Quick Thrifty Decorating Tips.

So this isn't exactly a post about things I found in a thrift store, although some things in these pictures are. Another thing that I get pretty excited about is thrifty decorating. When I first moved out on my own, I was 19 and working retail, but I really wanted my apartment to be cute. I had to use a lot of creativity and I had to search a lot of places AND I had to learn how to build/paint/alter things. I definitely got stuff over time too, instead of all at once. I don't have pics of my past apartments but I have pictures of my current room; hope you like them:



All of the artwork you see was almost FREE. All of the images came from either the internet, or were scanned from other Alice things I own. The frames were some pretty sad looking frames that were either found in my parents' garage, a thrift store, or the dollar store. I took the glass out of all of them and sprayed them all the same color green. It took about 10 minutes. So I guess the total was about $7 between the paint and the thrift/dollar store.

The Alice bedding (there is a quilt and sheets under there too :D) was on clearance at Disneystore.com. It's actually king size because that's all they had left. I don't care. The polka dot bedding is from Target and the throw pillows are from Ikea. Super cheap. The headboard is one of those "shadowboxes" with cork that allows you to change the display. I'm working on making it a really badass Alice display.






These shelves are real wood- they were my parents', and when they got different shelves, I inherited these. Only I had to paint them myself, and it took about a month. Seriously, between sanding, priming and painting...oh my. It was worth it, you should have seen the sad Ikea shelves I had...I guess what I'm suggesting is that you should steal from your parents.

All of those boxes are from either Ikea or Target, none of them was over $10. And they look so much better than having your stuff out. The TV I've had since 7th grade, so that's pretty thrifty. The paper lamp on the floor was from Ikea. The paper lanterns are from (I think) Cost Plus, I think they were around $6, but I already had the lightbulb fixtures. Some of those Alice things that you can't really see were thrifted too :D







More old frames...Those butterflies are ANCIENT. They're from my grandparents' house. I have had them since I was a kid and I have painted them probably 5 times to match whatever phase my room was going through. I like 'em.