Thrift Store Finds! Chairs, Chairs, Chairs!

Usually when I'm shopping for used furniture upholstery can be tough to find. It seems like upholstery is usually in pretty bad shape. I was determined to find a few chairs for our new house though!  Accent chairs from a typical store are at least $100 each (or way more) and usually they do not have that much character--which is fine, but I love to add as much character to my house as possible, some might find it funky ;)  

First, for my living room I needed one little chair. I found this cute little lady chair for $29! The upholstery was in perfect condition! At first I thought, grandma chair? and then I thought, no--with one of my orange elephant pillows it would be perfect! Joe got suckered into buying the orange pillows outside of a movie theater in India by a good salesman--at the time I thought I wouldn't use them, but now i'm happy he got them! (why did we go to a movie in India you ask? it was so hot we had to get some a/c!)

Here is my little lady chair in her thrift store waiting for me to take her home:

Orange "Boudoir" Chair

This one is awesome and totally funky--and perfect for our front sitting room. I saw this one fun day when I was out "antiquing" in Ottawa, KS with my mom, Rudy, Larry, Alexis & Lilli. They probably thought I was crazy but I thought I just have to have that chair! So, my mom got it for me for my birthday! I think it was like $50, but later when we got it home we found a price tag on the bottom for way more

so it must have been marked down :)

Last, but not least, my Blue Tufted Wingback Chair. I love tufting and the classic style of a Wingback chair. This one was the perfect color so I had to have it.

Here is the front room with the Wingback and Boudoir chairs. 

I love how they are different but still complement each other well.

Here is the living room with my little lady chair

Thrift Store Find! Retro Metal Shelf $6

I have a space in my dining room that needed something small and narrow. I thought a shelf would be perfect because we have a lot of knick knacks and photos from travels and life (probably a few too many!) it's hard for me to resist souvenirs from foreign countries, especially when they are such a bargain and I know will be full of memories!

I found this not so cute metal shelf but imagined it would look great in my new favorite blueish turquoise that I have been using everywhere--including my front door! I got the leftover paint from our painter so I'm going a little crazy with it. I think it is almost a neutral color in our house full of color.

(do you like the fake wood grain on the metal ?)

 I left the brass parts brass to coordinate with my Indian Brass vases. I think it's funny that I like some gold accents on the interior of my house but not the exterior! ;)



Thrift Store Find! Spindly Table $2.75

I found this little beauty is and thought it would be a perfect plant stand for

my pencil cactus in our dining room area.

I had extra yellow paint from my nightstand project so I thought that would be the perfect color. I love the way it turned out and the pencil cactus is a perfect fit!

My mom has had the same pencil cactus for like 40 years that she brought to Missouri from Arizona. She has made new cacti over and over with the same plant from cuttings. This cutting was 1/4 of the size last year, she brought it in a little ziploc bag--look at it now! Awesome! It's great too because I never have to water it. So far I haven't developed a green thumb so it's the perfect plant for me.  

House Exterior Paint!

When we purchased our house we knew we had to get it repainted and relandscaped within 30 days according to the HOA--30 days!? I know! That is what I thought and why I asked for the money from the seller (Freddie Mac)--and got it--yay! Never hurts to ask, right? It was actually a good thing that they put such a huge request on us immediately or I'm afraid we would've waited too long and the house really needed it after sitting empty for nearly 3 years.

Before: Boring beigey-pinky color, didn't really stand out at all.

After: I went very bold! A grayish brown, sometimes called "Greige" It is pretty dark but I love the contract between the field color and the trim. It really stands out now! I also needed to update the goldy brass exterior lights, door handle and house numbers. I shopped around for lights and everything was too pricey so I realized I could spray paint everything silver, total $3.50! (i'll put it in a future post!) The planters were just green plastic that my mom found on the side of the house, I used the door color to paint them and added pink and orange flowers.

next project, deck?! with the beautiful view it would be nice!

Turquoise Lamps

Just like my vision of yellow nightstands, I have always dreamed of turquoise lamps. My favorite colors are turquoise, yellow, orange, pink & green. I think this comes from my travels to India & Thailand. Indians & Thais use a lot of bright colors in their clothing, cuisine & decor. These countries are full of color & beauty, I look forward to posting photos of my travels someday soon, stay tuned! 

 I love turquoise. I always have. My Aunt Laurel who lives in Arizona gave me a turquoise ring when I was about 14 and ever since I have always been drawn to the color in jewelry, fashion & home decor.

I'm a little obsessed, most of my shirts & jackets are various shades of turquoise.

After searching for turquoise lamps for quite awhile I found many nice options for hundreds of dollars but none that really met what I had in mind for the right price.

I work for a built-in company in design & sales where I'm constantly driving around and often have a little time to kill in neighborhoods of the city that I'm not familar with. My GPS is a lifesaver! I just punch in the nearest Salvation Army or Goodwill and there is a well spent break. Many times I just browse and walk out with nothing but occasionally I find something from my "list". I have a constant running list in my head of things I'd love to find, for example these lamps! $2.50 each! I had the salesperson plug them in to make sure they worked and they did! They are the perfect shape that I had pictured and I love the gold on the base, very much in line with the Indian & Thai style that I like.

I used a little fine sandpaper to remove the beautiful roses. They are ceramic so I bought a small can of enamel paint, this will work on practically any surface even glass or ceramic and will not chip.

Lovely! I was so excited with the way they turned out!

For the shades, I really liked the square style and I pictured brown to coordinate with our headboard. It just so happened that a K-mart near us was going out of business so I scored them for 30% off, no returns so I had to be really sure. I have to admit I took 2 trips to the store and a photo so I may have broke even on the gas vs. 30% off-haha.

Yellow Nightstands

I have searched high and low for the perfect yellow nightstands for our bedroom.

 You ask why yellow? Well, I love the color yellow, it's bright and cheery and the perfect thing (in my opinion) to wake up next to with the curtains blowing in a fresh spring breeze of fragrant lilies on the nightstand. (I'm daydreaming now because it is still winter, it snowed today

& i'm too cheap frugal to buy fresh lilies)

I have a carved headboard I got a couple of years ago from Pier One for a steal of a deal. Like many things I watched this item for months until it went on clearance and then combined the low clearance price with my 20% off designer discount to get it for a great deal. It is a heavy, dark piece and I am not a matchy-matchy type of girl. I felt I needed to introduce a bright color to balance the "heavy" feel of the headboard.  I think a great design has contrasting textures and finishes throughout the entire space. I like to combine substaintal heavy pieces wood pieces with light more airy things and bright colors for an ecletic feel.

So, I found these perfect carved nightstands on the olde list of craig for $10 each-woo, what a deal! I like that they have carvings to tie in with the carved headboard too.

Completely different color and carvings but similar style.

pretty, if you like dark smoky bedrooms from the early 80s

(Joe asked why I would paint them, he liked the wood ;)

A little splash of paint and brand new cheery nightstands are borned!

(i know that's not correct but it's from a recent movie and so funny)

This quilt is very special to us, it is a Tree of Life quilt.
Made for us for our wedding by a family friend, Laura Gottlieb.
Such beautiful colors. (I also love my little I heart Kansas pillow from my friend Kristi ;)

Welcome to The Dollar Nest!

Welcome! This blog is meant to inspire the saver and DIYer in you. I love to save a dollar, a dime, a nickel, a penny--it all adds up! I love thrift stores, I am definitely a believer that one man's trash is another woman's treasure ;)

I am a new "nester", I married my dream guy, Joe, 2 years ago. Shortly after we moved from San Diego, CA (where we met) to Kansas (where I'm from) to run our family's pumpkin patch for few months in the fall and now we live in Colorado.

We love it here, there are beautiful mountain views all around & it's sunny 90% of the time, which is nice coming from CA. But it is MUCH more affordable than CA and it is a happy medium for us, close to our home states of Wisconsin & Kansas but still in the "West" for Joe's skiing, fishing & hiking adventures.

For now we are renting and saving up to buy our own house someday soon. I hope to post many home improvements and design ideas here.

I love to design, travel, eat delicious food & of course find a deal! I have been very fortunate to travel to many parts of the world. Traveling is one of my passions and also fuels my passion for saving money. I have gotten some amazing free tickets and deals (I will elaborate more later) which has allowed me to travel to some of my dream places like India, Thailand & Brazil. I would much rather spend my hard earned money on traveling and experiences than clothing or material objects. That is why I love to find used items for a great deal when I do "need" that material possession!

I would love to learn more about photography & cooking. I still have my training wheels on in those areas. I have not invested in any fancy cooking or photography equipment yet. Maybe someday....then the quality of photos I post here will improve ;) The Food Network is my favorite channel (weird that it's not HGTV, a close second) so hopefully someday I will make some progress in the kitchen one of these days...

Someday we hope to add some little chicks to our nest! For now we are just trying to feather our temporary nest, travel and live life to the fullest while planning for the future by saving money and living on a budget.

My inspiration for design comes from my travels, I love an eclectic "worldly" look in my home. I love bright colors, many textures and collected objects. I like to mix and match and I love when objects in my surrounding have a story our strike up a memory for me.

My inspiration for saving money comes from my Grandma Mary. Since I was a little girl she has always taught me to save my pennies. She had some pretty awesome (and crazy ;) ideas for saving money including collecting those delicious sauce packets from Taco Bell for a rainy day. I haven't done that lately but Joe has caught me doing  pretty ridiculous things in order to save a dime. In these cases he usually just says, "ok Grandma, that's enough" (he loves you Grandma!). Here is my beautiful Grandma on our wedding day. I hope you enjoy following me in my quest to save money and enjoy life!