Since pressing post on my previous 'Moving Out For The First Time' post I've been spending a large majority of my time Pinteresting yet more house inspo, to fit our theme of being minimalistic slightly Scandi yet homely and cosy.
I LOVE Living Rooms that are spacious, airy and light yet of course still a place to be comfortable, cosy and warm of an evening so I've been trying to mix the two together to create exactly what I can so easily imagine in my head.
This can be pretty hard when you're on a budget - especially when your Pinterest feed is full of all these beautiful houses with all the furniture and bits and pieces you so desperately want to make your house perfect...but just can't afford.
As this is my Boyfriend and my first home together and also or first time having bills and rent to pay, we always knew from the day we signed the contract that money would no longer be a luxury like it was before when living at home and we wouldn't really be able to go out and buy things willy nilly without having to check our bank balance first.
My family - knowing me all too well - told me not to worry about that the house looks like at first and to just buy what we can afford or take whatever furniture our family and friends offer to us...even if this means it not matching or looking right together.
This instantly sent alarm bells ringing as I am very hot on having theme and sticking to it, so things not matching around the house was straight away a big no no for me, but I took it in my stride and decided to just take a deep breath - push my organised and aesthetically pleasing thoughts aside and just go with the flow, and see what happens.
All in all we were actually super lucky, and everything we were kindly gifted by family and friends was all in a decent condition and we liked everything, but larger things such as a sofa, chairs and a table we had to pick out and buy ourselves without over-spending.
Second hand at first I was pretty skeptical about, the thought of having pre-owned things in our house that used to belong to people we don't know kind of freaked me out, but once reality kicked in and I stopped dragging the two of us to sofa shops to mourn over the 'sofa of dreams' I knew we couldn't have right now, we took a day off to go around every recycling shop in our area until eventually after what felt like hours we found a sofa that fit our theme, was comfortable and super affordable.
All it needed was a bit of TLC (in the form of a sponge, warm water, washing powder and some elbow grease) and walah! I LOVE it, and its so super comfortable.
Don't be afraid of second hand...recycling shops are full of little gems and you're almost certain to find exactly - or if not very similar - to what you're looking for.
DIY is cheap, quick and easy.
Once all our main boxes were empty and our house started being properly unpacked, I wanted to make the living room a much more cosy and homely area.
I already had a shoe box stuffed full of old photographs including a big pile of polaroids of my favourite Instagrams which I'd printed from Printiki, so I fished them out, picked out the best ones and simply strung some string along a section of wall opposite where we sit to watch TV and used wooden clothes pegs to hang the polaroids along the edge of the wall.
I'd seen similar ideas on Pinterest before and knew I definitely wanted to recreate it in my on house. I love how it looks, and it cost practically nothing!
Facebook Market, eBay and Lidl/Aldi are all great places to find homeware that can potentially look completely high end.
We found a lovely little TV unit on Facebook as well as a Pixar style floor lamp which I am completely obsessed with (we don't turn it on but it's a great decoration and we already had our eye on one brand new which was almost £60, we got ours second hand for £20!).
Our table for two was a lucky eBay find, it was exactly what I had been imagining to have, as we have to have it in the lounge to eat on I wanted it to match the rest of the rooms decor. It was one of the only things we bought brand new but it was an absolute steal. I'd seen others for almost double the price, and was so excited when I found a company on eBay selling the same thing for so much cheaper! (yep...being excited about dining room tables is how exciting life gets when you move out).
The chairs were from Aldi who also surprisingly do very good homeware and along with Lidl we've bought some lovely homeware bits from both. All their items seem to keep up with the latest trends and styles so everything matches perfectly, which means I normally end up adding a few bits and pieces into the trolley when food shopping, (who can't resist cute kitchen tins and flower pots ey?)
My advice if you're moving out into your first home on a homeware/furnishing budget is definitely to be open minded and shop in places you wouldn't normally try, such as supermarket homeware sections. Don't be afraid of second hand shops, they look pretty grim when you first walk in but after a rummage through you'll be sure to find something...plus anything can be easily cleaned up. We've had friends and family think our sofa was brand new!!
Definitely look through Pinterest for inspiration but don't get disheartened by how expensive things can be, theres always a cheaper option...even if it means a bit of DIY!
Do you have any moving out decorating tips? Let me know!
Molly xox
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