Ways To Save Money Decorating Your Living Room

If you’re feeling overwhelmed or surprised by the cost to totally furnish your living room with all new decor and accessories, I have some great secrets for you. Use these thrifty tips to save money and love your new space.

SAVE MONEY DECORATING your living room tips

Shop Vintage

Buying vintage pieces is the best way to get quality furniture on a dime. Whether you get it from local garage and estate sales or check the local flea market, shopping used saves money.

Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist both have amazing finds for low prices. Let’s go over what to search for and to find it.

Where to Shop

Ebay
Etsy
Chairish
Facebook Marketplace
Instagram
Local furniture consigment stores
Antique Shops/Malls

What to look for:

Use the search feature of Marketplace and Craigslist to find furniture in your style. An example of terms I frequently use are: coffee table, sideboard, dresser, chippendale, dining table and chairs, wicker, rattan, woven, area rug, table lamps, end tables, side table, occasional chair, living room chair, sofa table, console table, entry table.

In your search you can add terms like traditional, modern, farmhouse, vintage, wood, and colorful to specify what you are looking for.

Narrow it down

Start with broad search terms and narrow it down. When looking at the photos and descriptions look for solid wood pieces, not a lot of damage, smooth surfaces/sides, working drawers, no huge chips.

Don’t worry about small dings, missing paint, ugly knobs and pulls or darks stained wood. All of these things can easily be repaired with a little bit of DIY love, wood putty, paint and new hardware.

I cannot tell you what amazing pieces I have found on Facebook marketplace for under $100 that rehab into wonderful additions to any room of your house.

Ebay

Ebay checks all the boxes for budget friendly decor. Because furniture is expensive to ship, I tend to stick to buying original or reprint artwork, lamps, vases, table decor, candlesticks, oil paintings, pillow covers, and rugs.

If you are in the market for a vintage rug, Ebay has beautiful turkish rugs that easily layer over a woven area rug to give your room a sophisticated, collected look.

Instagram Shops

We all go to Instagram for pretty things and finding vintage inspired decor is no different. When you don’t have a nearby flea market or antique mall, head over to instagram for online shops that hold weekly sales. Use the hashtag feature to search for #vintage #chic #vintagesale

I have ordered many plates, vases, jars, trays, pendant and chandelier lights, front porch decor pieces, and tchotchkes for my handmade dog and cat collections.

Things look best in pairs and groups, so when shopping for accessories, buy groups of like things in different sizes and heights.

Don’t worry about buying them in sets, just stick to the same type items (from different sellers) so that it is a collection of like things, not too many small, random pieces that don’t pair well together.

Painting Furniture

On this note, painting furniture goes hand in hand with buying vintage. So whether you buy it at a yard sale or on Facebook Marketplace, a little bit of sanding and painting goes a really long way to making $50 look like an expensive piece of furniture.

See how I painted a bathroom vanity for a magazine worthy makeover.

BEST PLACES TO BUY LIVING ROOM DECOR

To wrap things up for this post on the cost of decorating your living room, I’ll leave you with a list of places I like to shop for home decor. Aim for a mix of high and low items.

FURNITURE

Budgets can be tricky. Money is tough subject to talk about and the reality of what you can afford can leave you feeling bummed out.

Don’t feel defeated- shopping second had is a great way to buy really nice, high quality, timeless pieces of furniture and decor at a fraction of the cost.

Need help finding the perfect selections for your home, become a client. Online or in person.