Welcome back to Stylishly Good Vibes!
I’m back on the blog today to share all about how I managed to decorate my space on a budget! As a recent college graduate, this is my unofficial expertise, which is why I decided to share my tips and tricks with you!
Living Room Furniture Details:
Couch (IKEA, similar here), Rug (IKEA), Throw Blanket (Southern Living Store), Pillows (Home Goods), Wall Decal (Michaels), & Clock (IKEA)
I don’t know about you, but I’ve always dreamt about decorating an entire house exactly the way that I visualize it to be. I have endless interior design Pinterest boards that I’m always gathering inspiration from. But, when it came to actually shopping for items similar to what I had seen on Pinterest or Instagram, I quickly realized that I was out of my league.
Let’s be real, most of those beautiful decor photos that we stumble upon on social media are filled with furniture and home accessories that we could only dream of having in our own spaces. Am I right? And then, when you try and find an item similar to the ones you’ve seen on social media, you come back empty handed. Do you see what I’m getting at?
I love using social media as a tool for inspiration, but using it as a way to actually find items in your price range can be a bit of a hassle. But, that doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to create the space that you’ve seen in those pictures on a budget that works for you!
The key to decorating a space is not to rush into the process. I hate being rushed in just about every aspect of my life — it stresses me out! Because of that, when I got my offer to move down to South Carolina for my job, I immediately started buying necessary items for my new space. Mind you, I had two months to get my life together before I moved down here, but still, that was just enough time for me to get everything figured out!
Also, I think it’s important to mention that just because you’re moving somewhere new, doesn’t mean that you have to buy every possible thing you would ever need. You’re not leaving the planet — remember that!
When I first started preparing ideas for how I wanted my space to look, the one thing that I knew was that I didn’t want to clutter my space with a bunch of unnecessary knick knacks. Coming from me, I’m like the Queen of Knick Knacks — I keep everything! Movie tickets, old notes from high school, toys from McDonald’s Happy Meals … so as you can tell, I clearly did not want all of those random things in my new space LOL.
My best advice for beginning to decorate your own space is to first figure out your color palette, and by that, I suggest picking three to four colors that will be the sole focus of your decor. For me, I knew that I wanted white bedding, and with that I wanted to add pops of color. So, I chose five colors for my palette — white, pink, pastel turquoise, lime green and royal blue.
Bedroom Furniture Details:
Bedding (Urban Outfitters), Cactus Lamp (Target) & Pillows (Anthropologie)
I found this ruffled white bedding at Urban Outfitters, and at the time that I bought it, it was on sale! I definitely splurged a little bit, but honestly, this bedding is going to last me for the rest of eternity. If you have bedding that you’ve been eyeing at a store, make sure that you are signed up for their email list because then you’ll be the first to know when they’re having a ~big sale!~
After I got my bedding in the mail, I knew that my next course of action needed to be finding pillows. I had my eye on a set of them at Anthropologie, so the day after I received my bedding, I bought the pillows! So, another item was crossed off of my decor list!
My cactus lamp is a decor item that I found super last minute, but I’m so glad that I decided to buy it. I was roaming around Target and saw it in the kid’s furniture section and I was like, “I MUST BUY IT!“
After those items were taken care of, everything else furniture-wise just fell into place. My dresser was one that I actually had in my college house and I painted myself after finding inspiration in an HGTV magazine. I simply taped up the drawers to the design that I wanted and painted away! I am obsessed with how it came out, and I hope to pass it down for years to come!
Now, when it came to my wall decor, I knew that I wanted to showcase my personality, but I also didn’t want to junk it up with a bunch of nonsense LOL. I have been pinning inspiration photos of statement walls for years, so I knew that I needed to be strategic with how I planned mine out to look.
All of the canvases on my statement wall are ones that I painted over the years — some from college, others from this past summer! Everything else is kind of a compilation of random things that I’ve accumulated over the past year. I love how it came out, and I’m so happy that I was able to integrate all of the different items I had been piling up.
My best advice for creating a statement wall is to plan how you want it to look on the floor before you even begin hanging anything. Once everything is laid out how you want, take a tape measure and measure the length and height of the entire collage of items, including the width between each item. After you’ve done this, start with an item in the center of your collage and hang that first. The rest will fall into place!
Well, to save from this blog post being way too long, I’m going to end it now! I hope that my tips and tricks for decorating your own space are helpful and encourage you to let your inspiration run wild! I thought this post was so much fun to write, so I will definitely be writing similar posts in the future!
Until next time!
Have a Very Happy New Year, Friends!
I am so grateful for every single one of you! You’re support and encouragement are AMAZING!
Alicia <3
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