These Curbside Finds May Look Like Trash, but They Also Might Be Just Right for Your Next Living Room Bar
No matter what your home decor budget is, there’s truly nothing better than scoring something for free. If you can’t put a zero-cost piece to use as-is, don’t worry. That’s because talented DIYers can always find craft ways to turn curbside trash into treasures for the home, and you can follow in their footsteps. In a recent Apartment Therapy house tour, one artist turned a few super-shabby curbside finds into a very chic bar, and it’s a look you can potentially replicate with cast-offs in your home, too.
Meet Champagne, a color-loving mural artist and content creator living in a 2000-square-foot tri-plex home with her two roommates in Hollywood, California. Champagne’s design style is bold and offbeat, and she’s filled her home with funky, one-of-a-kind items. “I love mixing modern pieces with vintage,” she says. “I’d call this place a colorfully eclectic mix of happiness.”
Champagne’s only been in her home a year, and one of her biggest challenges was actually filling the space, since she had come from a much smaller one-bedroom apartment. “When we first moved in, we didn’t have very much seating or furniture,” she says. She wanted to entertain and have company over, but she had to get her place guest-ready first — and on a budget. That means she had to get creative with furnishing. To that end, one of the coolest ways Champagne filled a blank wall and added a spot for congregating in her place was through turning an old credenza and vanity cabinet into a super-chic bar area. “I actually found these for free on the side of the road,” she says of her secondhand setup, pictured below.
After bringing the mismatched pieces in disrepair home, Champagne gave them a little TLC. First, she sanded them down then painted them the same shade of blue so they looked like a pair and replaced the hardware. Finally, she pushed the credenza against the wall and mounted the vanity above it to create this perfect little cozy corner for entertaining. A lounge chair and martini table round out the setup.
Inside the mirrored vanity cabinet lies a fun little surprise, too. “I also took some old Gucci wallpaper that I scored from someone who was just throwing it away and put it inside the cabinet,” Champagne says. “It was so much fun to take something so shabby looking and transform it into a custom Gucci bar for basically nothing!”
For Champagne, the size of this apartment makes it the perfect place to host guests, and it wouldn’t be complete with this DIY bar situation. This is a perfect example of one person’s trash being another person’s treasure. Along those lines, Champagne’s absolute best piece of decorating advice is not to be scared to DIY things. “You’ll save so much money,” she says. “And a lot of times, you’ll end up creating something super-unique that no one else will have.”