Cheap, Cute, and Smart Finds For Your Small Home
Spending so many hours on my computer, I’ve come across a lot of inspiring sites that offer many affordable solutions for decorating and furnishing small homes. Can’t wait to start decorating my new place!
If you are moving or looking for a change at home, check out these sites before you do your shopping:
Apartment Therapy
I’m sharing this link first because it’s one of the best sites to look at for inspiration and solutions. It’s like a catch-all. I found other online stores with affordable designs through this site, many photo galleries of how people have remodeled their small spaces, and tips for choosing everything from pillows to paintings to accent your home.
Sub-sites of ApartmentTherapy.com:
Marketplace: lists and profiles of businesses for online shoppers
Small, Cool 2010 Contest: I love this! Apartment Therapy held a contest to see who has the coolest small home. The best part, besides seeing a photo gallery of the winning home, is that you can also see photo galleries of numerous division winners, divided into groups of their home square footage. It’s a great way to see how others have decorated spaces similar to yours and get ideas. Example: if you have a 600 sq. foot home, you can check out the “Tiny” category for entries of homes of the same size.
Chic Shelf Paper
One thing I am trying to keep in mind is to remember to prep the house to keep it in a good condition. I came across the Chic Shelf Paper site through Apartment Therapy’s Marketplace and am actually excited to line my shelves with design-printed paper.
Design Sponge
Brooklyn-based writer, Grace Bonney, started a daily website dedicated to home and product design. I love even just the appearance of the blog site, designed with different textures like ribbon and crinkled paper and lace to line the left edge of the entire blog.
Grace shares cool finds, DIY projects, and yummy recipes. A pretty nifty DIY project that was posted recently is Bottle Gardens. Check it out! Be sure to also check out Design Sponge’s “Budget” section for more cheap finds.
Green Your Decor
It’s thrilling to come across stuff that is a cheap find, even if it’s used. Another bonus is to find ways to be green in your home. Green Your Decor is another design blog that shares sustainable design ideas and products.
eBay Classifieds
It’s like looking at the Craigslist “For Sale” section but getting to only see a list of photos! As much as I love looking at design and furniture online stores, I love finding used items for cheap or even free, and I can still be as picky as I want.
Melrose Trading Post
Speaking of cheap and used, of course, checking out thrift stores and swap meets is always a good idea. I’m looking forward to hitting the Melrose Trading Post this Sunday again!
This list TBC….
