Black Friday Shopping for FREE stuff!

Skip the crowds this Black Friday, and shop from the comfort of your home -- without spending a dime!  I have scoured our local Free listings on Craigslist to find all sorts of great stuff.

If you find something as amazing as this mirrored armoire, grab the truck and go get it! It's stunning, just as it is.

This white painted armoire, from Restoration Hardware, costs $1800!

I am in love with this french provincial dresser!

It is missing veneer in a couple of places, so it's a perfect candidate for a little wood putty and paint, like this dresser, from This and That Life.

This leather sofa is in good condition, structurally, and just needs to have the leather reconditioned to be beautiful, once again.

These channel back chairs look like they've spent the last sixty years in an unused living room. I might pull the skirts off, to update them, but the off white upholstery is in great shape, and off-white is always classic.

People are often giving away faded or dated framed art. These make great "canvases" to create new art pieces for your walls.

Here's an easy example of how to create your own wall decor. If you are doing this over an old piece of art, give it a good base coat of paint, first, and let that dry completely before taping a pattern off with painter's tape or masking tape.

Two things, in the picture below, caught my attention. First, the vintage metal doll crib is just darling. I might use it like a basket, and store extra lap blankets in it, keeping it under an end table.

Second, that ornate frame is gorgeous! I would clean it up and put a thin piece of plywood in it, painted with chalkboard paint, like this one.

If you have someone strong in your life, you might grab this vintage safe. It has a working combination!

So much great patina! I would clean it and seal it and put it in my living room.

I've seen these converted to occasional table and dry bars. Here is one I found on Apartment Therapy.

While a stack of old magazines might seem like a strange thing to get on Craigslist, collage artists, and papier mache artists and crafters can find all sorts of things to do with them.

This starburst mirror was made from magazine pages!

And then there are the ubiquitous paint listings. You can paint your house, paint your armoire, paint your mirror, and still have paint left over!

I love wheeled carts. They are great for craft supplies, sewing supplies, party drink stations, etc.

I love this pretty rolling cart that's been converted to a coffee station.

These beige sofas are clean and in good repair, with classic lines.

Add some pretty pillows, like these, from Pottery Barn, and your living room will be a show stopper!

You might also enjoy this post on how to weave a rush seat.



Or you might like this post on mixing paneling styles.



If you enjoyed this tutorial, please subscribe to House Revivals in the sidebar, so you won't miss the fun projects we have scheduled. Find us on Facebook, too, so you can catch all the "in between" stuff, and see what I'm working on daily on Instagram. Feel free to link today's post to your favorite social media sites.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Amanda

Fabulous Free Stuff for Your Home (REALLY)!

Continuing with our Fabulous Free Stuff posts, I've found a few more things on my local Craigslist that would be totally worth grabbing for your home. We all want to have beautiful and functional homes, but furnishing and decorating a home is expensive. Here are some fun ideas for using free stuff to transform your home.

The desk shown below is huge and solid and made by Hooker, but most importantly -- it's FREE! Personally, I think it's beautiful as it is, but if were painted in a chippy farmhouse finish it would look amazing.

Check out those TWO huge framed mirrors! Someone put these items in their driveway for folks to take for free.

A similarly sized mirror from Restoration Hardware would cost over one thousand dollars!

Leaning against the wall in your entry or bedroom, a gorgeous standing mirror would be functional and have great visual impact.

Never underestimate the power of paint! The FREE bed shown above looks a little dated and tired, but a couple of coats of light blue paint, like on the Maine Cottage bed below,  will make you think you're sleeping at the beach.

I'm not usually a fan of free sofas, because they are often dirty or broken, but every now and then, you find a sofa that is clean and in perfect condition. This sofa is a nice neutral color, so it will work in just about any decor.

I love trays!  They are great for corralling books and remote controls and newspapers, etc. Use them on coffee tables or ottomans, hang them on the wall, or keep toiletries organized with them.

The inlaid bone tray shown below is gorgeous, but it's also $598 from Serena and Lily. The red tray, show above, is free. A stencil and some craft paint applied to the free tray could yield the same effect as the Serena and Lily tray, and you would still be able to pay the rent afterward.

Authentic mid century furniture is usually very well made, from good quality woods. Can you believe someone was giving this piece away?

Mid century shelf and desk units are all the rage right now. West Elm makes a retro version that sells for over a thousand dollars.

This old teacher's desk has already been given a set a sturdy industrial wheels.

A good cleaning and some paint is all it needs to be converted into a beautiful and functional kitchen island, like this one from This Old House.

The wing chair below is tired and looking a little ragged, but the lines are amazing.

Betty, over at Oh Everything Handmade, shares how she transformed a dated, but classic, wing chair into a modern farmhouse focal point.

Good dressers are some of the most functional storage pieces you can own. Vintage dressers are almost always better made than newer ones. Check for signs of a quality piece by looking for dovetailed drawers and dust panels between the drawers. The piece should not "wobble" at all, and the drawers should close nicely (unless you are handy, and comfortable making repairs). Avoid anything made from particle board. The waterfall style dresser below has great lines, and lovely hardware.

Use your dresser to create a welcoming entry, or at the end of a hallway, to create a moment of beauty in your home. I use dressers to store everything from vintage silverware to extra sheets. The dresser below was found online for free, and given a quick coat of paint. After some light distressing, it was ready to display a painting found at a German flea market, a woven ball my father-in-law picked up when he was in Vietnam, a carved Polish trinket box, a Polish pottery bowl, and a carved box from Thailand. Dressers are a great way to display family mementos.

This wood filing cabinet only needs a coat of chippy farmhouse paint to give you extra storage in a bathroom or kitchen (they're not just for files, anymore). Use one next to a pedestal sink to store extra toiletries.

I hope this post inspires you to look a little more closely at the "free" stuff being offered up online. Most of this stuff is headed for the landfill, if no one claims it, so it's great it we can divert it by giving it a new lease on life.

You may also enjoy this painted bed makeover post. 

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to House Revivals in the sidebar, so you won't miss the fun projects we have planned. Find us on Facebook, too, so you can catch all the "in between" stuff, and see what I'm working on throughout week on Instagram. Feel free to link today's project to your favorite social media sites.

For another FREE template, click here.
Thanks so much for stopping by!
Amanda

More Ways to Furnish Your Home For FREE!

When my husband and I were starting out, we were young and impoverished students. Our first sofa was found, free, from the want ads. My mom helped me re-upholster it from mismatched remnants we found at a local fabric store. It looked amazing.

After reupholstering that sofa, I was hooked on DIY projects. I sewed curtains, painted dressers, made Christmas ornaments, and so on -- stretching our limited dollars while creating a home for our growing family.

Furnish Your Home With Free Stuff -- Beautifully!

The holidays are right around the corner, and many of us are thinking about sprucing up our homes, in preparation. With tight budgets, the task can feel a bit daunting, but it doesn't have to be. You don't need a lot of money to create a beautiful home. In fact, sometimes you don't need any money!

This morning, a quick scroll items being offered up for FREE on Craigslist turned up scores of awesome stuff.

This Abbot Kinney Welding Shop is a Piece of Authentic Venice

We've been spending a lot of time in Los Angeles, lately. For a couple of years, we need to travel between Venice and Seattle for my husband's job. We have fallen in love with Venice.

Venice is amazing. Venice is crazy. Venice has heart. Venice has crime. Venice has very high end homes, and Venice has homeless encampments. Lots of movies and TV shows are filmed in Venice. In fact, I can see The Today Show filming down by the graffiti wall as I type. When we first came here, I made my husband spend an afternoon with Linda Blair and me, watching Roller Boogie. The two star film was shot in Venice, and it's fun to locate the old Venice landmarks and to see how things have changed. You can see the exterior of our apartment in some of the scenes. You can still find roller skaters on the Venice Boardwalk, though roller skating has been eclipsed by skate boarding, with the addition of a new skate park.

How to Decorate When You're Broke

We've all been there. We want to freshen up our homes, but our home decor budget is non-existent. Here are some ideas that you can use to decorate your home when you're broke.

Make Your Own Paper Bead Roller!

This article for appeared on House Revivals in May of 2014.

If you love rolling paper beads -- or you just want to give it a try, here is a quick and easy way to make your own bead rolling tool using items you have around the house.

I was rolling my beads using the old school method, and it was seriously cramping my hands. I thought there had to be a better way, but didn't have the willpower to wait two days for a bead roller to come in the mail. 

How to Upcycle Old Belts Into Jewelry

If you love a good upcycling project, love thrifting, and love unique handmade jewelry, this post is for you! Here is a simple belt upcycling project that doesn't require any special punches or grommets. You will end up with a lovely bangle style bracelet that is easy to take on and off.

Start with a thrifted leather belt.

The Beach House Studio Reveal

Are you ready for the 2015 House Revivals craft room reveal? Okay, maybe not "the big reveal", but the "this is where we are now, and where we'll probably stay until my schedule frees up in, ohhhhhh, I don't know, January 2016 maybe?"

At the beginning of the year, this attic was a big overwhelming mess.

What Your Collections Say About Your Decorating Style

I'm a collector. I'll bet you are too. We all collect different things, things that speak to us. We all collect for different reasons, reasons that say something about who we are.

You may collect scarves, or lipsticks, or china, or fibers, or rocks, or shells, or recipes, or quilts, or paintings, or crazy friends, or shoes, or books, or office supplies.