I am on a very limited budget and I'm proud to say that I was able to put the place together on very little money. Almost all of my furniture and decorations came from Craigslist, or was stuff I already owned. The rest came from discount stores like Home Goods and Big Lots. I'm not embarrassed about that. Big Lots has actually started carrying some really awesome home stuff very inexpensively. They have some really great patio stuff right now.
Anyway, here is what I've done with the living room area.
We got the couch off of Craigslist for $30. We had a hard time finding one that would fit through our sliding glass door. It's like a mini door. Everything about the place seems to be on the small side. It's a Cost Plus World Market couch and it's in excellent condition. It's very clean and the only thing wrong with it is that it's a little saggy in the middle but I'm going to fix that with some upholstery foam. I also want to get some decorative pillows eventually.
I got this awesome coffee table also on Craigslist. I think it's the most expensive item I bought, at $85 but I couldn't find another one like it and I really wanted one with storage. In such a small place it's all about the storage. I had wanted to put baskets in the cubbies but they are like $8-$10 each so I'll have to wait on that a bit. For now I have spray painted some Tupperware containers chocolate brown. I'm going to mod podge that burlap onto the fronts and tops. On the sides I'm going to put some chalkboard labels.
I didn't buy too many knick knacks or decorations, (with the exception of the kitchen). I already had quite a few things stored away from our two bedroom apartment. Plus I wanted to keep it simple.
On the coffee table I put a burlap runner and lace placemat. I've gotten more use out of the yard of burlap I bought two months ago than I thought possible. Such an inexpensive material to decorate with! Lisa is making me some burlap curtains for the bedroom and kitchen windows. On the left is a glass jar filled with Jade we have collected from Big Sur over the years, as well as some drift wood and coral from local beaches. In the middle is a cute picture holder I got in Tahoe eight or nine years ago and on the right is the awesome rock candleholder Lisa got me for my birthday in Big Sur. I love it!
There isn't a lot of wall space in the living room because it's mostly all windows(which is awesome!). Photographs are very important to me though, so I was bummed there weren't that many places to hang them. I used every inch of space I could find to hang what I could and the rest will go in the bedroom, since there are such large empty walls in there.
I even used the narrow space above the sliding glass door to hang photos. I have blurred out the images in the middle because I don't want to give credit to the person that took them. Lol. It's definitely time to have some updated photos taken. The curtains and valances came with the place. The valances are not exactly what I would have chosen if given the chance, but they finish off the windows and it's one last expense I had to worry about.
We have this antique armoire that we've had since before we were married. It doesn't fit in the space that well but it's a beautiful piece. We couldn't bear to part with it and I don't want to pay to store it, so we made it work for now. The space would be much more open without it, but we are storing quite a bit of stuff in it so we will leave it for now. It's over a hundred years old and really is a beautiful piece of furniture and the only thing we own of any value.
I wanted to have at least one more place to sit in case we had guests. This chair was originally in Sophie's room and it fit perfectly. The "side table" is actually a plastic Tupperware three drawer storage container that I need to finish painting brown. I put another piece of burlap and lace placemat on top and finished it off with a picture of the kids. I'll probably end up re-thinking that area but it works in a pinch. We are going to hang the paddles on the wall like we had in our last place.
Next to that is the only bookshelf we were able to keep. Joe was pretty bummed about that. He had to give away most of his books when we lost our apartment. We had seven bookshelves in our one bedroom apartment. Seven! One day we'll have space for more bookshelves again but for now this is it.
It came with this built in area with cabinets for the television. We had a cheap old tv that we got on Craigslist that was too small for me to see(I have become so blind in the last three months!). Then when Lisa and the kids came to visit Cameron wanted to bring his own tv so he could play his video games and when they left Lisa said we could keep the tv! Score! It's still pretty small but it's a flat screen, unlike our other one. One day we'll have a bigger tv. For now this one works fine.
Just today our friends K, P and S(and JJ too) gave us this awesome table. (I can't figure out to make links with my ipad or I would link to their blog). It fits perfectly and it's beautiful! Now I just need to scour Craigslist for some barstools or chairs.
Lastly is the bathroom. It's a pretty tiny space. There are a lot of mirrors though, which makes it seem larger.
I got this really cool shower curtain for eight bucks(big lots!). It was exactly what I was looking for. I love trees.
Just got these bath rugs yesterday. I went with brown to tie in with the trees.
Two hooks and my hanging jewelry holder help with lack of space/storage. I also have two baskets under the sink.
On one wall I hung a couple of photos I took in big sur at Christmas time(matted on more burlap). I am using the blue/green towels I got for Christmas to bring in the color of the ocean but I haven't decided if that works with the brown yet.
On the other small wall I hung some postcards of big sur that I framed. They turned out cute. We are calling this our Big Sur bathroom. Lol.
So that's it so far. I'm still working on the kitchen and bedroom. I have some pretty lofty plans for one of the big walls in the bedroom, if I can pull it off. I'll be sure to post pictures if I do.
It's not fancy, but it's cozy and it's mine and I absolutely love it.
