First Home on a Budget-Living Room

I skipped last week in what was supposed to be a four part series on my daughters home. In my post Creating a (Rental) Home on a Budget, I started a series featuring how my older daughter put together her  current home with just a few splurges, but for the most part, second hand and thrifted items. Two weeks ago I featured her kitchen and dining room. Today, I've got some photos of her living room to share.

This is one room where she has two  splurges, one being her couch, though in the scheme of spends, it wasn't that much and will last her for potential decades. She spent around $500 plus tax. While the pillows might be a bit trendy to the era she bought them, the couch style is  timeless as is the color. She bought this for her first apartment in Wisconsin when she when she was 25, but after years of  living accommodations, a practically bare apartment in California, and an RV. Her splurge in the bedroom will make sense as well.

She also upgraded a while back on a larger television, purchased with gift money and perhaps a little gift to herself. She had a small one (now in her bedroom), but technically having a smart TV that she can see details up and close, is needed for her job as well as entertainment. She doesn't pay for cable and  just has a streaming service subscription through Amazon and YouTube. Her Blue Ray player was a gift ages ago from  DH, who bought hers and ours with merchandise points through a work promotion. Below is another angle of her room.

 Sorry for the upside down picture, but you might remember this trunk from a post about three years ago. It was  a Goodwill find for $4.50. Originally she bought an old sheet in a fabric she liked and covered the top to hide where the weave was frayed, but she found in this house, she actually likes the worn look.  The tray makes it a stable coffee table and the trunk provides valuable storage for extra blankets and bedding as unlike her Wisconsin place, she has very little storage.

The coasters are little film reels, a gift form her cousin. 

The birdcage was another Goodwill find. 

The bench above was my mom's, then my sister had it in her  entry after my parents passed away. The bench had been a gift for our mom from all of my siblings, and after my sister passed away, I asked  if no one wanted it, my daughter would. That is how it came to her place. She uses a throw and some bohemian pillows over the bench as the cushion is a bit old fashion, and there is a non DD1 heart shaped cut out. Eventually she wants to recover the built in seat, which lifts for more storage, and  perhaps have the back cut out reshaped.

I mentioned little quirks and fixes needed throughout her place. There were two hooks in corners of the room. She found two of these macramé hangings and found some naturally looking, but not real flowers and greenery, and hung up both. This one is near a painting  of a heart that suits here  bohemian aesthetic more than the hearts in the bench do.

The table is the typical one found in hundreds of thousands of homes in the 60's and 70's. She always intended to paint, and perhaps will some day, but for now, just left the blond wood alone. It sort of goes with the unfinished round table she has on the other side of the  couch. Her turntable and  little by little growing record collection sit on a table she has had for years-maybe even college. The tray on the wicker trunk? It actually originally was part of this table, but she got dual purpose form it. As a theme is storage is a premium, rather than try and find a place for her long board, she leans it up in her living room, almost like an art piece. That was a Christmas gift form us last year, and the wheels and under deck match the tones of the house.

Not counting the television, her only retail purchase was the couch. She probably could have waited and looked longer for a second hand option, but most of what she saw was grimy, woefully  old, or misshapen. Buying something classic will give it life beyond this home. She may have bought the rug as well, but has had for so long she wasn't quite sure. The pops of red with her subtle  green-blue-grey tones makes it very cozy, but still young.