Decorating the new place!

[lailanni]

So I'm settled on a trailer!!! Woohoo!!

Anyone have decorating tips/ideas they'd like to share? Cheap options are good too : )

I know there are some people here who watch HGTV, right? Help out a style challenged SDN-er! Now that I have a place I have no idea how to decorate it.

I like purple and blue! Ideas? I want to put in an indoor hammock, but I don't know if that's a structurally sound idea for trailer walls....

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[Sweetcaroline14]

Congrats on your new place. I myself was used to limited finances in my undergrad and I swear it was the best time of my life because I really used my resources wisely rather than buying new. Go creativity.
So, Ideas I can share:
By all means hit the salvation army for used furniture and frames. I actually bought an awesome tea pot the other day while passing a thrift store and it sits on my fireplace mantel. It's beautiful. I can't believe I found it, but anyways, any furniture can be painted a nice white or whatever color. I've got an old wine crate that looks vintage that is in my own home in the study that looks like it was made to be old. Very fun. So, if you've got the time, get out there and hunt!
2. You can decorate or add window treatments without having much money at all. I used to go to Joann Fabrics(I do sew,but I'm giving you no sew options)and get material. You can cover pillows by cutting out a diamond shape and wrapping it around the pillow and tying it in a knot in front or back. Can really be cute. If you want a more streamlined pillow, cut it to fit and buy some two sided velcro. Works awesome! Cheap and gives a nice slip cover look.
3. Use discount shower curtains(cloth obviously!ha,ha,ha)as drapes. You can find really good ones at Target in the back. Under 10 bucks, then whala....you've got yourself some drapes. They look really good as they have the wide tabs or wide rings. Cute as heck. If you can't find shower curtains, you use a table cloth, cut slits like tabs from the top and you can make tie curtains. Not as cute but functional!
4. Plants, plants,plants. Green makes it all better! I try to find cheaper plants and decorate them up with a painted pot. I use rustoleum a lot, as I love wrought iron, so I pretty much paint anything iron that I find black. It cleans it up really nice and goes with my mediterranean home. So, find your style and go for it.
5. You can do the indoor hammock. Just make sure that its hanging from a support beam! ha,ha..I would hate to see you break something .
6. I really can't say enough about finding stuff at thrift stores. With a little paint, your trailer is going to be awesome! Good Luck. I'd like to hear how it turns out!

So I'm settled on a trailer!!! Woohoo!!

Anyone have decorating tips/ideas they'd like to share? Cheap options are good too : )

I know there are some people here who watch HGTV, right? Help out a style challenged SDN-er! Now that I have a place I have no idea how to decorate it.

I like purple and blue! Ideas? I want to put in an indoor hammock, but I don't know if that's a structurally sound idea for trailer walls....

 

[twelvetigers]

I love a good garage sale. Also, thrift stores and the like, or chains such as Ross or TJMaxx will have some neat decorative things at good prices. Really though, paint color choices make a big difference in the 'feel' of a room, so think hard about the colors you would like, and MAKE TEST SPOTS before you paint the whole room. It looks different on the wall than it does on that little square.

Know anyon artistically inclined, youself included? Paint or have them paint some artwork for you. Cheap (materials, framing) and very individual. Use some shades of your favorite colors!

 

[david594]

So I'm settled on a trailer!!! Woohoo!!

Anyone have decorating tips/ideas they'd like to share? Cheap options are good too : )

I know there are some people here who watch HGTV, right? Help out a style challenged SDN-er! Now that I have a place I have no idea how to decorate it.

I like purple and blue! Ideas? I want to put in an indoor hammock, but I don't know if that's a structurally sound idea for trailer walls....

Out of curiosity, what will the trailer cost you on a per month basis on how much space will you have?

 

[twelvetigers]

Thinking of moving out of the van, david?

 

[lailanni]

It's a 14 x 55.

I pay a lot fee of $295/mo. It includes water, sewer, garbage, parking, and snow removal. It seemed like a pretty good option for here.

Renting just a room in a house is around $350, usually plus the utes. A single apartment is around $500+, the cheaper ones are in crapy scary condition since it's a college town.

Trailers seem to hold their value very well here. Even the older, crappier ones (20+ years old!) are going for around $20,000, so I feel pretty good about owning my trailer.

Edit: I'm in the most expensive trailer park in town. Other trailer park lot rents are are in the low/mid $200. But they definately feel more like a trailer park. (no offense, other parks. But there was that guy sitting on a porch with his rifle. And the other guy kicking tires and cursing....)

 

[lailanni]

3. Use discount shower curtains(cloth obviously!ha,ha,ha)as drapes. You can find really good ones at Target in the back. Under 10 bucks, then whala....you've got yourself some drapes. They look really good as they have the wide tabs or wide rings. Cute as heck. If you can't find shower curtains, you use a table cloth, cut slits like tabs from the top and you can make tie curtains. Not as cute but functional!

Wow!!! That's a great idea!! I'd never have come up with that!! Thanks, I'll have to try it

 

[pressmom]

Don't forget Tuesday Morning and the 75% off area in there. A lot of times you can get some really nice stuff in there--very high quality, very cheaply. My mom and I have gotten me a lot of cool stuff there.

 

[Kat0303]

www.craigslist.org
I have been obsessively browsing craigslist since i started decorating my new place, and you can find some amazing deals. trust me.

 

[lazyjayn]

Depending on what kind of walls you hve, you can use fabric and starch to "paper" your walls with something you like. You can usually find some interesting fabrics at walmart for a buck or so a yard. Even now. And when you want to take it down or change it, you just grab and pull. It usually just peels right off.

At my place we're in the process of hanging fabric from the ceiling, like a desert tent or medieval pavilion. All gathered at the middle, then out like a star or something to the walls.

Does WSU have an online student/ community class ad listing? that'd be a good place to look for furniture and stuff that you're missing, tho I find students tend to overprice stuff.

j.

 

[efab]

good thinking. i have always wanted to use multiple trailers to fashion different rooms of a larger home. i have fabricated custom cushions, curtains/drapes/shades, bedcoverings, etc. for boats/yachts, vw vans and mobilehomes for many years, but mostly for people's primary and secondary homes. this career is what has made me a nontrad applicant for so long. what a dynamic change to vetmed. goodluck decorating - fell free to ask any questions.

 

[kat13271]

Check if the University has a salvage shop. At Purdue they take all of the usable furniture that students leave behind, and put it in a huge warehouse. They sell everything at really low prices, and you can find some really nice things.

 

[lailanni]

Depending on what kind of walls you hve, you can use fabric and starch to "paper" your walls with something you like. You can usually find some interesting fabrics at walmart for a buck or so a yard. Even now. And when you want to take it down or change it, you just grab and pull. It usually just peels right off.

At my place we're in the process of hanging fabric from the ceiling, like a desert tent or medieval pavilion. All gathered at the middle, then out like a star or something to the walls.

That starch idea sounds interesting. Where can I get more info? Do you think it will work on vinyl walls? (trailer type)

I bet the hanging fabric looks awesome!! Would you mind sending me a picture? How does it stay together at the middle?

I guess I'm graduating from decorations = posters.

 

[lazyjayn]

we're actually having trouble with the ceiling. we need a big hook in the middle, but all the hooks are around the sides. So we're trying to find the perfect removable sticky hooks. dratted masonry ceiling/ walls. it doesn't help that the cats find the dangling fabric *very* interesting.... it's basically two big bunches of fabric, each tied together at the middle, then theoretically tied to something at the center of the ceiling, and stapled/ pinned/ whatever won't be a nightmare to cover up later at the walls. I saw it on that trading spaces show.

you can find info on the fabric/ starch walls here and here.

or you can google it. Those were just the first two links. I don't see why it wouldn't work on vinyl walls. It works on semi gloss.

j.

 

[Electrophile]

There's also Freecycle, which I haven't personally used but I had a friend who did who got some cool random stuff.

http://www.freecycle.org/

We get e-mails pretty frequently from the other students (especially the fourth years, interns, and residents who are moving away) about them having moving sales. I'm trying to keep the amount of crap that we accumulate to a minimum for that reason. Less stuff to move down the line.