HOW TO...Live in A Fabulous Bargain Bachelorette Pad!

I pride myself on having an excellent shopping sense. The evidence, I believe, is my wardrobe--such as my six beloved pairs of Jessica Simpson shoes, each pair costing me under $30, or my "I can't believe it's not leather" jacket, only $13.99, or the countless amounts of clothes I've found on Ebay. However, as of late, my closet isn't the only aspect of my life benefiting from my razor-sharp bargain-hunting skills.

I have spent my life in a series of "convenient" home decor. I lived in a dorm room throughout undergraduate, with a bedroom full of old junk still at both my mom's house and my dad's house. Upon moving into my first real apartment when I entered graduate school, I simply brought along a sampling of said junk from each of those rooms and dumped into a new apartment, along with some cheap furniture pieces I found at a Habitat for Humanity ReStore and some hand-me-down pieces from my late grandmother. The result? I looked like I lived in a never-ending garage sale. Nothing matched. Nothing was new. That cheap furniture was quickly made to look even cheaper, thanks to my pets. But what could I do? I thought to myself, "I can't afford nice things. I can't afford new things." I scanned the local Goodwill on a weekly basis, hoping I'd stumble into some amazing find. Occasionally, if I spotted a deal at the Family Dollar, I'd snatch it up, regardless of whether or not I actually needed the sale item. And my apartment became overstocked with mismatched picture frames and broke-down furniture--like my infamous leaning bookcase, which I laughed off to guests as a "Betelgeuse piece." Also, I knew it dissatisfied guests that my two TVs were small, 15-year-old sets my parents had donated to me, instead of anything worth watching.

Last June, I moved from my first apartment into an older, but very charming, historic home, which many say looks like a castle. (See a pic of my building.) I had an amazing apartment on the first floor, with arched door frames and real hardwood floors. But all this old junk made this incredible interior architecture look, well, junky. Even with an incredible new set-up, I didn't want people over at my apartment. And so I thought, "I've got to do something." I anticipated saving up lots of money to redecorate my apartment, so I began scouting items I'd eventually buy. And you know what I discovered? I didn't have to wait! A fresh, adorable new apartment was completely affordable already! So with that lengthy introduction, let me show you how my I re-invented my new dream pad!

1.) A New Place to Lounge

Total Cost to Revamp: $220

Take a peek at my old living room set. As I mentioned, I purchased the love seat ($100) and arm chair ($50) from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, and they very quickly showed just how "used" they were after my dogs began sleeping on them. I desperately needed a new couch--something that wasn't already beat down from a previous owner, and something bigger than my loveseat, on which I could actually stretch out while watching TV. Some time in March, I was browsing the clearance furniture section at Big Lots and found a brand-new couch for $200. One of the legs of the couch had broken, so they sawed off the other three and were selling it for 50% of the original price. $200 for a large, new sofa--especially one soooooo comfortable!!--was too good of a deal to pass up. Almost six months later, the couch still looks and feels brand-new, and is the perfect replacement for my used loveseat/arm chair combo. I found some fashionable pillows at Wal-Mart for $6.99 each, and tossed all those red hand-me-downs behind the couch for sleepovers. And, look, the pets can lounge all they want without me having to worry it'll collapse under them! ;)

2.) A New Entertainment

Total Cost to Revamp: $700 - $800

As I mentioned earlier, my very small, old-fashioned TVs were not impressive for company. I had acquired a few amazing accessories--like a VCR/DVR combo, and some awesome stereo surround speakers hooked up to a turntable--but it was still somewhat unenjoyable without a clear, large TV screen. I hunted around, and WalMart.com (yes, the website, not the actual stores) always had the best deal. I purchased a 40" LCD HDTV with 1080P for just $399. Although that specific deal is not available at this time, there are many other great steals on the Wal-Mart website. I also purchased a refurbished Wii bundle from Best Buy's online Outlet Center for just $129.99 and some extremely cheap games from Ebay, all with free shipping--House of the Dead 2 & 3 ($4.99), the amazing Beatles Rock Band bundle ($130), and the Wii Fit bundle ($35). I also found extra controllers and Wii accessories on Ebay with free shipping, all under $10, and began subscribing to Netflix so I could have Netflix Instant on Wii. I also purchased a barely used PS2 bundle for my bedroom, containing the console, a memory card, two controllers, and 12 games, all for $29 on Ebay. With my amazing new TV and Wii set-up, my living room is the prime set-up for entertaining company!

3.) A New Focal Point

Total Cost to Revamp: $30

My apartment has a beautiful, though nonfunctioning fireplace--an excellent centerpiece for decorating a living room. This is how I originally (in my "junk" days) set up my fireplace. However, my boyfriend just gave me a gift: a gorgeous fleurs de lis iron fireplace screen! My new plan is to put some tall candles behind the fireplace screen and give the effect of having a real fireplace. I'm also mounting my new TV above it. And no, I don't have to spend $200 to have someone come to my apartment and mount this 40"--I bought a user-friendly OmniMount Pro wall mount for $29.99 from Meijer.

4.) A New Place to Dream

Total Cost to Revamp: $130
Now, let's be honest. I'm a bachelorette in my twenties dating a guy who's about to turn 38--so "juvenile" isn't really the mood I want to conjure to a guy's mind when he walks into my bedroom. However, my room originally looked, well, childish, cheap, unsophisticated, and generally lackluster. I didn't need it to be "girlier," I needed it to be more womanly, more feminine. I needed my room to stop looking like the inside of a dorm, and be a grown-up bedroom. So what was I to do--gut it out, and completely re-do it? No. I eliminated the hot pink curtains and accent rugs, all the dated trinkets and picture frames, plastic shelves, and college-y decor (Christmas lights...what was I thinking?). I replaced all that "kid stuff" with some framed art (featured later in blog), young-but-classy green and white curtains from Wal-Mart ($18), and an all-over lack of clutter and pink! I found that I could keep many of the green accents; they were more subdued than the hot pink. Most importantly, though, I made my bed grow up! I didn't want to spend over a hundred dollars on new bedding. I was tempted to purchase a beautiful black satin sheet set I found on Amazon for $24.99, tempted to buy luring higher-thread count Egyptian cotton sheets--but, I was smart. I tossed out the dorm-appropriate black comforter and replaced it with a soft, white Ralph Lauren down comforter I found at T.J. Maxx for $35, and got rid of the childish pillow collection in place of just the shams that came with the comforter, along two plush sage green pillows I found at T.J. Maxx for $8 each. I kept my dark pink sheets with the bedding to prevent it from becoming too "old," and added a crisp white bedskirt from Wal-Mart ($21.50). Most significantly, I added a gorgeous white canopy (yes, you can have a canopy even if you don't have a canopy bed!), for just $40. Now, my bedroom went from being "girly" to "feminine" and "cute" to "elegant"--without having to buy any new furniture! I now have a sophisticated, inviting bedroom--perfect for any bachelorette dating an older man!

5.) A New Primping Ground
Total Cost to Revamp: $55

The downfall of my new apartment: one teeny-weeny bathroom, with no storage space at all. This is what it looked like when I first moved in. I vamped it up with some low-cost zebra-print decor from Wal-Mart and even accenting with zebra print outlet covers (about $5 each) from one of my favorite Ebay users, Who Gives a Crap? Creations, an extremely helpful and handy seller. To solve the storage problem, I also turned to Wal-Mart for some shelves ($24), hanging toilet paper holder ($6), over-the-door towel rack ($9), and vanity shelf ($8).

6.) A New Mood

Total Cost to Revamp: $215

In case you didn't notice in the first item on the list, I was too embarrassed by my hand-me-down curtains to actually hang them up, so when I bought my new couch, I also picked up some low-price, but very chic, curtains from T.J. Maxx. T.J. Maxx has proven to be my saving grace in decorating the walls of my apartment; I couldn't even begin to tell you how many items I've purchased there. When it comes to wall decor, T.J. Maxx is invaluable. Check out some of my finds:

Large James Dean wooden print, $12.99

Artistic framed Marilyn Monroe canvas prints, $19.99 each

Buddha wall decal, $9.99

Marilyn Monroe wooden print, $14.99

Wal-Mart also offers many good deals on wall art. One of the neatest things you'll find there is that you can actually make your own prints. They sell several different sizes of poster prints, priced anywhere from $0.99 to $4.99, and accompanying frames ranging from $0.99 to $2.99. For my office, I bought seven Van Gogh prints and white wooden frames, and the bill was under $40. Wal-Mart also has very similar bargains to T.J. Maxx's sturdy-material prints. Check these finds out:

Victor Jorgensen's "Kissing the War Goodbye" wooden print, $12.99

Marilyn Monroe, "I Wanna Be Loved By You" wooden art, $12.99

Big Lots also proved to be a very valuable source for wall art. I found a huge assortment of pin-up girl tin signs for $6.99 each to decorate my kitchen. When I first set out to re-decorate my apartment, I spent quite a bit of time browsing AllPosters, a website which allows you to custom design poster prints with matting and frames. AllPosters can become very expensive--my boyfriend, for example, just spent $120 on a matted, framed, 11" by 17" copy of the Full Metal Jacket movie poster. I wanted the finished, sophisticated look of framed art, but I didn't want to spend $200 on each piece. So I decided to embark on doing this myself, and I was definitely pleased with the results. Did you notice the John Lennon piece hanging over my couch in the first item on my redecorating list? The print, which has the lyrics to "Imagine" over Lennon's face, was only $4.99 on Amazon, and the black wooden frame with faux gold matting, was $5.99 at Big Lots. Here are a couple other selections I've framed myself:

Marilyn Monroe Playboy Centerfold Poster, $9.99 with Free Shipping, Ebay; Black Poster Frame, $9.99, Meijer

Bob Dylan, "I Accept Chaos; I'm Not Sure Whether It Accepts Me," Poster, $6.99, Amazon.com; Brown Wooden Frame, $5.99, Big Lots

The most important lessons to learn from this blog? NEVER think you can't afford to live in the kind of style you want, and ALWAYS explore your options. I stumbled onto a new couch and an amazing TV not even expecting to find anything, and I purchased my Wii and Playstation bundles after a lot of research about my different price options from different sources. The Internet is a very valuable shopping tool. Don't get stuck in the rut I did and live in a juvenile, mix-and-match collection of secondhand junk just because you're afraid you couldn't afford to have more elegant and adult surroundings.

Like these ideas? Stay tuned because I will soon post more home improvement blogs, one about my path to closet organization (it's a rocky road, too!) and one about remodeling an old "new" addition to my apartment.