My fave thrifty decor creations

Now that I'm married to a contemporary streamlined decor kind of guy, I've had to make some major style concessions in our new home together - and indeed, most of what you see in these photos are no longer in my possession, sigh. Not to say that our newly painted living room (pics coming soon) won't have a wee bit of boho injected into it, but let's just say, compromises have been made - on both sides. This post will honour a couple of looks I created in my old Toronto apartment, using salvaged curbside pieces and thrifty decor finds.

TRASH: An ex brought me this wooden dining room table with flip up table extentions - so cool. He found it in the trash. Though it had heaps of shiny paint and varnish on it, I still liked it. The white vinyl chair - covered in a dollar store faux fur rug and velvet pillow - was another garbage find; so too was the curved chrome chair at the front.

THRIFT SHOP FINDS: The silver chair in the back was part of a set of four salvaged at the Salvation Army in Ottawa years ago, spraypainted silver by moi and then covered with a silver tablecloth from the dollar store - tres grunge chic. Ditto for the painting, wall lamp, and handpainted bowl. The lamp was a junk shop find.

BOUGHT NEW BUT INEXPENSIVELY: The curtains were on sale in a fabric shop, tied with ribbon from a gift. I found the heavy crystal Art Deco style vase at a dollar store, if you can believe it. The large black and white photo was a gift, and the two smaller ones are old photos of me that I framed with inexpensive white mattes and frames.
INSPIRATION FOR VIGNETTE: I love the droopy tulips. I had a dinner party the evening before and someone brought them to me after walking through minus 30 degrees temperatures - so they wilted, rather artfully I think. I started with the vase and tulips on the table and went from there.

INSPIRATION FOR VIGNETTE: I really, really loved this creation - I call it my boho corner. The fun thing about this look was that it was created in the dining room space of my one bedroom apartment - but I said, what the hell, let's put the living room in the dining room - something my best friend and I did when we were 20 and living in our first apartment together.

TRASH: The loveseat, a Barrymore made in Canada gem (covered with an inexpensive slipcover from Zellers, a Canadian store) that a beau from years ago hauled out of a dumpster (actually, there were two, and I go them both).  Blue velvet chair: a curbside find in Toronto, as was the amazing wooden console dresser.

THRIFT FINDS: The Chinese style lamp was a Value Village find and the blue shade was also from the thrift shop; the Indian carpet was found at a junk store along with the head vase on the large console; the large mirror and painting balanced on it were both thrift store finds and so were the wooden oval, silver wrought iron and glass/brass tables.

BOUGHT NEW: The boho cushion on the chair was found in Saskatchewan about a decade ago, and the striped silk pillow on the sofa was part of a pair, also purchased new and splurge items if memory serves. The rest of the pillows were thrifted.

LOVE: The green Star Trek decanter on the console (see pic one up) - a gift from my best friend. It belonged to her folks and came with eight teeny shot glasses that matched.
Sadly, though I managed to sell/donate a lot of the smaller items, most of the larger furniture pieces were left curbside in Toronto when I moved. I tried to to donate the furniture to charity shops but they are so under-resourced they could not pick them up. Hopefully some like-minded folk picked up my stash left in front of my apartment.