First apartments: a chance to go wild
When decorating your first apartment the inclination might be to get just about anything. In many cases you may have little choice, as funds are likely to be tight. However, with careful planning, you don’t have to take an anything-goes attitude.
Most of my first apartments were mainly just a mishmash of hand-me-down shelving and remnants of my youth. But this doesn’t always have to be the case.
The first thing to do is establish your needs, and then plan from there. As a young bachelor or bachelorette, chances are you will be entertaining quite a lot, so be sure to have nice surfaces and furnishings and extra storage space.
A good cheap Ottoman with storage can be the perfect place to store TV remotes and video game controllers. Investing in decent picture frames can also come in handy, allowing you to change pictures every now and then. Rather than putting up posters with sticky tape, take those same posters and put them in a frame. Nothing stops you from changing pictures frequently. You can keep an apartment fresh by letting yourself redecorate every few months. Simply moving furniture around, changing posters in those frames, and having throws for couches can help to liven things up on a budget.
Shop garage sales
When you are living on a budget it can be hard to not feel as if you are missing out. Take your time before investing in a $1000 couch. Your tastes are going to change over time and making an investment now in expensive furnishings may not be the best use of your cash.
All my favorite apartments have had long hallways, which have been perfect for my personal art gallery. My eclectic collection of posters has endured because I always know how to best display them and because they have been hung with care.
Local garage sales often have just that touch you want in your home. Before you decide on pieces of furniture you are going to have for the next decade, invest some time finding inspiration.
{ 0 comments… add one now }