Mediocre Home Makeover, Brokeass Edition

December 19, 2008 7:27 PM

[Interior decorator filter] Help us arrange/decorate an 11-x-16 living area cum office cum tv room for minimal dollars and maximum effect. [ghetto blueprint and list of requirements included]

$girl and I have a new place, recession-diminished bank accounts, and an empty place. It looks like this:

corny drawing

We're looking to decorate the place on a very tight budget (say, under a thousand), and we can't realistically paint. We'd love to do something that actually looks rad, feels comfy, and meets the following requirements:

1) A desk screened off from the rest of the room. On occasion I work as a writer, and, per professional mandate, suffer from idiosyncratic work habits. Specifically, I don't like anyone being able to read over my shoulder, even in passing. This is U&K for layout concerns.

2) A TV/loveseat combo would be nice, but not immediately adjacent to the desk.

3) We'd love to have a work-table with two chairs for craft/game/eating purposes. This isn't wholly necessary, but it'd be super handy.

4) A bookcase (cheap, big, sturdy, movable)

5) Furniture that comes flat-packed or is easy to move. We have limited access to a small-ass car. Ikea is acceptable, but we'd love to branch out.

6) Drops hella style on a thin tight dime.

We're in downtown Seattle.

posted by mr. remy to home & garden (6 comments total)

I love how this person used inexpensive Ikea tables for desks.

Look on Craigslist and used furniture places to buy a couch and bookcases. If you want something besides Ikea. Check Craigslist like a fiend and hit flea markets and yard sales.

Remember most anything can be painted. That used coffee table may look sad, but it would be awesome painted black, or turquoise. A big wicker trunk might be a good coffee table option. It provides storage and wicker, rattan, or sea grass mostly always looks great. Put a big tray on top to hold drinks.

Printed graphic sheets from Ikea or Target can be hemmed and used as curtains. Bamboo blinds are stylish and can be had for little money.

Don't worry about furnishing everything at once. Get a couch and take your time finding other bargains you love. But, don't buy things willy nilly, make a list and stick with it. It sounds like you know what you want.

You can make your own folding screen for office privacy out of hollow-core doors. There are instructions on the internet. If you make your own, you can paint it any color you'd like, and it's less expensive. Attach art posters or stencil a graphic design, or cover in funky wallpaper. When not in use you can lean the screen against a wall or behind the couch.

Remember that a few plants, art, and objects that are meaningful to you gives your place soul.
posted by Fairchild at 8:01 PM on December 19, 2008

Seconding Craigslist. I got a comfy sectional couch in good shape for $100 and just picked up a teak Danish modern dining room set for $250. It takes time and patience, to wait for the right thing and swoop, then arrange transport, but totally worth it to get quality goods at Ikea prices. You might appreciate some of the responses to my recent question here.

Whatever you do, get baskets or enclosed storage for your stuff. It's amazing how much better a place looks when you don't clutter it up.

And, in AskMe fashion, may I suggest you need Therapy? They do "how to arrange this room" queries from time to time, but you might need a more specific problem. With a normal-shaped room like that, you have so many options I wouldn't know where to start.
posted by libraryhead at 10:36 PM on December 19, 2008

Just noticed that your carless, which makes Craigslist a lot harder but not impossible. Hire a man-with-a-van and you still come out ahead vs. cheap particleboard.
posted by libraryhead at 10:38 PM on December 19, 2008

You could use a large, open backed bookcase, can make a great room divider along with storage and decoration. Perhaps coming out from the wall between the windows - and your mini office/desk could be in the bottom left corner, looking out at the room (so no one can come up behind you). Or, you could put the bookcase in the middle of the room (about even with the bedroom door) running parallel with the 11' wall, and put the couch along that. Your couch, TV, living room stuff could be on one side, the office and small table on the other.

Great example of a book case room divider

Easy wall decorations can be to go to a craft/art store and buy the 4 wood stretcher frame pieces that make up a painter's canvas. You can make any size rectangle you'd like, are very cheap, and snap together. Then get some fabric and stretch it over and staple gun it. Easy way to make a splash.

Craigslist, home consignment stores are great places to get furniture. Marshalls, Ross Dress for Less are good places for blankets and pillows.
posted by boulder20something at 11:01 PM on December 19, 2008

i am the same way about people looking over my shoulder. the solution i have developed to this is, rather than putting my desk against a wall with my back to the room- i put my back to the wall, with the back of my desk facing the room. if you have a desk with a tall back (err, a hutch i guess it's called) then you can drape some cool fabric or something over the back of it to hide it. or put one of those divider screens, bamboo, some plants, etc in front of it. check it out:

layout

if you use an L shaped desk in the corner that might work pretty well. im not sure about the actual sizes of furniture so I don't know if that layout would work but maybe its a start.

as far as the furniture itself i think ikea is all right. CL is better but if you have car issues at least ikea is convenient.
posted by lblair at 7:54 AM on December 20, 2008

BHG has a nifty room planner.
posted by theora55 at 3:19 PM on December 21, 2008