How to Use Someone Else’s Furniture in Your House
My mother moved from a large condo in the city to a small house in our 55 and older community just before last Christmas. Disposing of the furniture she couldn’t use was a complicated jigsaw of shipping ( cousin in NC), waiting for pick up (SIL in NC), donations, and moving van delivery to me and DS2 (who had just moved into a new apartment). I took a beautiful cabinet I have coveted for years that is now in the downstairs family room, and the pieces of my parents’ bedroom furniture that wouldn’t fit into her new house. I love her bedroom furniture and since she was keeping an armoire, bench and nightstand I took the desk and tall dresser so someday someone would have the complete collection. There was only one place for it—- the twin guest bedroom. I put my daughter’s handpainted chest of drawers in storage and donated the antique wicker desk painted pale pink; it never would have survived another child anyway. I had the room repainted the same color I chose for my mom’s bedroom in the new house, PPG Filigree—- an ethereal lighter blue that looked great with her blue and green furniture. We had to move the beds far apart to accomodate the wide desk, and the chest is just a tad too large for the room. Mom liked my baby ruffled white cotton curtains so I gave them to her, and she offered some silk ones she’d used in her dressing room that I took and are beautiful. It’s not the room I envisioned, isn’t fun and kid friendly, but it echoes my childhood home and I do love the furniture itself.
I kept the headboards and bedding, and the mirror I bought to go over DD’s chest.
Depending on how you look, the desk is actually more blue than green. That’s my existing bench from DD’s old room with the infamous Ballard sage green check upholstery. I didn’t even realize until I saw the picture that one of mom’s tassels was still attached 🙂 And there’s DD’s old rabbit lamp, still on nightime duty.
Pressed flowers on the wall, one my mom’s and four I framed.
The chest with my mother’s colored pencil portrait found during her move. I had it framed in similar colors to the chest.
This gives a better look at the colors. This is from Baker, late 60s or 1970, I think.
Curtains still need to be steamed. You can’t tell from the photo but they are light blue and green plaid, aqua where the two cross.
An upholstered stool from my mom’s house at the foot of one bed.
And this beauty at the foot of the other. It needs to go, it is completely out of place in this room, but where can I put it? ☹️ It was in my mother’s small den next to an apple green chenille upholstered chaise positioned between a white marble fireplace and a tall window looking out onto trees in a courtyard.
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Comments (54)Here's my advice: 1. Start with paint. If you have a room that is not going to require a total redecoration, paint it. It's the least expensive way for big impact. 2. If you have a few rooms that you want to redecorate, like I do, pick a room. Start creating your design board or design album. It should help you put things together visually to get a sense of the feeling of the room. Once you get your design fairly solid, paint! 3. It's OK if some rooms that are not used a frequently remain a work in progress, but rooms that you use often try to finish. Living in unfinished rooms causes me anxiety! 4. Use this site. The people here are so helpful. They give you design advice, color advice, recommend cheaper options, etc. Here's some pix/links to give you an idea: My reading room, which is still in progress Kitchen Re-do. We did it ourselves. Well, everything but the back slash and granite. Total out of pocket $7250 Kitchen design album - these were just pictures that I would save for ideas http://partypooper.smugmug.com/Other/Home-design/12883677_n2q52#936728932_3mfPf Here's the Kitchen in Progress http://partypooper.smugmug.com/Other/Kitchen-in-Progress/12963085_mDSZn#967564981_Zspyi Here's the finished Kitchen http://partypooper.smugmug.com/Family/finsishedkitchen/13429183_MMPGm#977299982_5RsyH Paint does wonders! Dining Room before - yep it was a pink living room: Dining room now: Deck before Deck after Hearth room before Hearth room after but before the kitchen redo....See MoreHow Much Color Do You Use In Your Home?
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Comments (8)Of the places you and others have mentioned, I've only ever used Craigslist for selling large furniture, though most of what I sell isn't super high end (we're not at the point of down-sizing yet). I have bought a few higher end items (antiques) through Craigslist at what I would consider fair prices, though less than what an antique store would charge. My general rule of thumb for buying through Craigslist is I don't pay more for an item than I think I could re-sell it for if I change my mind. I love Craigslist for the simplicity and ease, and have never had a bad experience selling (or buying) items through the site, though as others have mentioned you just have to make sure you ignore the scammers. It's easy to weed them out once you know to expect them anytime you list something of significant value. Just read the page on their site that details typical scams and follow the guidelines to avoid being scammed. Craigslist didn't work well for my in-laws when they were downsizing a couple of years ago, but they were also on a tight schedule and I thought they were asking WAY too much for their furniture. I listed it for them but didn't have the heart to tell them that it just wasn't worth much in today's market, even though they took great care of it and kept all the original receipts. They eventually donated it because no one was interested at the prices they wanted for it and they ran out of time. If you'd rather get something than nothing, you just need to price it low enough and someone will buy it. If you are selling 80s/90s honey oak furniture, it doesn't matter how nicely its been cared for, the market is saturated with it and realistically you are not going to get much for it. Take a look on your local Craigslist and see what the market is like in your area. Is there a lot of furniture like what you are wanting to sell, and how much are other people asking for it? If your items are priced to sell, they will sell. humbleandkind's advice to be willing to break up sets is excellent advice for the secondhand market. People are often looking for individual pieces and sets aren't as popular as they used to be, so you'll likely get more for your items if you are open to selling pieces individually. I bought our breakfast table off of Craigslist and it came with chairs I didn't like, so I just re-sold them on Craigslist to 3 different buyers. Good luck with your move!...See MoreHow do you feel about being an overnight guest in someone's home?
Comments (52)I think it depends on your personality and the personality of your guests or hosts. I visit some friends and it feels just like home, no issues. Others rarely host guests and I can tell that they are not into it. My goal for my home is to try and make my guest feel comfortable, and to have a lot of people around often, but our house is pretty small and unfortunately the guest bedroom has to serve double duty as my office . . . I know for some that would not be great. I for one don't mind a pull out couch in the living room but that's a horror for hubs. His son lives in HIS house, and it really bugs me that they can't be bothered to buy a nice pull out couch for the living room, and we oldsters have to sleep in bunk beds in the kids messy rooms. But then my grandmother had to sleep in a double bed with me when she visited, so turnabout is fair play I guess. We didn't have a guest room growing up, and it was a while before my brother was old enough to have twin beds in his room so that eventually my room became guest quarters. We finally got a proper family room with a pull out couch when we had our garage turned into a family room. But I can see why that would not be ideal for a lot of folks. My husband swears is it untenable to try and sleep on a pull out couch, and no one in his family is social, so having guests is practically unthinkable to him. We stay in a motel when we visit. I guess being a camper and living in communal quarters at camps during the first part of my young adulthood conditioned me to tune out of lot of situational "noise" when it comes to accommodations. I think some of this is introvert/extrovert stuff. I'm an extrovert, people being around does not bother me necessarily. Depends on the people and what they are doing. I have more tolerance for stuff than hubs. Does not mean my tolerance is unlimited, it's just that I hardly notice certain things that drive him batty. Noise bothers me, but he can hear someone breathing three rooms away and it will keep him up. Even a faint light stream and that's the end of his night's sleep. He doesn't like most accommodations, even motels and vacation rentals, he usually has some feature he zones in on that bugs him. Being a carpenter who builds houses, he can always find the flaw . . ....See MoreKswl
last yearKswl
last yearLol, Ally!
Allison, our powder room has a bossy blue wallpaper
But I am thinking that I could try it between these two chair, although I don’t think the curtains would work with it and I would have to change the lamp.
The current table between these chairs is an antique oval tray my mother had fitted with a glass top. I have it on a faux bamboo metal stand and could use it in the DR as a stand for a champagne bucket as needed. I’ll try the pink table here later today.
Kswl
last year
Kswl thanked beckysharp Reinstate SW UnconditionallyKswl
last yearlast modified: last yearAllison (and anyone else who would weigh in) here is the possible change from tray table to the pink and green table from the bedroom between teo rose tweed club chairs in our front sitting room. The lamp probably would have to be changed, don’t you think?
existing tray table
(Click on the picture to see it larger.)While the table takes up little visual space it is much wider than the pink table, which has a little more heft:
Here is the lamp
and here is a picture of the tray. There is a very nice inlaid medallion made of different woods and ivory and the handles are brass. This was also my mother’s but she gave it to me years ago. The glare is glass.
Kswl
last yearI do use the lamp, but additionally it is on a timer and comes on at 7 pm and stays on all night in case someone comes in or comes over late. I also just like having a light in the front window. Nothing just right comes to mind, but finding something new and wonderful would not be a hardship 🙂 I need to find something that won’t argue with the half lamps just opposite:
There are 2 of these flanking a large mirror.
Kswl
last yearPink table does not work in dining room, the main reason the tray table does work is because I could pull it out as needed; the tray can be lifted up (held onto the legs with strong suction cups) and the legs scissored flat for storage. I am going to look at it for a day or two in the sitting room. My mother says she has at least one lamp that she thinks I would like to use, possibly two to choose from and I am welcome to either. I’m taking her a lasagna tomorrow and picking her up to go to the new George Clooney / Julia Roberts movie and will get a look at her lamp possibilities then. in the meantime I have seen a few that look interesting, all 18” or under:
Metal would be nice slthough i prefer brass to anything gilded
Very pretty
Love this one!
This one is alabaster.
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