Design on a Dime

Since I'm going to be an RA in the fall, I will be living in a room considerably smaller than the one I just moved out of. As such, creative storage solutions are going to be more important than ever. When my mom came up to Des Moines to help move me out, we decided to take some measurements of my RA's room since it would be mine after the summer was over. We wanted to know how much room we had to work with so we could plan any additional furniture accordingly.

First my mom made a drawing, to scale of course, of the whole room. Then she made small cutouts, to scale, of all of the furniture in the room so we could rearrange the room on paper.

We came up with an arrangement that we liked and then we went shopping.

But we didn't go to a store -- we went garage sale-ing all over the neighborhood. And, friends, let me tell you, that's the way to do it.

For less than twenty five dollars my mom and I snagged a small white shelf ($2) to use at a night stand, a gliding chair ($15 complete with ottoman), a full-length mirror ($.50), some wire shelves ($1), a tray table of sorts ($3), and a collapsible card/picnic table ($1).

Some of this stuff needs a wee bit of work, of course. For example, the chair is covered in a dark green fabric, which won't match my room at all, so I'll probably buy a flat sheet or something to cover that. And the mirror is an ugly brown color, but I can use the money I saved by buying it at a garage sale to buy some paint to make it pretty. And the shelf is a little dirty so we'll have to wash it.

Sometimes you just have to know how to look for things. And, yeah, a lot of stuff you'll find will need some improvements, but I think it's worth it for the amount of money you save.

I'll take some pictures for you later.