I Heart Craigslist

I heart Craigslist.  I don't know Craig, but I promise I love him.  Moving from a home of approximately 1600 square feet to one of approximately 2600 square feet, we've got a bit of a furniture need.  And going from a home with carpet to one with all wood or tile flooring, we've got a bit of an area rug need.  And I'm, ahem, sort of cheap frugal.  Because really, we don't have a choice.  But I don't want something that looks junky, and I sure don't want it to look cheap.  Enter, Craigslist.

We went this morning to Old Time Pottery (home of the frugal decorating playground) to look at area rugs.  My most immediate need I think will be the boys' room and playroom.  I didn't see anything I loved and wanted to spend at least $100 on.  David found plenty - things like indoor/outdoor carpeting and some crazy LSD-ish geometrical thing.  Um, no.  We left with a paper towel holder and two initial door mats similar to this:

But mine are $4.99 each.  Clearly they're not exactly the same as the Pottery Barn version, but they're an acceptable substitute.

Leaving OTP, I was looking on Craigslist to see if they had any braided rugs, because that's what I really want for the boys' room and/or playroom.  I found this little beauty, for "name your price".

It's enormous - probably 7 feet by 11 feet, I would estimate.  I named $40 as my price, and it's in my garage now.  $40!  It's in excellent condition and will look fantastic in their room.

I'm putting all three boys in the same room.  Right now Jack is in a toddler bed and David and Henry are in bunk beds broken down to twins.  I wanted something more cohesive, and to take Jack out of the toddler bed when we move so I can sell it at our yard sale.  Finding three matching beds, without buying them from a furniture store for way more money than I want to spend, will be difficult.  Introducing, our new beds.

I know, I know.  They're a wreck.  They won't be.  Some spray paint goes a long way.  I'm not willing to pain their bedroom walls red, as David would like, but I'll paint a bed red.  I'm going to spray two of them red and one of them blue and line them up dorm style.  I'm debating if I want to try to find another similar bed or just get the adjustable metal frames and attach these without a footboard.  I'll use a bedskirt on them all anyway, so I'm not concerned with being able to see the frame.  These beds are O.L.D.  Like, perhaps as old as our new 110 year old house.  We paid $50 for them.

The next little beauty I have my eye on?  

This coffee table, for $45.  We're moving our mission style love seat and coffee table upstairs to the kids' playroom and doing a white slipcovered couch and the mission style chairs in our living room downstairs.  I will recover the mission chair cushions.  I like this table a lot, and am going back and forth with the seller.  

The kids slept at my in-law's house tonight.  And I'm sure they were exhausted and asleep before they even got there.  We went this afternoon to a friend's house, and the boys went CRAZY playing with their two kids, swimming, and playing outside.  They were, I'm sure, exhausted.  Chris and I went to pick paint colors for our new house.  I'd love to have it painted (living room, dining room, and the kids bedroom and playroom at least) before we move in.  We're doing the living room chocolate brown.  This is a window treatment from Pottery Barn that I fell in love with for that room:

However, given the 105" length of the windows and the $109.00 per panel price of the curtains, that won't be happening.  I did find this fabric on the Online Discount Fabric website.  (And tried to upload a photo for a comparison, but am seemingly unable for some reason.)  I am confident that I could make a reasonable facsimile of the PBK curtains with that fabric.  

Tomorrow?  I'm so excited for our project.  A friend of Chris' parents recently lost her aunt.  Her aunt had no children and left her home and contents to Betty.  She's going to have an estate sale, but has generously opened the house to us to go through, and we can purchase any furniture that we're interested in.  She's emailed me some photographs, and it looks like there are some very nice pieces.  And she's told us some of the prices she's thinking of.  Are. You. Kidding.  They're exceptionally reasonable.  After we go to her house, we're going to drop off our findings at our house and venture to my in-laws to go through the furniture they've got in storage.  Oh, and pick up our kids.  I'm very excited to see what we can find.  I'll keep you posted!