I think I’m done!!!  Since moving into my apartment, I have been spending all of my extra cash and time to completely furnish a bare space.  And after nearly four months working diligently and hunting out furniture from every yard sale and second hand shop available I think I’m finally done!!!!!  Now I have to accessorize and rearrange furniture and boy do I have some ideas about that. 

I’m still getting used to paying all of the bills and it has been tough trying to do that and furnish an apartment.  Because I’m doing this on my own with a limited budget I have not been able to go into a store and buy something new.  Along with that, I love love love to take classic pieces of furniture and see how they can work with my design ideas and become the pieces of furniture that I need even though they may not be exactly what I need.  I am so proud of my work and I would love to get someone else’s opinions.

Let’s talk about what I did.  The cost for all the furniture in that room added up to be around $400.  My color scheme for that room is supposed to be black & white with bold splashes of chartreuse. The only thing that was bought new is my fabulous sofa. 

It is actually a sleeper sofa that reminds me of a futon, but the salesperson at the store insisted it was not a futon.  I don’t care what it is the color screamed to me to get it and it didn’t hurt that it was on sale.  My coffee table was a $15 yard sale find.  The original color was honey maple with a rustic set of drawer handles that were shaped like tree branches.  I switched out the handles with chartreuse knobs purchased at Hobby Lobby for $1.50/each and painted the table a high gloss black.  The white tray came from Target for $2.  Unfortunately Kristian decided to bring her honey laden biscuit and placed it on the table.  When I went to clean it up, some of the paint came off and I need to do some touch up.  But I love how great it turned out. 

My ottoman was a great Goodwill find (Thank you so much Mommy for the great find, I was at work when she came across the table and I had her grab it up for me.) for under $10.  I had been looking at ottoman’s for nearly two months and I was coming to conclusion that I was going to have to make this purchase at retail price.  The ottoman was navy blue micro suede in really good condition.  I didn’t need navy blue, I needed black, white or chartreuse.  I will upholster a piece of furniture in a minute and have done so in the past if I can figure it out.  This was a storage ottoman so it wasn’t going to be easy as taking a piece of fabric and pulling it tight around a frame and stapling. After careful consideration and online research (where would we be without the web?)  I work decided to do my ottoman in two types of fabric vinyl and micro suede all in shades of black.  It turned out great.  I still need to clean up the inside where the fabric was stapled (I’m going to use chartreuse ribbon/fabric to make a band around where the staples are.) but the combination of the fabrics turned out awesome.  After I was finished with the upholstery I felt that I needed something more to incorporate more of the color scheme.  I purchased white upholstery nails and placed them along the sides of the ottoman.  I think the finished product came out great. 

My chair was a $30 yard sale find.  I had decided that I needed a chair in my room but had no idea where to find the type that I was looking for.  You know how it is when you have a vision of what you are looking for, but have no idea where to get it?  That was how my chair situation was.  I saw the chair in my mind, but looking at stores online and also going to stores, I could not find it.  There was a community yard sale near my husbands house that I decided to go and see what I could see.  I had $40 cash and I was determined to not spend anymore than that.  I purchased a mirror and some storage stuff for my mom.  I had $30 left and ran across the exact design I had in my mind, but the owner was asking $50.  I asked her if she would take $30 but she said she already had an offer for $45 so she turned me down.  At that point I can only say that God had a knew my heart and it was stuck on that chair because just as we were about to walk away and keep looking (and I had stood around mooning over that chair for about 10 minutes)  the owner walked up to me and said that she felt that she should sell me the chair for $30.  We worked hard to get it into my trusty Escape and get it my apartment;  you should have seen us.  My plan is to cover it with a black slipcover.  Below you can see the pictures of my furniture.  I was doing laundry and forgot to remove the basket in the back ground when I took the picture of the ottoman.  I will continue the with the rest of the furniture pieces in the next blog.