I mostly order area rugs from Home Depot. Free delivery and you can return them to the store. Once I ordered 3 because I could not decide what I wanted and then returned 2.
As far as materials go, I have tried everything imaginable. With cats, what works best, hands down, is polypropylene in an oriental rug pattern. Nothing shows and clean up is easy. I even have one in my kitchen:
Oh YES. A place for all of my Craigslist ogling!
@Bernadette For cloth napkins, you can buy fabric at thrift/secondhand stores and either hem them (sewing or iron on hem tape) or just cut them with pinking shears.
My current quandary is figuring out how to store all of Luigi’s tiny clothes. We had been storing them in the upholstered bench at the base of our bed, all a jumble in there. Unfortunately it’s been stinky (off gassing maybe?) and so I’m looking for a new solution. He has a good 2 or 3 dozen sweaters, coats and Halloween costumes.
If you have any extra closet space, Target has kids sized hangers for a few dollars. (Or maybe buy nothing)
Another good option might be an over the door shoe storage with one costume in each shoe cubby.
New Pup has a dresser drawer. There also are hooks for leashes/harnesses and rain/snow coats by the door where they’re easy for my dog walker to find.
You can buy flour sack towels at dharma too.
Re rugs? First, I’m at the other end of the life cycle from most of you, I’m 65+. Secondly, I’m allergic or sensitive to most plastics and petroleum products, so no poly or jute rugs. That makes it really difficult to find anything, right?
What I’ve done is two things: 1)I insist when I buy a rug that it not be backed, so I can turn it over or around and move the wearing spots. 2)I buy rugs with patterns basically the same throughout, so there’s no top or bottom or discernible sides.
I have a lot of these:
I don’t know about how “budget friendly” some of these are, but…
Because we’re moving into essentially 1/2 the space we’ve used for 25 years, we’ve been focusing on frugal, yes, but space saving too. Also, we’ve deliberately decided that we have to make this place wheelchair/oldster friendly.
So, sliding doors in the closets and elsewhere as much as is practical. There’s a lot of space in homes devoted to having to have clearance for a door to swing, yes? I never really noticed it until we started this effort. True of cabinets and appliances too.
Same sort of notion: as much as is practical, get pieces without handles which are on the surface of the piece: file cabinets, drawer units, etc. Buy things with inset handles instead, if you can.
Find things you expect to wear for a long time, like the rugs I linked to above, rather than making do with something temporarily. We decided we’d spend money to do this, based on how long we thought something would last. We bought an expensive, linen duvet cover.
For fabric stuff: we also use vintage linen napkins, and flannel rags for washing dishes (Why a plastic sponge? I have a dishwasher. My grandmother used flannel. It’s free as it’s torn up sheets and sleepwear. Also, when I thought about rubbing plastic all over my dishes and calling them clean… um no.)
What I’ve noticed that’s significantly different about us now is that except for food or other supplies, we neither of us is willing to buy something that’s cheap and we expect to break or replace soon. We’re buying a lot fewer things and how durable they are is a large part of the consideration. Of course, so is how heavy it is or easy to use.
I replaced my Hoosier canisters earlier this year when I nearly dropped one. That’s just completely unacceptable now.
Re the style inspiration? I look at paint websites, houzz, magazine sites, etc. but mostly just ignore what’s currently cool.
After watching maple “Americana” be popular when I was a kid (always hated that), to avocado green/mustard yellow plastic fantastic in the 60s, to huge graphics in the 70s and 80s to… I decided that whatever “style” was, it was mostly marketing and I didn’t want to play.
My criteria for things here is a series of 2 part questions:
How will it look dirty/aged? Can I clean it?
How heavy is it? Can I move it?
How comfortable is it? Will it age well?
What kind of materials is it made from? Will it make me sick?
How much does it cost? Can we afford it?
How big is it? Is there room?
Can I use/reuse something I already have instead? If so, how will that affect the traffic patterns in the house?
We’re currently looking to replace our leather, “gullwing,” designer couch. It’s too long, it’s not that comfortable for us these days, and I need a guest bed. What I want? A convertible loveseat. So far, I haven’t found one I’ll buy. At the moment, we’'re leaning towards a 2 piece sectional from homereserve, but I’m not sure I really want that much foam rubber either.
We’ve basically just rebought DH’s car, so the $ isn’t easy right now. Replacing the couch is way down the list. We have to sell the older couch too, we paid 1/2 of what its showroom price was ($2K) 30 years ago, because it was a slightly damaged floor sample. It still has beautiful lines, but needs its leather throughly cleaned and its stuffing augmented. It needs someone who knows leather upholstery and we don’t know any such person/company here.
The answer, like my other slightly managled name brand, designer 1950s dresser, is probably to haul it off to auction in the local large town. To someone who has the resources, they both could be great. Either we have to spend the $ to rehab them to sell them for top dollar, or take what we can get. That decision hasn’t been made, yet. I’m actively downsizing/replacing the furniture , but we haven’t gotten to where we’ll buy new.
I replaced the old coffee table with a much smaller table. I need to get glass cut for it,
We have tub chairs we’ll keep.
The bookcase boxes were removed. Not sure if they’ll get put back in, or not.
The document file will probably be moved if not sold/replaced.
The baker’s table was sold and replaced with a dresser.
The side tables sold and were replaced with something that’s metal and will fold into almost nothing.
The wood box was sold/replaced with another, smaller box.
We also decided that we’re going to put up a wall and divide the living room . This will create a small, public space, and increase the available private space. This is part of our aging in place plan.
Love this! I am planning to do some updates to my apartment once the 1 year of my lease passes so I can see how much they plan to hike up the rent.
I have been binging so much renter friendly, small budget reno YouTube. (happy to drop some links if anyone is interested.)
My main problem will be not a lot of room and hundreds of books.
Very interested in the YouTube links!!
I"m more into cheap than stylish these days. Here’s the last 2 I watched:
What Vivi Did Next, Bathroom Redo:
FrugalJo, Kitchen Redo:
Hi, design-minded friends! Do you have any suggestions for what kind of small rug + pillow combo you’d add to this little reading nook? I’d like for this room to be all neutrals and greens and to have a bit of an indoor/outdoor feel, so I’m thinking patterns in the cream/grey universe.
It’s in our sunroom, which we’ve been using as a workout room. Here are a few pictures of the room as a whole. We do want to keep that big open space between the bike and the plant cabinet for workouts on a yoga mat.
I also eventually want to add: a full-length mirror on wheels we can pull out for for workouts, shoe storage by the door, better storage for the workout gear, prints on the wall, and more plants. I want to repot all of the plants in white or Terracotta planters, and spray paint that yellow plant stand under the fern white. Oh, and I want to replace the beat-up brown footrest.
For an area like that, I love the idea of a round rug.
Here’s one at Target that I think would go well with your floor and that chair. https://www.target.com/p/5-round-loomed-area-rug-gray-nuloom/-/A-80417287
Ohh, I like this a lot, and I think this is the right size… I’ll measure it out to see. Thanks!
I think a green throw or pillow would look lovely with that chair.
I was also thinking circle rug but bright green. Not a neutral, but still a green, and would be very cheery.
Re the books. I have, somewhere, a short piece about how to get more books on a shelf. If there’s interest, I’ll see if I can’t find it and post it.
Should I look for it?
In other design news… I made a little mock-up for the direction we might go in with our bedroom. I’m thinking old world traveler, old timey ship captain’s quarters? The room is in the middle of the house and has lots of wood details, so I like thinking of it as a ship’s cabin. It even has a little window/porthole. Open to feedback and suggestions! I picked out these ideas as a mock-up, but I’m not super attached to anything.
And, just realized I’ve received some really good advice here but haven’t acted on it yet. Two updates:
