Mixing Store-Bought, Thrifted & DIY Decor

Last year I attended the Design Bloggers Conference here in Atlanta, where I had the exciting opportunity to meet HGTV’s Candice Olson (one of my faves!) and hear her speak on interior design. One thing that she mentioned during her presentation is the importance of “layering” when decorating (which I also mentioned in last week’s post about splurging vs. saving on home decor). This could mean layering textures, patterns, materials, old with new, hard materials with soft textiles, contrasting items. You get the idea. This is something I’ve always attempted to do in my home because I think it creates interest and balance, and makes a space just feel more “homey” and comfortable rather than generic and all, “hey I’ll just take this entire floor display from this furniture store and move it directly into my home.” It feels more collected over time and has more character when you mix and match and layer.

One way I incorporate decorating with “layers” is by mixing store bought, thrifted, and DIY decor. I thought it might be fun to show you examples of how I’ve done this in my home, and hopefully give you an idea of how you can keep your eyes peeled for certain items when you’re out thrifting, or show you ways that you can create items yourself to incorporate into your decor in order to save money.

Let’s start with this entryway vignette.

As you can see, I mixed a few store purchased items (mirror and vase from Home Decorators Collection and box from HomeGoods) with some thrifted items (wooden bowl and console table), and some DIY (I made over the console table; painted the watercolor feather; painted the backs of some geodes with liquid gold leaf; and covered a book with gift wrap for a more cohesive look), plus used some dried hydrangeas from our yard.

Next, this vignette which I recently showed you in my mom cave/office/living room.

Here I’ve mixed thrifted items (the lamp, milk glass vase, wooden box) with a thrifty estate sale furniture find, plus a pretty bowl from HomeGoods, wallpaper from eBay which I framed, books from Amazon, a candle from an online shop, and flowers from our yard.

Here’s a wider shot of the room:

You can see the table vignette above, and I combined a sofa from Home Decorators Collection with an affordable rug from Rugs USA (they often have 70% off sales), plus a pillow from HomeGoods, pillows I made with fabric from OnlineFabricStore, a hand me down piece of art from my husband’s grandmother (I know it’s hanging too high, I haven’t moved it down yet since we got our new sofa), and a library card catalog which my grandparents rescued for free and I refinished. Ultimately, we didn’t spend much at all on this room thanks to some thrifty finds.

For my last example, here is a shot from our dining room.

You can find the details on the chandelier here. I created a collage of Ikea frames (by far my favorite source for affordable frames, by the way!) and had an engineer print of a large map printed at Staples, which I cut to fit each frame. The dresser is a Craigslist find that I made over. The antique fan and the milk glass vase were thrifty finds. (You can find all of the info on our dining room makeover here.) The books were store-bought, as was the vase and filler (many years ago).

I much prefer the look of layered spaces. I think collecting things over time and from lots of different sources allows a room to show more of your personality and reflect who you are as a family rather than just filling up the room with “things” that you don’t really care about because you want to hurry up and get it decorated.

What do you think? Do you love thrifting, creating, and layering? Or are you a “let me just buy the whole Pottery Barn showroom” type of person? Either is fine, of course. Pottery Barn is nice, after all. 😉

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