We are in week 3 of July…how are you guys doing with #nobuyJuly? I am doing pretty good- actually great- but I feel kind of like a cheater. My shopping usually slows down in the summer anyway just because I am not patient enough to take three kids in a store so this is a much easier month for me to attempt this challenge than other months of the year. But, at any rate I am doing great and loving the fact that I will basically not have a Target bill this month. DID YOU HEAR THAT?? No. Target. bill. this. month! That’s huge in this house!
I know a lot of you are hitting up the Nordstrom half-yearly sale because that is your Christmas in July and I get it. I have never been a big sale shopper just because I am a more of a spontaneous clothes shopper, but if there was a HomeGoods half-yearly sale I would be dead meat. I definitely thought about browsing the home section of Nordstrom’s site but I am resisting the urge by focusing on what I already own. This post is intended to show you how you can breathe new life in your home and accessories over and over again if you are trying to save money. The easiest way to illustrate this is to show you areas in my house that have been refreshed again and again with just simple tweaks…
Rearrange Furniture
My living room is always going through some type of refresh. I have swapped out art, changed out rugs, rotated throw pillows, and updated accessories a thousand times. I have also played around with the furniture arrangement more times than I can count. I narrowed it down to these two pictures to show you how I have created different seating layouts. I obviously bought new chairs over the years but just by changing the arrangement the room got a whole new feel!
Here it is after painting it white. As much as I loved those lamps they didn’t look right once it was painted so they got relocated to the guest room and this big brass beauty took their place…
And then just a few months later I swapped that lamp out for this natural wood one.
My dining room has also seen lots of makeovers over the years. The walls have been painted and repainted, rugs have come and gone and art has been on a constant rotation.
Here is how things look current day, minus the Christmas decor. The curtains moved to the living room, I swapped out the chairs and changed the art to something more minimalistic. I know that not all of you have the prop closet I do with art, pillows, and accessories but you don’t need loads and loads of stuff. I have made some minor furniture updates over the last 5 years but the main changes have come from accessorizing. I think it’s crucial to have a small stash of things that you can rotate in and out throughout the year. This will help satisfy the itch when you want to completely redo everything. I have that blue stripe rug rolled up and ready to come back out when I am missing a little color. I have the large art stashed away. And, no accessory is in a permanent home in my house.
So go have a little fun and switch some things around today! Try clearing off an entire shelf and completely restyle it. Move your throw pillows around. Paint that old piece of furniture you hate. There are so many ways to make changes just by using what you already own!
Next week will be our final week of #nobuyJuly and I am finishing it off by talking about the things I do deem worthy of buying. Surely we can be more aware of our consumption, but there will be times when we need to spend money on our decor and I am going to share which things I think are worth the money. Make sure to check back in!