A friend of mine told me once that I had a 'rich white people room'. He said that rich white people always had a room with no tv, but it had a piano. I'm not sure we fall into the 'rich' category, but I do love that we have a pretty, quiet room where we can welcome guests. As for the piano, I don't play...the piano is, however, one of the many talents of the awesome Señor Hotness. When he is here he actually plays at church. Sometimes he unwinds after the kids go to bed by just sitting down and playing. It is one of my favorite things ever, and is 100% swoon worthy.
So to start off with the blank canvas we had beige walls, and awesome plantation shutters.
Did I mention our dreamy hardwood floors? No? Hey check out those dreamy hardwood floors! That stain color isn't one I would have normally picked, but I have found its a good compliment to my style and furniture.
Excluding the piano that sits in this room no single piece in this room cost more than $300, and that was the couch chair combo. Everything else cost $50 or less (or in most cases free).
The end tables I purchased off of craigslist, and they were super janky. They were one of the first projects that I ever took on. They have moved several times, and have held together like champs. The coffee table was a freebie, and the rug is a quality wool rug I got off of a Facebook group for $25.
This is what it looked like for a while. This picture is a testament to how important the little accessories are to bring a room together. Sure I have nice furniture pieces, but it all seems kind of boring without lamps, wall hangings and the like.
This was the first find. We found this awesome antique brass lamp at a local thrift store.
Have you ever met one of those little kids with a crazy great-grandparent style name? You look at them, and think why? Why would you give that kid such an old name like that. Then you see the kid in with other kids. You hear how cute it is for the other kids to use the old grandparent style name, and before you know it, you realize that you actually LOVE the old name too. I present to you the lamp equivalent. Señor Hotness found this sucker at the store, and fell in love. I was totally skeptical and judgy about it. However, the beauty of having a room furnished with a bunch of vintage pieces is sometimes you can get away with mixing it up with vintage decor from different eras. Once we put it in the room I knew it was a great fit. Especially sandwiched between my two vintage freebie chairs.
I found these lamps at the same thrift store.
These things are solid antique brass. I know they are actual antiques because this brass is HEAVY.
I've always hated brass, but I have discovered that I love it when it has that awesome antique aged patina on it.
As always the Pheebs was more than eager to have her photo taken, and it was too cute not to share.
We needed something bigger to store the extra sheet music we had floating around because the bench just wasn't cutting it. So I decided to grab some of the many crates we have at our house. So I made a small crate shelf simply by stacking them. They aren't glued or nailed so when we move we can reuse them as it, or I can reconfigure them some other way. The top one holds the music, and the bottom one is the perfect size for the garbage can.
How much better does it look after I committed to some wall hangings? I ended up moving the awesome clock as well simply because Michael likes to prop open the top of the piano when he plays. Apparently it makes it sound better.
I found this fantastic large S at Hobby Lobby. This was marked down 50% off the original price. I loved that it was a fun funky hammered metal finish. Everything about it was smart and wonderful...except for hanging it. It hangs by two holes, but they aren't level. So using a large piece of paper I measured out the holes. What I forgot to do was then turn the paper over backwards when drilling the holes. This was the outcome.
Spoiler alert...I fixed it. It looked so awesome above this vintage table that I got for my birthday. Eventually I'm going to paint the bottom of the table, but honestly I have been so insanely busy that it hasn't happened yet. I'm thinking it probably won't happen until after we've moved. Also the clock looks WAY better on this table. My mom bought me that clock for my birthday when I was 24. I have moved it with us so many times, but its never looked as great as it does sitting there.
Above the couch is my faux architectural salvage piece that just adds to the funk and flair of the room.
The dominate color in the room is a turquoise-y blue, but it has splashes of red, gold and the warm browns of my dark stain pieces. Somehow everything seems to work together to give it a warm and welcoming space. Perfect for entertaining friends.
So I tallied up the total spent on furniture and accessories for this room, and they came to a grand total of approximately $525 dollars. I didn't include the cost of the piano, or of any of the furnishings that we've had for years that found themselves back in this room. I have always been very blessed to find fantastic pieces that are discounted, free, or things that need a little work. Its not hard to bring together a room on a budget if you are willing to do the work yourself, and put in the sweat equity needed to bring a project home. So get out there and make something pretty.
No comments:
Post a Comment