Pauvre Chic

PAUVRE CHIC

Since moving into my first home, I’ve noticed that all the rooms look sparse, well just as sparse as my bank account. But I am determined to live within or below my income bracket, which means that I have to find a way to furnish and make my house a home with little money as possible. I’ve dubbed this operation Pauvre Chic, pauvre meaning poor in French. The first thing I did was take an inventory per room as to what I needed and wanted.

Master Bedroom:

Needs	Wants
Split Queen Size Boxspring (can’t get my boxspring up the stairs a common problem in bmore)	Better Mini-blinds
Dresser	Wooden Queen size bed frame
Mirror	Storage Chest/Ottoman
Night stand	Frame to hold this African Art piece
	Drapes
	Better Paint

Second Bedroom:

Needs	Wants
A twin or double bed	New Paint color
Same size boxspring	Mini-blinds
Same size frame
Night stand
Mirror
Linens for Bed

Small Bedroom/Office:

Needs	Wants
	New Paint
	Mini-Blinds

Living Room:

Needs	Wants
	Love seat
	Entertainment center or TV Armoire
	Artwork
	New paint color
	Accent Pillows
	Throws
	Accent furnishings
	Get futon cover for futon mattress
	Want new paint
	Mini-blinds

As you can see I have a lot of wants, and not a lot of “needs”. So adhering to my pauvre chic I have been on find and acquire mode trying to get the things I want. Some costs are unavoidable, paint, and mini-blinds. But everything else I’m getting for little to no money now. Below are some items I’ve gotten for free:

This queen size bed frame I got from freecycle a listserv that helps people give and get stuff for free from people who are trying to either acquire or get rid of stuff. The only issue is that when the lady was trying to disassemble the bed frame part of the wood that attached to the side railing came off too. All that means is that I’m going to have to screw a piece of wood there in order to use it, for my bedroom. This will be stained a “Bombay Mahogany” color.

Here is one of the two night stands I got again from freecycle, notice the stain at the bottom. The game plan here is to sand and stain the night stand and the rest of the bedroom furniture to make it look like “set”.

This is the Ethan Allen dresser and mirror combo I received, you guessed it from freecycle. Now even though this was free, I paid a guy 75 to help me transport and to use his truck to do so, it was worth every penny. This has been stained.

What’s not pictured is the queen sized futon frame that I got from freecycle, but I had to break down and pay for the mattress which cost me 169.

Also I’ve painted my bedroom bleached denim it’s the color on the walls behind the dresser and the queen sized frame photos.

The next “big purchase” for me is unfortunately going to be a queen size split boxspring. I really don’t want to buy one, but no one is giving them away and I don’t have any ideas as to how else to get support for my mattress.

Another thing I’m getting is African-American inspired or created art. Below are some examples I’m going to get. But besides art I want African Diaspora relics, one in particular are the manumission (freedom) papers of former slaves or copies thereof, which I just so happened to find!