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My $450 Living Room Makeover Using Second Hand Furniture

Recently I’ve been a lot more interested in the eco-friendly ways to furnish my home on a budget.

Maybe it started from my furniture flipping side hustle, but I started to see how many great pieces get donated, sold, and trashed when we change our style.

So when I was ready to retire my old white sectional, with a tear on it, I started shopping around.

I hopped on some websites and found a few pieces that I was obsessing over… the only problem was it was crazy expensive!

My Living Room Vision

I found these gorgeous chairs from Article for $699 each. I wanted two of them for my living room, so I was looking at a total of

The chairs I wanted from Article were $699 each.

Then I started looking for a linen white colored sofa. (My personal style for right now tends to be a bit more contemporary/comfy with muted colors.)

I wanted something pretty plain and simple. I saw a ton of options from $500-$3,000 for a freaking couch.

One couch that fit in line with what I was looking for was $1,000+ on Overstock.com

Honestly, at that time, I couldn’t justify the cost and know that furniture has a huge markup so I decided to get creative and see what I could find second hand or from thrift stores.

My Thrifty Finds

I started looking on Facebook Marketplace and low and behold I found these chairs for $400. These were such a perfect dupe of the Article chairs that I didn’t even negotiate a lower price. LOL! (Which is very unlike me.)

Found a set of two of these chairs for $400 on Facebook Marketplace.

Next I started looking around for a couch. I found this one on Facebook Marketplace for $250. I asked if they were flexible on the price and they said they would take $200.

My second hand couch found for $200 on Facebook Marketplace.

Both the couch and chairs were in incredible shape with no stains and no tears.

Here are a couple more shots of the living room all pieced together.

I was able to sell my old sectional for $150, so the total out of pocket cost for me to refurnish my living room was $450! I saved almost $2,000 by just shopping used!

  • Love my electric fireplace? I built it and you can too! Learn more about it here.

Next time you go to redo your home, get creative, patient and look at thrift stores and on Facebook Marketplace.

I promise, if you stay patient– you will find something that fits your budget and makes your space look brand new.

What Else To Look For at Thrift Stores

Keep your eyes open for home decor items from thrift stores as well. You can find all kinds of treasures. With a simple can of spray paint, you can transform almost anything.

Look for lamps, end tables, candlesticks, random accent pieces, or even blankets (don’t worry, you can wash them).

I recently found a candle from a local candle shop that sell the most amazing scents. This candle was brand new and only $1.99.

My thrifted candle for $1.99. Smells amazing and didn’t break the bank.

Next time you go to give your space a transformation, I hope you look for used first before buying brand new. It’s good for the environment and budget friendly!

Happy decorating!

Whitney

Have you refinished your space using thrifted/second hand pieces? Tell me about your favorite finds!

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Life

Comments

  1. Trisha G says

    June 9, 2020 at 12:18 am

    I’ve been painting and furnishing my kids’ rooms this year, and paint and curtains have been the most expensive bit so far, though I did find a gallon of really dark gray paint from the ReStore for $10. I mixed a little of it with some white I already had have a ton left (I’m thinking my bathroom may need to be gray, too, lol). I bought a desk from FB for $15 (already red like my boy wanted so didn’t have to paint it), a bookshelf for $4 and a dresser for $5 at yard sales, two more bookshelves for FREE from my neighbor who is getting ready to move, and I made my own curtain rods from electric conduits and some hardware, two of them for $10. It’s taking longer to piece it all together, but it’s better than staying white and boring because I don’t want to fork over 100s of dollars all at once.

    Once they’re all done, I’m going to work on finding a desk, bookcase, and two side tables for MY room, all thrifted and made over with my own personsl touch, of course.

    Your livingroom looks great! Very classy.

    • Whitney Hansen says

      June 16, 2020 at 3:33 pm

      Yes! Excited to see what you come up with.

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Whitney Hansen | Money Coach
Paying off debt is an awesome thing to do... And Paying off debt is an awesome thing to do...

And you can go at whatever pace works for your life.

There’s a huge misconception that you have to go “balls to the wall”, work every extra shift you can, AND do it all while never complaining.

That’s one way to do it. It’s not THE way.

In actuality, personality types and self-awareness is a huge factor when setting your level of aggressiveness.

✨For me personally- I function very well on short timelines where I can hustle my heart out and accomplish it quickly (so I don’t have to worry about it again). My debt payoff plan was very aggressive to pay off $30k in 10 months.

✨For some of my coaching clients- that doesn’t resonate with them. They want to make progress towards their debt and still buy some of the nonessentials even if that means keeping debt around for a couple extra years.

✖️Neither strategy is wrong.✖️

Approach debt payoff (and all financial goals) with a loooot of self-awareness. 

Being honest with your personality type and how you function best is a great way to not get burned out in the process.
The book I, by far, recommend most is The Power of The book I, by far, recommend most is The Power of Habit.

It’s one of those books that helped me improve my finances, relationships and coaching business.

No surprise, we all have habit loops that help us or hurt us.

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✨REWARD: Warm cup of coffee. Didn’t have to dive into email... yet. 😆

What I wanted was not coffee. It was avoiding checking my email. So instead, I was able to take a short gratitude walk in the morning instead of buying coffee.

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Look through your life. What is one habit loop you’re actively improving?

Use this strategy and watch your life change. 💕
My goal is to invest more money in my brokerage ac My goal is to invest more money in my brokerage account. 

So I created a fun Investing Challenge for myself.

💸I set up a $5,000 goal for investing
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Comment below if you want to join me in investing more this year!
I *might* have enough money for a (unusable at the I *might* have enough money for a (unusable at the moment) ✈️ plane ticket for every time I have heard someone say they:

✖️Pay for a monthly service
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Or make any other financial decision solely because their parent told them to.

It’s not only okay, it’s healthy to make financial decisions based on what’s best for YOU. 

And sometimes that means going against the grain of what works for your parents or friends.
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