Old-Style Interior Design

Queenie

nicki wrote:

...... I used an old white sheet to line a pair of thin curtains for my daughters room.

I use old white sheets *as* my curtains! (Dining room, patio doors, works a treat ) :rotfl:

squeaky

Pillow cases for some samll windows, me. Mix paints. Make pictures out of 2nd hand jigsaws and 2nd hand picture frames... carpet "cutout" remnants as every day rugs to keep the carpet clean where I sit most often and only get my posh one out when I've got visitors ...

ChocClare

I've bought lots of old lace tablecloths/traycloths/napkins from charity shops for pennies as well as lengths of crochet lace. Boil them up on the stove in a very large pan with washing powder/dash of bleach until they're whiter than white, then dunk in starch and iron - result: snowy white linens which look incredibly expensive. Doesn't matter if they've got a few holes in - arrange things artfully to cover them! If they're really tatty then I don't feel bad about cutting them up to dress up other things: I've tacked lengths of Victorian crochet lace to the shelves of my dresser (looks great); I've bought - again for about 10p - cheapo baskets from charity shops, lined them with that small bit of pretty fabric you didn't know what to do with, and trimmed with the lace. I took Kaffe Fassett's "Glorious Patchwork" out of the library and used up loads of odd bits of furnishing fabrics to make patchwork quilts. I cover shoeboxes with leftover fabric or wallpaper to make decorative storage. I have been known to cut up old coats and jackets into strips and braid them into rugs. On a slightly less girly note, I took the 8 million free CDs which seem to come with every post/magazine and stuck them to the walls of the dormer in my son's bedroom - reflects the light in quite a psychedelic way! He wants me to make a hanging curtain (like the beaded ones) to go across the alcove to the bed part of his bedroom using still more CDs, but I haven't got round to that yet - one of my MANY unfinished projects! If you go on any of the many craft sites online, you can pick up loads of ideas for doing things for a song. Surprise yourself!

nabowla

There are some brilliant ideas here. Keep them coming!

One of the things that I've really noticed since I started moneysaving is that many people tend to associate moneysaving with being totally unfashionable. It is automatically assumed that the only way to have a 'nice', fashionable home is to throw lots of money at the problem. Thus some people who are in debt are too scared to start cutting back because they would have to give up their lifestyle completely and all their friends would know straight away.

Yes, it is necessary to change one's lifestyle a bit if one is to save money. But that doesn't have to mean that there's an overnight shift from having a beautiful house to a place with holes in the carpet (as many seem to think!) By careful planning, scouting around the shops and creative thinking it's possible to have a home that looks just like the magazines (if that's what you want) without spending a vast fortune on the cards. For example, on Sunday I saw some beautiful cushions in the homeware shops on Tottenham Court Road for £25-£30 per cushion. Virtually identical cushions are sold on Ebay for average of £3-£5 per cushion. No-one would know that they'd been bought on Ebay instead of the High Street. Just think of the money that could be saved!

Moneysaving isn't necessarily about doing without. It's about living within one's means. All of my friends think I have rather a lot of money because I have so many lovely things at home - I just 'forget' to tell them that all of the dressings on my bed (throw from the White Company in a clearance sale, duvet cover & pillowcases 80% off from Laura Ashley, pillows from Ebay etc) cost less than the amount of money that they've just spent on one throw!!!

Lucie_2

Want some of those trendy wool cushions? Buy a jumper from a charity shop/jumble sale & boil wash to shrink it. Use the "body" to cover a cushion pad or old cushion.
Old aran / cable knit jumpers look especially nice.

I have used a tin of silver spray paint to co-ordinate all sorts of mismatched items - candle sticks, picture frames & storage boxes. A little goes a long way.

Queenie

Another area to explore ...

... your local Auction house. (Ours runs monthly and advertises in the local paper). You'll be amazed at the bargains you can get, yes even in the "job lot" £2 boxes which on first viewing may look like rubbish, but a rummage through on preview day and you'll often find a few surprises. Anything else in the box you could either throw away ( :eek: ) or boot fair.

.... in one £2 "job lot" box I got:-

1 x plastic clock (fully working)
1 x wedgewood plate clock (cleaned up beautifully!)
1 x glass/metal cafetierre (virtually new)
1 x teapot/cup - the sort the pot sits on the cup - boxed!!!
(plus other stuff I wasn't interested in)

Caution: It can be quite tempting to spend lots of money, so you have to be STRICT lol

Just don't be put off by all those TV "auction" programmes where everything sells for loads-a-money. You can find some real, practical gems.

needmoney

I have been looking for yellow gingham curtains for ages, gave up and bought some different material, today in a charity shop I found some complete with valance and tie backs almost good as new..............£5. I didn't need them but I wanted them is that false economy.
I know I will use them maybe as a change for summer and go back to others for winter.

Also bought brand new tag still on strappy Tshirt £2, so with my reduced brisket all in all not a bad day, except that I was on a VERY strict budget allowance

Queenie

Another great bargain of a day, needmoney!!! :T

No, I do not believe your gingham curtains were a false economy! The fact you will use them to ring the changes for summer is a great way to invest in decor - we all get a bit fed up with the look of our homes from time to time and end up redecorating, which leads to then changing carpets/soft furnishings! A simple thing like changing your window dressings seasonally can make a huge difference in helping us fall back in lurve with our surroundings - come winter, when you change back again to the older one's, you'll be thinking, "Oooh, snug and cosy!" I think you made a wise *investment* PLUS you got something you wanted ... all for a fiver!?? I think you did GREAT!

Bet the Tshirt looks cute too - bit cold tonight though - brrr, 'cept, you have a nice warm oven on

foreverskint

how about some pretty but cheap garden lights.
Scrounge some old glass baby food jars from a non-mse mum. (no self respecting old styler would use ready made baby food:eek: ). Wind some wire around the top to make a @handle to hang them by and the place a tea light inside and hang from trees/ bushes or inside your gazebo to give a pretty effect. You can paint them with glass paints too.

As for the inside of the house I use shops like Q.D, where I can often find reasonable cushion covers and bedlinen etc and the odd pretty vase to ring the interior changes. I also use e-bay. I bought a huuugge box of silk flowers a couple of weeks ago for £10.00 and now have enough for my home and probably half my street! They are absolutly gorgeous, the kind you see for £2-£3 per stem and there are at least a 100 in the box. Now all I need are some suitable contaiers to put them in.
As queenie says though best not to have any children! My house is certainly shabby, not so sure about chic though:D

needmoney

Thanks Queenie for the encouragement, I do love my junk shop finds, fun cheap and cheerfull. Yep the Tshirt's great it's brown which will add to my collection, bought a nice cotton jacket Saturday In Peacocks £14 Oooooooh expensive just joking I know I'll get loads of wear out of it. I'm glad of my nice warm oven on I am sitting here with a streaming sneezing cold.