apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I furnished, stocked, and decorated (if you can separate the three) my new apartment for around $550. It's cute too!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1682767&l=7e9e5&id=500186656

Paint is often toted as the cheap decorating fix, but I am lately a big fan of textiles. I've made a pillow cover in the last year; used an awesome $8 Indian tapestry from Jackson Heights, Queens, NY as a sofa cover, bought an antique rag rug for $40 at a local salvage warehouse; and got great urban outfitters curtains on sale. Old curtains can be used for pillow covers, to drape a table or file cabinet, etc. Plants, as well as ceramic pots from here and there, can also be a cheap change. These are just ways to satisfy that fix and give a room new life...

Great job Erica on being both fiscally and design savvy! This little corner of your world looks lovely and homey.

my husband and i were commenting last night on how every single item in our home minus the mattress was purchased from craigslist, ikea or goodwill/other thrift stores. i have absolutely no desire to spend more than $100 for any one piece in my home and enjoy the challenge of making a space while being budget and earth friendly. i wish AT featured more homes with re-used items and re-purposed goods.

I recently discovered I could save approximately $350 - $400/month by taking my lunch to work rather than eating out in restaurants (I'm not a fast-food fan). In doing so, I will soon have saved enough to pay cash for a new sofa for my apartment. Yes! A new sofa in approximately 4 months without any significant lifestyle reduction.

Also, I'm with you , Tara. I too love textiles and am always amazed at how ridiculously expensive decorative pillows have become. Using forms from old pillows and perusing remnants in fabric stores is a great way to cut the costs of new throw pillows. And you don't have to be a great seamstress to pull it off.

My favorite AT tip has always been "shop at home." I'm continually surprising myself by repurposing things I already have. I completely remade my guest room with odds and ends that I thought would end up on craigslist [to help pay for other purchases I made for other parts of the house.]

And, ultimately, in the end, spending just a little more for quality (or buying quality pre-owned) always makes for something that lasts and satisfies for much longer.

I do have a regret of late though. I remade my bedroom around a headboard I fell in love with and wish I'd considered that romance a little longer before I committed. I now wish I'd gone with my first instinct. It would have saved me a huge chunk of cash in the rest of my redesign.

As admirable as that sounds, magen, I can't really agree with everything.

As a college student who has a limited budget I too was able to furnish my house (along with my roommates) with everything from Craigslist and IKEA. Some things I bought on Craigslist I've actually turned around and sold for a profit of about 5 times as much (which is another good money-earning tactic. If you keep a close eye on Craigslist you can find some amazing deals that you could turn around instantly to resell and make a lot of money).

Anyway, there are some things, however, that I later splurged on because there are definitely things in your house worth more than $100. 'You save on some things so you can splurge on others', is my thinking.

I'd like to second the notion of car-sharing. I've been a member of City CarShare, which is nonprofit, for 3 1/2 years and they've been great. I probably average about 4 trips a month and my bills are almost always under what the monthly price of insurance would be. Plus, gas and insurance are included and I never have to worry about parking tickets or maintenance/incidental costs.

I'm a grad student, and I'm sure that if I had to pay for owning a car I couldn't have my own cute little apartment :-)

http://www.citycarshare.org/

Now that I'm out of college, I have started storage for my "shop at home" decorating. So, yeah store it away to re-use in the future is my decorating budget tip. Even art that I've made myself that doesn't seem to have a place right now.

We just moved. Across the country. And due to some rather lax...well, everything on the part of the movers we have an over-abundance of boxes and a totalled car.

The number of boxes has led us with the desire to scale back our belongings, and the sudden removal of a car from our insurance policy has spurred us to action: we are going to be a one car couple. We moved from the city to the suburbs, though, and husband has a bit of a commute and I'm still in that "just moved in" phase of needing to run out for things like salt and cold medicine (yay) so he's experimenting with public transport and cycling. But the money we'll save on gas and insurance alone will be a help.

Also - I've found that recovering is a great start to redecorating. Instead of new throw pillows for our master bed, I just got pillow covers (saved a good $20 each) and when we decide on a color scheme our VERY structurally sound couch will be recovered.

While I agree that purchasing second-hand is a money-saver, so is investing in a piece that will last long enough to become an heirloom. Not needing to replace something (careless movers aside) is the biggest money saver of all.

Also: the "it was on sale, look how much I saved" doesn't work if it's money you didn't need to be spending in the first place. So says my Grandmother, at least, which I think might make it law...


http://embritadesign.blogspot.com

car sharing is great. If you're in Vancouver (Canada, not Washington), check out the cooperative auto network (www.cooperativeauto.net). It worked wonders for us for a number of years, even WITH kids!

Thrift shops for household things and kids' clothes; dollarama for other household things (wooden spoons, photo frames, craft supplies, garbage cans, you name it, they've got it for 1$); using beans and lentils in cooking; shopping the grocery store early on a Sunday morning when the half price deals are still available....hanging clothes on the line rather than the dryer (saves energy and makes clothes last longer), cloth diapers (not a service), public transit/walking/biking, skype for long distance calls (if you've already got a computer at home that you can use for this)...

And then there are the basics: take care of the stuff you've got and you won't have to replace it.

Your wallscape...is beautiful!! ...makes your apartment your home/style unique to you!..and the bookcase is def. fun!

I'm all about Ikea stuff - if you get the right things, you can make it look really good without putting in all the cost. For example, I did my office area with Ikea stuff that looked almost exactly like the things from The Container Store but at a fraction of the cost (I did buy the shelving at the Container Store, but it cost less than $300 for the shelves. The drawers were additional.)
http://www.fromsingletomarried.com/2009/01/07/you-can-do-it-getting-organized/

I also like DIY projects such as making your own pillows out of silk scaves: http://www.eddieross.com/eddie_ross/2009/01/designer-diy.html. Saves a lot of money that way. (Btw - Eddie's site is fantastic as he shows you lots of ways to refurbish items found at flea markets.)

Ride your bike to work.
Get involved with a good local food share to save $$ on produce - or better yet, volunteer to help at the local food share so you can get free produce.
Throw your tv away.
Get rid of your land line.
Share your internet with your neighbor(s) to split the costs.
Make sure your home is well insulated.

THEN you can decorate with less stress and a little more pocket change.

I'm flattered you wrote about my article, thanks guys!

Craigslist and eBay - I've been buying vintage furniture and upholstery fabric for years and stashing it away...
...and when I received my year-end bonus I called the local upholsterer to come and take my chairs and fabric to have the chairs redone/repaired and draperies made - I can't wait to see how they turn out!

Oh, and I've been living without a car for the past 10 years - it's the best thing I've ever done and has allowed me to decorate and travel more extensively than I'd have ever imagined I could.

i wish LA had a great bus system like San Francisco! That would make it easier for so many people and especially students that just can't afford cars & insurance.

Regarding Grandma's Law: "Also: the "it was on sale, look how much I saved" doesn't work if it's money you didn't need to be spending in the first place. So says my Grandmother, at least, which I think might make it law..."

My version is: no matter how cheap it is, even FREE, if you don't have an immediate known use for it, don't get it.

I tend to fall in love with stuff and think, "I NEED that." then I get it home and it's more clutter. Which I end up taking to the consignment shop and sometimes losing money on. (Although I have made profits there, too -- not so much now that they keep 50% of the selling price, which they set, however...)

Now I require that I think it through. If it's funiture, where will it go TODAY? (Sure, it might be useful "some day" but what about until then?) If it's a collectible or something, do I REALLY love it or is it just another thing that fits my collection? I don't allow myself to buy it unless it surpasses just "fitting in". It takes discipline after a lifetime of buying on impulse and getting absurd bargains, but now I have no place to store things, so gotta do it. (The after Christmas sales of 75-80% off are killing me this year -- but no place to store those cheap but pretty wreaths etc.)

Enjoy design vicariously by doodling around AT for hours

Personally, I don't find Ikea that thrifty. Other than my kitchen cabinets, I don't think any piece has lasted more than 5 years.

Try http://www.freecycle.org
You'll be amazed at the things people give away. And when you get tired of a piece of furniture or throw pillows - you can give them away to someone else.

I've gotten miscellaneous plates for a plate wall collection, baby jars for craft projects, and big pieces of glass to make into coffee tables. I've given away a laptop computer, several pieces of furniture, and tons of old picture frames and half used bottles of perfume.