I read Maria Killam’s Colour Me Happy blog…the more dissatisfied I became. I had always known something was wrong..but not WHAT. I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately and I think it’s beginning to sink in.  After  reading Maria’s posts and talking with my decorating friend, Laurie,  I came to the conclusion that I had three major problems:

• No overall color theme or decorating style.
• Using lots of little decorative objects….instead of a few big things to decorate with.
• Decorating with hand me downs, gifts etc that didn’t look good together and were out of style—needed good arrangements with the RIGHT stuff.  

Decide on a Decorating Style

Deciding on a theme or style was the easy part. We have lived in the country for five years now and it makes sense to decorate in a way that compliments our new lifestyle. With my love of antiques and quilts, that was something I would enjoy and wouldn’t require a lot of new purchases. The hard part was parting with the decorative stuff from past homes that didn’t go with the new look. I was just too attached to my stuff! 

Tim loves the northwest style of decor but has also developed an affinity for the country life and western style of Texas (after 25 years he’s beginning to acclimate!!) and I love the Western theme and retro antiques.  I recently inherited my father’s western drawings, antique photos, and self-portrait and wanted to work that into the mix too.  I also wanted to emphasize Tim’s love of nature and the outdoors.  We are very classical in terms of music so there will be an instrument here and there but no more formal decor or Victorian stuff!

Choosing a Unifiying Color Scheme or ‘palette’

Choosing a color palette and scheme was harder. I couldn’t decide whether to start from scratch (expensive) or decide which of the current decor and color palette that  I should stick with.  Rebekah and I discussed this at length, and we both agreed that we would transition from burgandy and blue in the living room…to brown and navy (with a western flair) as the main colors.  She wanted to do the whole house that way, but I have to work with some unchangeables. So the living room colors became the MAIN color scheme..and the other rooms have variations of that set of colors.

Actually, the colors we are working with now, for the whole house, are navy, brown, burgandy/red, cream, and maybe olive green. Leaving the olive allows for some of the current decor and especially my sewing room which I just re-did to some degree--though we didn’t paint yet. We aren’t finished here but we are working towards a trend…  I guess you would call these Americana colors.  Read more about the right way to create flow using color by Maria Killam.

Getting Rid of Old Decorating Styles

Until we chose a unifying decorating style, we wouldn’t really know which decorative items to keep and which to get rid of.  Click here to learn more. Well it means that the Victorian bedroom…is out…O-U-T!  I’m selling the bedding, curtains, runners and pillow shams. I’m packing up the trinkets that I can’t part with or meld into the ‘woodwork’ so to speak.  We are transforming it to country but keeping the furniture. (I am frugal after all.) So we will be using quilts that I’ve already made or own, re-covered pillows, and anything else that will work.  Instead of elaborate gold and deep red curtains, I’m re-fashioning a shower curtain (the outer part) which is heavy cream woven linen type material with gorgeous texture into two curtains for the long narrow windows in the bedroom.  The Sante Fe look  in the kitchen and dining room has got to go!We hate it anyway and my husband despises it--Good reason to switch don’t you think? 

Before and After: Changing Styles of Decor

Here’s how we switched the color and style scheme for each room so that it’s ALL country or rustic style.

• Living room: Before-country style (burgundy and navy)  After-more western style (Brown and Navy w/Deep red accents to allow for antique photos and drawings)
• Dining room: Before- Santé Fe style (green, rust and burgundy)  to country style (Blue and White checks, with yellow accents)
• Kitchen: Before- Santé Fe style (green, rust and blue (counters )and red accents)  to country kitchen style (Blue and White with Red accents)
• Sewing room: Before- Pastels and romantic tea room look to simple pale blue with green accents.

Let’s Go Shopping! Thrift store decor…

Now that we knew what style we wanted and what our overall color palette was, we headed out to the best place for cheap decor ever….our local thrift stores.  Rustic is easy to pick up, but we also wanted texture…wood, dried flowers, beaten metal etc. We found items with labels still on them from Pottery Barn, Michaels, Hobby-Lobby, and other name brand decor stores…all cheap!  A beautiful fake plant (daffodils and leaves..almost looks real that was perfect for the bathroom. ($30.00 from Michael’s). Carved wooden fruit (paid $2.00 for a basket full). The best find of the day caused me to spend a whole $15.00!! It was a gorgeous antique record player stand with slots for the albums. I really needed to get it out of the hutch it was in. We could barely play records because there was so little room for it. I almost cried when I saw the price. I’m still recovering…what a God-send!  

Our hunt was for rustic and BIG!  We were trying to get rid of my little stuff. However our house is small so we did get some smallish things too. With baskets loaded we checked out and headed home.  I knew some of what I wanted before we left because it had been on the list a very long time anyway so it didn’t take us long to get what we needed. When we got home, we packed up everything that didn’t match the Rustic Theme to be sold or given away later.  Then we started pulling out things from the bags. The only thing we bought from an actual store was some large pillar candles for the coffee table and some tapers.  

Introducing the Art of TableScapes….

Our next step was to make good arrangements either on the wall or the various tables and end tables.  This is where Maria’s post about Tablescapes really transformed the look of my home. 

I’m still pinching myself  to see if it’s really MY house anymore! I know my efforts are amateurish..but they sure are better than what we had before.  Also her look on Styling for a Photoshoot had such amazing before and after pictures. In analyzing them, I realized how little it takes to transform the appearance of a room!

We have a long way to go, but in only one day, we’ve made a major transformation in our home. I always wondered how hotels got it right and what their secret was…well, interior decorators really are the secret. However, we can get some of that ‘look’ by learning some of the rules for decorating.

Monday’s Challenge: 

Last Few Days - Livingroom and/or Den 

O Vacuum everything: furniture, under furniture, floors, lampshades

O Dust high and low: ceiling fans, floorboards, picture frames, cobwebs, steroes, tv and other electronic equipment

O Polish Furniture, bookshelves

O Wipe all glass: windows, knickknacks, tvs, computer, stereo, pictures, telephone

O Declutter magazines, end tables, bookcases, closets (Maintenance decluttering)

Declutter Challenge:  Declutter your DVD’s and CD’s (movies and music).  How many do you really watch or listen to? We keep pretty pared down but I know most people don’t. So this week, let’s get things organized here. :o) Netflix and the library help keep us decluttered in this area. 

New habit for this week:   Keep the living room picked up—all day long.  If someone leaves something, out make them come back and pick it up. Declare the living room a clutter free zone.  I’m not saying not to have fun, but unless you have a maid, teach your children to learn to be responsible for their own mess. If the activity is over…the stuff needs to be put away. This way it stays pretty and is more inviting for the next activity. :o)

I hope you've enjoyed this little blast from the past and don't forget to check out my First Blogiversary Giveaway for two hand-quilted totebags for two winners.  The drawing is on November 1st!

Happy Homemaking!

Donna