Develop your own style to save money

[lucille]

We gradually evolved the things in our home to be more old styled, antique or faux antique. We did this because they were things we liked but at some point it dawned on us that it won't really go out of style in the way some other things might. I remember in the 80's when country blue with ducks and hearts was all the rage. Lots of people decorated rooms in their house with it and there were tons of accessories in the stores with this theme on them. A few years later it was tired and it all ended up at Goodwill stores. The same happened with peach and green "southwest" decor about the same time. So maybe by developing our own style we might avoid the compulsion to buy new furniture a few years down the road?

[Bernadette]

Interesting thought. My "home decor" is already in the inimitable Junquetique style, courtesy of garage sales and second-hand stores.

Seriously, I discover that if I simply buy what strikes my fancy, my own personal style emerges automatically out of the choices, even if the choices seem random.

But I'll bet it would be fun to go out garage sale-ing with certain goals in mind like, "I'll re-do my kitchen in Harvest Gold" or "Early 60s retro is my thing."

[purplefdu]

My aunt redid our family farm's kitchen with ugly retro apples when she moved in (and decided she had the right to remodel and take out a mortgage on the house to the tune of $50k) and I've always hated it. Granted the mustard/pea green/burnt orange retro colors were horrid but they were at least excusably so.

We are a very Gothic/Asian/Steampunk household which is hard to do while we rent, but we try. We do have plenty of pieces we have slowly acquired that will eventually work well when we have our own space. Like the antique table I suckered from my mother-in-law and the replica roll-top desk and the burnt velvet comforter set in burgundy/black.