Living Room on a Budget- updates

Hi Friends! So right now I am all about decorating, but I don’t have a ton of money to do it. Is anyone else in the same boat? You want a pretty home but you don’t want to spend a fortune. That’s me! Awhile ago I wrote a super popular post on how I decorated my home on a budget. Today I am back with a few living room on a budget updates!
Lighting on a Budget- I have been wanting sconces (a sconce is a lamp that attaches to the wall) for behind the sofa for years, but haven’t found the perfect pair that are in my budget. Our living room doesn’t have a great lighting situation, so some ambient lighting is definitely needed. A month or so I saw on a blog that my favorite Target lamp comes in a sconce (no longer available)!

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I spotted one at my local Target on clearance for $15 so you better believe that I scooped it up! I tried it out and I really like it besides the black cord. I bought a second one online (no longer available), but customer service says I can price match in store. So $30 for two sconces- what a steal!!! I wanted to share in case any of you wanted in on this awesome deal :).

I shared this image on Instagram  (I’d love if you would like to follow along there- my handle is @homewithashley) and my awesome readers gave me the idea to paint the cord white to help hide it. If I had the budget, I’d hire an electrician to hard wire them in, but I am guessing that will cost around $100 and it isn’t a priority right now.

I just covered the lamp portion with a plastic bag and painters tape, laid everything out on a drop cloth, and spray painted with white paint. I only painted the top 3/4 of the cord that show, but if you do a similar project, make sure to cover the plug with tape so that it will still work. It took a ton of coats to cover the braided cord, but doesn’t it look much better?!

Furniture on a Budget- One of my favorite things to do is pop into my local discount furniture store. I love Down East Home (they only have locations in Utah, Idaho, Nevada, and Arizona. But if they have a location near you, check it out!). They were having a 25% off clearance sale and I spotted these pink velvet West Elm benches for $100 each. The total ended up being $79. For a bench that was originally $349, I’d say I got a good deal!

Side note, but it has been SUCH summer already! I am all about protecting Don’s baby skin so I got him this cute hat from Little Sun Hat. I really love that it snaps at the chin so he can’t pull it off. There are super cute girl bonnet options too!

Art on a Budget- I shared my Instagram wall hanging DIY before, but we were moving furniture and totally broke it! We had an extra frame that I painted white and we put our favorite Instagrams inside. This is pretty much the only reason I print photos now a days and I love pointing out the images to Don. Having a framed Instagram wall art is super cheap- each photo is around $0.20 and you can get a frame at the thrift store. For us, this project was free!

So there you have it! Our living room is really starting to come together! I have some money saved for a new sofa and wood floors, but we haven’t found our dream sofa (and we don’t have quite enough money for floors yet). It’s so much pressure to buy a sofa! The reason is that I want to have it for 5-8 years. I want it to be comfortable and beautiful. My husband and I both love chesterfields and I would like a grey leather one. I think leather is a good idea with dogs and kids and will hopefully wear better than fabric. I’ve seen lots of velvet grey chesterfields, but velvet isn’t an option with a shedding dog so we really want leather. This is apparently the unicorn of sofas because I haven’t found one I love. Anyway, if you have any leads let me know! Our sofa has some holes in it right now because it has been worn thin (we’ve had it 9 years now) and one cushion may have some red sharpie marks from the little one so I am getting desperate!

If you want to read how we decorated the rest of our living on a budget, check out this post.
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