"Megan from 'little me, big God' shares how she and her husband have managed to create a beautiful and comfortable home for themselves and their family...and have not bought a single new piece of furniture in the last five years!"
Five years of marriage, two years of stay-at-home-motherhood and a growing appreciation for modern frugality has taught me that my ideal home is made of stories, character and experience which requires mostly imagination and elbow grease rather than a lot of shopping.
It helps that my husband Joey is an uber-talented wood-worker, usually up for a challenge and mostly indifferent about my design adventures. His eye for style trends toward traditional, which helps rein my eclectic, artistic-trending eye in a bit. We have managed to avoid purchasing a single piece of furniture over the course of our home-making and talk about the “one day when we buy a sofa” like it’s the day we will win the lottery – our first stop will be the furniture store.
In the meantime, we use Mom’s – a decade-old Broyhill that’s holding up as well as can be expected – and flank it with a glass-top discount table and the first table Joey ever made (in the back yard, from a child’s chest of drawers a neighbor threw out six years ago).
Most of the artwork is original, including home-made frames and prints, a couple of original graphic oil paintings and the massive abstract oil painting my son mastered in the driveway when he was 18-months-old.
The curtains in our living and master bedrooms are big box home store drop cloths, cut and clipped to make drapes.
In our bedroom Joey re-created a headboard I fell in love with on a website, for about a quarter of the retail price. I use inexpensive, discount white quilts for bedding and change out the pillows to fit my mood.
Our son’s room is complete with a one-of-a-kind crib and dresser/changing table. Other thrifty decorations in Waylon's room include more original artwork, safari photos from a calendar and a home-made mobile.
I day dream about the improvements I would make if we owned our house - a new fireplace and mantel, a complete paint job, kitchen makeover and numerous other projects! But as a rental, it calls for temporary and quick alterations. I am proud of our intrepid frugality in our money-focused world and am in love with a home made of our own collaborative designs, hand-me-downs and thrift and discount store finds.
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8 comments:
love the striped rug!!!
I love seeing "doing what you can with a rental" I am doing the same thing right now, with no money as well. It is more challenging than if you owned and had the money do purchase what you "really" want:)
Great job!
Desiree
www.CamelotArtCreations.blogspot.com
If you don't mind me asking what color are your walls in your living room?
Good question, Desiree! I recall buying it a Lowe's and it being much darker and gray-er than I intended. I was going for a pale-er "greige". I can tell you, however, in my next home, I will buy a higher-quality/more expensive paint that will hold and clean up better. And it will be lighter!
Wonderful abstract art by your son!
Megan did a fabulous job! The striped rug really adds a fun and modern touch to the living room. Great fabric on the cube ottomans and how wonderful to hang an abstract masterpiece made by her 18 month old. I love that! The nursery is cute with the royal blue walls and animal prints. The white frames really pop against the blue. Nice job!
It truly is a great sense of accomplishment when you creative a stylish home using ingenuity, skill, cleverness, and plan old-fashioned hard work. Megan and Joey make a great team and should revel in the fact that they've created a loving, warm home for their family; with or without a big bank roll. Bravo!
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