A tour of my second-hand bedroom

When I moved out of our family home last year, I took almost nothing from my bedroom.

I left every piece of furniture (all Freecycle furniture that I painted), the bed, the lamps…I really just took my clothes. That meant I was starting pretty much from scratch when it came to my bedroom here at this house.

For a wide variety of reasons, I’m trying to keep all my costs down, so of course that’s the energy I brought to the task of outfitting my bedroom.

In light of that, I thought it would be fun to take a little tour of how my budget bedroom is currently looking!

Let’s go around the room starting at the door.

First, we have my little nightstand, which a friend from book club was getting rid of.

The lamp on top is also from the same book club friend!

I keep a little dish from the abandoned house on the nightstand to hold my night guard for my teeth. 😉

My queen-size sleigh bed frame is from my dear neighbor Kate, who was a blog reader before I ever moved into this neighborhood (what were the odds??)

 

She had some extra furniture that she needed to get rid of, so when she told me about it, I said YES PLEASE.

One of my cousins had a queen mattress she didn’t need anymore, so it was apparent the queen bed situation was meant to be.

My down comforter is one from my old house, but I did buy a new duvet cover from Target for it, and it came with the covers for the extra pillows on my bed.

The small throw pillow is from my Buy Nothing group.

Over the bed is a mirror from the 1960s that someone was giving away on the Buy Nothing group. My dad came over to help me hang it up securely because woo, this thing is heavy.

(Don’t worry; we do not generally have earthquakes here, so this thing is not gonna fall on my head while I sleep!)

Next to my bed is a scale that my abandoned-house sister-in-law gave to me because she had an extra one. I mostly use it to help me weigh eBay packages. 😉

My full-length floor mirror was a Facebook Marketplace find; I am of the opinion that a full-length mirror is a must.

Otherwise, how do you really know what you look like before you leave the house??

Also it is very convenient when I need to take clothing pictures for my blog. 😉

 

Next is a table from my other house, and on top is a plant that I propagated from an Aldi kalanchoe.

 

The plant is in a pot that I got from my Buy Nothing group; the pot was spattered with something that seemed almost like concrete, but with enough scrubbing, it came clean.

And now it looks great!

My curtains are from Ikea; they’re the Matilda ones, and they are only $20/pair. Such a good deal!

The dresser in the corner is also from my friend Kate; it goes with the bed frame.

The little dish on top of the dresser is from the abandoned house, and it’s a handy place to put my jewelry at the end of the day.

The lamp on top of the dresser came from Facebook Marketplace; I love it so much! The pull chain is so handy.

In front of the window is the little Philco table that I rehabbed; the light pink color doesn’t go terribly well with my cherry-colored furniture, but it’s fine.

The table fits perfectly there, and it’s really wonderful for the winter, when my orange tree needs to come inside.

The mirror next to that window is from my Buy Nothing group. Something about the actual mirror is a little warped and wonky, so it’s not that good for accurately assessing your appearance.

But it IS good for existing as a free piece of wall decor. 😉

The chair underneath is from a set a cousin was giving away; not all the chairs fit around my table, so I put one in my bedroom, and it actually does kinda match the rest of the wood in my room.

And then we’re back around to where we started!

My room would not win me any interior design contests, of course. But considering that I spent almost no money to outfit this room, I feel very content with how it looks!

It feels peaceful in there, and sometimes when I hop into bed at night to read, I look around and feel a little bit like I’m in a hotel room.

And I feel really, really grateful for all the free/almost-free things that helped me make my bedroom into a quiet little oasis.

I think I may have told you this before but you know what’s funny?

This is the first time in my life that I’ve had my own room!

I don’t think I want to be flying solo for the rest of my life, but for right now, it’s been fun to have a space that is JUST for me. 🙂

I know some of you out there are also in a starting-over phase of life, and maybe some of you will be in the future.

So, here are my tips in bullet points:

• Let people know about your situation. Lots of people have furniture/lamps/etc to give away; they just need to know that you are in need!
• Join your Buy Nothing group and then patiently watch and wait for useful things to pop up
• Peruse Facebook Marketplace; you can find cheap/free things there all the time
• Be flexible; if you go into this trying to curate a very specific aesthetic, it’ll be way harder. An open mind will make it easier! I wouldn’t have necessarily picked the dark wood theme I have going on, but I rolled with it, and it’s working fine for now.

What tips would you add to mine?