Furnishing Your Home

So, now that I have the nice new big home, I need furniture and decor to put in it.

I first reaction was to run out to the furniture store and buy everything that I wanted and make it beautiful. Well, then reality set in and I decided that I didn't want to spend tens of thousands of dollars to furnish my new home. My goal is to furnish my entire home with decor for less than $5000, this might not be possible since the bedroom suite I want is $8200 alone, but I am going to try to be very creative.

We didn't bring a lot of our furniture with us and even if we had, we surely didn't have enough to furnish a 5025 sq ft from the furnishings of a 2500sq ft home.

As soon as I got the internet up and running ( I now live far enough out that DSL is not an option and had to go to satelitte internet) I started shopping around. I check craigslist almost daily, but a lot of their stuff is still a bit to high for me.

The first week in our new home, I purchased a 4 piece leather living room set off of ebay for $450. It came with the sofa, love set, chair, and ottoman. When my husband went to pick it up the original owner threw in some leather throw pillows. I am guessing, compared to what I have seen while out furniture shopping that this set was probably around $2000 brand new, and I have only found one tiny spot on it that I didn't notice for 2 weeks, so it may have gotten there after we got it home.

Last weekend, my husband and I went to Target, we now have 4 full baths and no shower curtains in three of them, so it was time to purchase a few things. I found 2 really cute shower curtains on clearnace for about $10 each, these are not what we really want, but they will do just fine until I can dress the bathrooms out like I want to. My husband insisted that I go ahead and buy something for the downstairs guest bath that everyone uses when they visit. So I got a shower curtain, shower curtain holders, trash can, soap dispenser, rugs, towels, hand towels, and wash clothes for a total of almost $250. Ouch!! I decided I needed to go back to ebay and craigslist.

So, this morning I have a few minutes to shop online. I do a quick search on ebay and find a nice formal dining room set that includes: table w/extra leaf, 2 armed chairs, 4 side chairs, a two piece hut, a wall picture (that will match my decor), and a new never opened set of slip covers for the chairs, a table cloth, charges, ect... to dress the table out for the holidays. I won all of this for $305.....

I have spent $1005 of my $5000 budget. I have accomplished a lot, but still have a lot to do.

I am looking at a entertainment center that would look so good in my living room for $450, I'll have to let you know if I get. I still need to discuss this purchase with hubby.