Positively Bleak's Profile

Food is one thing (yikes!), furniture is another! I have a standing monthly appointment with some friends, we get up at the crack of dawn, Zipcar a pickup truck, drive through the wealthy neighborhoods right before trash pickup. Literally every piece of furniture in my apartment, other than the couch (inherited) and the mattress were picked up off the curb. This includes: full rattan dining room table and 4 matching chairs, beechwood coffee table, matching dresser and side table, a vintage Bentwood rocking chair, matching midcentury-modern nightstands, a solid wood platform bedframe, a solid beech computer desk with a 1960s leather upholstered barber's chair (yes the foot pump works!!), a leather Moroccan pouf, a rolling TV cart that hides my cat's litterbox and the wireless printer, endless bookshelves including one mahogany one with beautiful carvings at the top and bottom, a big white sheepskin rug that I caught just as the owners were carrying it out to the curb, a set of two matching floor lamps in the trendy steel arch style, potted plants that are still alive, framed posters and original art on canvasses, and old metal street signs to decorate the walls.

Steer clear of the upholstered stuff (mold! bedbugs! cigarette smoke!) and look for solid wood in rich neighborhoods, especially in cities around the first of the month - you can nab so much excellent stuff for free, all it takes is a little cleanup, maybe a seat cushion, stain some wood to match if you have to, and bam, furnished apartment.

^ When my boyfriend moved into my apartment with me, we merged our enormous collections of vintage/foreign horror movie posters. My rule is "it doesn't get hung up unless it's in a frame," to keep the place from looking too dorm-y, but when all you have are giant theatrical one-sheets or odd-sized Polish/Korean/Mexican one-sheets (which are all different sizes), it gets really difficult to find stock frames! Paying out the nose to have them professionally framed is out of our price range - we have something like 10-12 still waiting on frames!

Is there anywhere that one can order/buy odd-sized poster frames on the cheap? I've been using plain black 1" frames with plastic fronting when I can find them, and it looks great, but the size and costs are prohibitive!

It looks like a little girl's room now. All it needs is some My Little Ponies along the headboard. Painting the bed made it look so cheap!

Definitely preferred the room before, with the rich wood on the bed. A deeper, more forest green would've looked much nicer. Loved the floating shelves. Even that Pier One-ish wall art is better than the big blank slate of nothingness above the bed.

My cat doesn't claw or shed much, but my (curb find) couch still has to be protected from, uh, me and my boyfriend and our habits of dropping crumbs and spilling tea everywhere.

I bought a few Mexican falsa and serape blankets in coordinating colors for $5-10 a pop at a flea market, and used some kilt pins that I had around (they are like huge, heavy-duty safety pins). I wrapped the cushions individually, like wrapping a present, and pinned them on the bottom. Then I draped 2 blankets over the back and sides, pinning them together in the back, and then draped two small blankets over the arms, pinning them to the couch. It cost something like $40 total, much less than a slipcover. All the blankets are handmade and machine washable, and you can pick solid or striped blankets to make it as colorful or subdued as you want. (It's also easy to combine - put solids on the arms and stripes on the cushions, switch them out for different colors as the seasons change, etc.)

I forgot the link! One of THESE: http://www.thesignaljammer.com/

This is amazing and if I had the space/cash for such a, I would snap it up in a heartbeat.

Wherever you are and however much money you're asking, I'm sure you'll be able to find another weirdo like me that will beat down your door to get this in their house. Don't discount Craigslist!