Decorating My New House: Craigslist and Clearance finds for "The Wine Cellar"

In case we don't personally know each other, I'm a college senior at Bradley University and this year I'm renting an off-campus house with four of my best friends. The house is old, but we've made a major effort to decorate it as cute as possible (and for the least amount of money!). On my campus, it's a tradition to name your house and the name gets passed down with the house if other members of your sorority or fraternity rent the same house the following year. We are the first Sigma Kappas to live in this particular house so we got to re-name it! Let me show you some of the cute things I've done for my room, kitchen, and living room in The Wine Cellar!

First of all-Craigslist.org is AMAZING. A real lifesaver when you have to completely furnish a house, especially a college house where you don't want to buy expensive things quite yet. I'm also a big fan of upcycling old, used furniture. With just a few small changes a piece can go from shabby to chic so easily! 

Here's a few examples of my "upcycled" furniture and Craigslist finds. 

Ikea chair: originally $199 at Ikea, bought for $20 on Craigslist

Matching ottoman: $5

Desk: Free! This desk was originally garbage-picked by my grandma in the 1950's. It started as a flat black paint, then a funky pale green in the 60's, a screaming electric yellow in the 70's, white with country flowers stenciled from the 80's-90's where it lived in my little girl room, then a nautical navy blue for our basement, and finally back to classic black for my college house! We spiced it up with cute clearance knobs from Hobby Lobby for $1 each. 

Dresser: Also free! This was another roadside find that got spray-painted black and some new knobs. We also lined the drawers with cute wrapping paper. 

Scalloped edge bedside table: Free from my Great-Grandma's house, then painted black and topped with an old lamp and $5 lampshade from Craigslist.

Chair: This was an old, nasty orange chair from my grandparents' old house and my mom sewed a slipcover from a treated painter's dropcloth for $6

Pillows: Made from clearance printed duck from Hobby Lobby or muslin fabric from our sewing box at home and recycled pillow forms. 12 pillows for under $12!

Coat Hooks: This shelf came from my grandma's house as well-it didn't have coat hooks and was an ugly oak, so we painted it and added hooks. It still needs artwork on top.

More clearance finds came from my favorite store, Hobby Lobby. My mom and I were shopping and happened to come across an 80% off home decor section. I found 3 adorable prints for my kitchen! The "Kitchen" print only cost me $9 and the two square prints ended up being $6 apiece. 

I know the pictures are a little dark, but you get the idea.