May 24, 2011
Being Fashionable at Home
When you’re young you don’t have a whole lot of say over how your room or
house looks. That’s largely up to your parents. You can put up posters, sure,
but as long as you’re dependent upon your folks’ wallet, they call the shots at
the homestead.
Things get a little better at college but even there, you’re confined by the
layout and furniture in your dorm room, as well as whatever rules the school
has about what can and cannot be placed on walls, etc.
It’s easy, after having to wait for more than two decades to make your own
decisions, to go overboard on your first apartment. Before you drop all of your
savings on that sweet entertainment system or that fancy cooking stuff, though,
here are a few tips that you can use to stretch your budget.
1. Fashion Matters….Not
Obviously, you
careabout fashion. This is true both of your person and your home. Remember,
though, that you want to feel comfortable in your home. More importantly, you
want to feel like you can use your home. A home is meant to be lived in; you
don’t want your fashion consciousness to lock you into furniture that you’re
afraid to sit on because you don’t want to mess it up.
Still—spending time looking at home fashion sites and catalogs is a good
idea. It can help you find inspiration for your own home.
2. The Basics
Start with the things you actually need: a bed, a comfortable place to sit
and tools for food (making and eating). These are the areas where splurging is
a good idea because you want to have quality furniture. You’ll also want to
make sure that your linens are of high quality as well. To stretch your budget,
check out some of the deals at
BBS.
3. Creative Stretching
If you’re in a studio, you’ll find that your bed is going to take up most of
your living space and that’s okay. If you’re lucky enough to have a separate
living room, though, figuring out how to furnish all that space can be
stressful. Here are some hints to help you get what you need without breaking
your budget:
- For housing guests, instead of a pull out couch, get a
futon. Futons can be folded to function as couches and laid flat to be
beds and cost about half what a pull out couch would cost.
- Milk crates can be stacked into fantastic shelves and
end tables. Talk to your local grocer about getting some of theirs because
they are sturdier than the kind you can find in stores. Spray paint them
to fit in with your home’s color scheme.
- Make Your Own! DIY is very in right now and there are all sorts of books and websites that can
help you do everything from learning how to make your own throw pillows to
creating your own “etched” glassware. Making your own decorative items is
a good skill to have (you might even be able to monetize it to earn some
extra money) and will save you lots of money.
Have you recently moved into your first place? What were some of the things
you did to create a unique and fashionable space with a limited budget?
