SoCal Apartment Bedroom

For those of us living in apartments, we don't have the luxury of tearing off the sheetrock and nailing rustic reclaimed wood to the structure. Fortunately in Los Angeles, we usually get pretty good sized rooms so there's a lot of space to fill and be creative. Here are some examples of how I've decorated my room, fairly easily and for pretty cheap.

• String art sign - cost about $10-15

• Reed fence - about $20

• Tiki torches - dollar store

• Straw mat - (under desk covers all my cables) dollar store

• The hanging lights were like $2 a strand on discount at Cost Plus

• The rest of the furniture was either free from friends/family or for cheap from Ikea

My tips for thrifty decorating: 

• Ask friends and family for old furniture 
• Frequently check thrift stores, Craigslist, TJ Max/Ross, and as a last resort - Ikea
• Clearance sections at stores
• My personal favorite: checking around dumpsters- seriously, I have found so much cool stuff for free around apartment dumpsters in LA

You don't have to spend a lot of money, paint or tear apart the walls to have a decently cool apartment bedroom!

Yarn Ornaments

Repurpose old ugly ornaments or buy some cheap ones to make yarn ornaments.  I went to the dollar store and got a box of 7 ornaments, and three bottles of craft glue, spending a grand total of $2 (I had leftover yarn, and leftover hemp which I used for making the hanging loops).  Here is the step by step process I took:

•  Make sure to note that I only apply glue in sections, because it dries quickly, 
•  The yarn should be tightly wound around the ornament to cover it completely
•  Try not to get any glue on your fingers, it can cause you to accidentally pull off parts of the yarn that have already been coiled on the ornament 

  

Merry Christmas!