Decorating With Vintage Finds

We finally hit a huge milestone this last August, as our oldest flew the coup and started college. 😥 We're so proud of her and she's adjusting wonderfully and excelling in her new stage in life. I'm totally a sad Mama too, but like most I like to distract myself from not having her around daily. Now don't be too sad for me, she chose a college in town so I still get to see her often. 😅

So back to why I'm writing this blog post! We'll eventually be moving and I've been busy trying to get the inside of our house ready for sale. This has been a larger undertaking than we anticipated when we bought our house 8 years ago. Things have progressed slower than I would have like, but it is what it is!

We moved her into college and I thought now's the time I'm going to finish this room. I had two goals with this space, one I wanted it to be as inexpensive as possible by using vintage decor. Two, I wanted to give her a more sophisticated and cozy space to stay on holidays breaks, along with any other company we might have over.

So first on the list was remove the nasty, outdated carpet. While revoving the carpet we found that out parquet flooring was not complete. We had about 1/3 of the room with plywood subflooring. 😣 Y'all I'm pretty used to this happening because our home was built in the fifties and there's always surprises when we start projects.

So after searching for a few weeks, we finally found enough vintage parquet flooring that was in the budget. Fast forward another two weeks, we now have the parquet flooring redone in all the rooms of our home. Doing things yourself is a huge money saver! I won't lie it's hard work, and I've had to get comfortable with things I thought I'd never do. However the money saving totally makes up for it! 💯

*Remodeling Tip: Always check your local Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace app for construction materials. We found our flooring in Craigslist.

Now here's a run down of the furniture I selected. All the furniture is vintage in this room. Through a friend, I got word that someone was selling a whole french provincial bedroom suite for $200. Um yes, that's a fabulous deal, so off I went to grab it all up. This included the bed, two nightstands, a long dresser and a matching chair. Everthing got a fresh coat of paint, using my favorite paint, Country Chic Paints in the color Simplicity.

After arranging the room, I decided I couldn't use the long dresser or the chair in this space, because it was too small a space for it all to fit. So the long dresser and chair made their way to my Antique shop.

I had an Antique dresser waiting to go to the booth, so I chose to use it in here. I love the details on this piece so it was a match made in heaven. When you're decorating a space always choose pieces you love, who cares if it doesn't 100% match. I made these feel cohesive by painting then the same color.

I might be a little obsessed with brass, if I see it, I usually buy it. Plus its readily available at flea markets, antique shops, estate sales and so on. I also believe a space needs a few metallic touches. Just so happens I love brass and have plenty of it. So this was something I had on hand and didn't cost me extra.

I love this darling brass thermometer. I found this at a local estate sale.

This cutie I found at a local Flea Market I frequent. It's not brass, but the rust patina went nicely with the other brass accents. If you're local, you have to go see the girls at Market At The Mural in Waskom, TX.

One of my best kept secrets, is I never spend money on new lamps! Vintage lamps are so inexpensive, and again they're readily available almost anywhere you shop for second hand. I will pop a new shade on them to give them and updated, trendy look. Target's always got this girl covered when it comes to beautiful shades. ❤

Last but not least, are my fabic choices. I'm a neutral girl, so that was a must. But I needed some color because white on white can be cold and sterile feeling. Fabrics give you the choice to inexpensively change themes when the need arises.

We started with my daughters old quilt, which I chose to reuse, so that was a savings. I won't lie the pillows, rug and throw blanket, I went to five million stores. Okay maybe it was only 5 stores but finally my last stop had what I was looking for. Not to mention I did use a "phone a friend" and called my bestie for advice. I was teetering the edge of going with a much darker pillow choice. So glad I called her. 😂

So your probably wondering where I got the pillows and throw from? Well the winner was Home Goods! They had the size pillows I was looking for, for far less. Apparently euro sized pillows are ridiculously expensive. The larger textured pillows were $30 each, the smaller velvet, soft blue, lumbar pillow was around $25 and the velvety fur throw was $30. Oh and that rug, I picked it up for $90 at Walmart. It's not the right size for the space but I made it work by adding a mat in front of the nightstand I happened to have laying around.

Okay I know this may seem like a huge splurge for some. But remember other than buying the vintage furniture, everything else was laying around my home. So far I think this whole room cost me less than $600 to finish.

There's one last thing I want to talk about, and that is these curtains. These curtains are special to me because they were my grandmother's. It makes me so happy to walk in there and think of her, plus they are beautiful lace. I also put some in my bedroom as well.

Here's a photo of four generations of women in my family. Sadly, my Great Grandmother and Grandmother have passed. I'm so blessed I got to know these, fun loving women. Seriously they always had us smiling or laughing. But I keep their photo here as a reminder of their smiles and their big hearts! I wish my daughter could have gotten to know them, she would have loved them. ❤

Well that about wraps up the room tour. I hope your enjoyed reading this post and that it helped you think outside the box with saving, while decorating. Also Let me know what vintage you've decorated with, I love to see what y'all are up to.

Lots of love!

Leigh ❤