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Family Room: Designed On A Budget

In the spirit of Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday, I thought today would be a great day to share some of the costs of my newly renovated Family Room. So first things first, who loves a well designed space? Okay now who loves designing within a reasonable budget? The answer to both of those is a big yes for me so I wanted to walk you through my Family Room and break down what it actually cost to finish off this space, and on a budget.


First things first, I wanted to speak about the larger costs of this renovation. Because we have been renovating the ENTIRE house over the past 18 months, including a new back addition, not every cost of this project can be broken down by room. For example, we pay all of the trades at once - rewiring the house, all new plumbing, drywall, refinishing the floors and so on, therefore those costs are not included here. I hire the professionals to do all of the big ticket items and then I take it from there in order to save money. Plus, I'm usually just about out of money by the time I get around to the fun stuff like decorating.


But the truth is while I love to get a few new items to freshen up a space it's the sentimental items I like to incorporate the most. I think your home should reflect your family's story so any time I can incorporate those, it makes the space a little more special to me. Plus I move quite often so I'm certainly not able to buy new furniture every time so I reuse a lot, toss what I don't love, and purchase a few new items from time to time. Okay, so now let's break down what I bought new, what pieces I already had, and yes, what I was able to find for free. Here we go....


New Purchases:

  • Blue Velvet Couch: Since I knew this was going to be the focal point of the room, I was willing to spend a little extra here. I'm still pretty cheap at times so when I was able to find it on sale for $272.99 from Wayfair I thought it was a steal. Plus it's a sleeper sofa so provides extra bedding when needed.

  • Hot Pink Fringe Pillow: Not sure why I wanted hot pink pillows but these were on sale at Target for around $17 each.


  • Black and White Diamond Rug: $90 from Rugs USA - This was on sale so I took a chance on it and feel like I won big. I knew I wanted the contrast of black and white in this room and feel like it strikes just the balance I wanted.

  • Brass Vintage Lamp: Around $30 from Wal-Mart. I went in to get a white lamp shade for a lamp I already had but after seeing this cool lamp changed plans and went home with it.

  • Dog Print: You know those little ads that show up on your Instagram feed? Well apparently they're mind readers and when this cute dog print showed up, I made an impulse purchase without thinking. It came from Smallwood on sale for $25. I didn't necessarily buy it for this space but it found it's way beside the other dog print I already had.

  • Miscellaneous Items: From there I purchased just a few other items that I don't have exact prices on - wood for the picture ledges (~$50), new prints of family pictures (~$30), and a plant for the fireplace.


What I Already Had:

As I mentioned before, I'm a big fan of sentimental pieces or just items that I flat out love. No way I'm tossing those out just for the sake of buying something new. So in this space, here's what I was able to reuse:


  • Picture Frames: I invested in really great picture frames for a gallery wall at my last house so I already had plenty of these in storage.

  • Large print of Lake Lure: I actually took this picture myself right before a storm.

  • Games and puzzles. Who knew I had so many of these stored away?

  • Small bowls from my travels around the world. The two on the side table holding game pieces are from the Maldives and Malaysia.

  • Plenty of books, magazines, baskets, and small display items.

  • Scalloped mirror (my favorite!) and dog print.

  • And last but not least, my favorite item....the vintage table which belonged to my Papa.


And here's what I somehow scored for free:

  • Ikea ottoman found on the side of the road in downtown Spartanburg (and I'm not kidding!). Great shape with a machine washable cover so I can clean and bleach as needed.

  • Linen doors (free because my sweet parents got them for me).

  • Salvage doors under stairs. These were found in the basement of another project.

  • Scrap wood for corner shelves that I had in my hoarding shed.

  • Aged wood for the dog niche that was held onto after demo at my house.

  • Vintage dental molding left over from a previous renovation.

  • Mantel and surround. Clients from a renovation earlier this year had no use for it so I held onto it and it was a perfect fit. The metal insert was salvaged from a fireplace I had to take out of another room in the house.

  • Attic Door. Who knows where that came from but it also was in my hoarding shed. ;-)


So that's about it. I hope this goes to show that you don't have to spend a fortune to make a room look great. Use what you have, boldly display the items you love most, and bargain hunt for the rest.


Hope this helps and if you didn't get a chance to read through the full transformation of this family room, click here to get caught up.


Have a great weekend!

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