Designing a Living Room on a Budget

Last month I put a poll in my Instagram stories asking what gives people the most trouble when designing a living room: finding affordable pieces, furniture layout, paint colors, or thinking of DIY ideas. The majority of people said that finding affordable furniture is the most difficult part!

I have spent A LOT (like wayyyy too much) of time researching and doing online window shopping to try find furniture and decor for my home that only looks expensive… so when I saw that poll, I knew I had to put my knowledge to good use and start compiling lists of affordable pieces from all of my favorite sources. I know that “affordable” is going to be different for each person, but I tried to include a decent range of prices, and capped most of them at a certain amount.

This post includes all of the key pieces you’ll probably need to furnish a living room - sofa, coffee table, side tables, lighting, rug, and TV stand. I always keep my eye out on Facebook marketplace for furniture, and I’ve also scored a couple of nice pieces from Goodwill; but most of the time I usually just buy new. I signed up for emails from a few stores (West Elm, CB2, Wayfair) so that I’m notified of any big sales coming up- I definitely recommend doing that!

I wanted to put this together to show that budget doesn’t have to mean ugly… you don’t have to sacrifice style just because you can’t buy from your dream store!!

OK… now getting to the furniture! You can shop these pieces at the bottom of each collage. Please note: these are affiliate links.

Now that I’ve given you some sources, I wanted to show you a couple examples of how I might pair some of these items…

This entire design costs less than $2,400! (doesn’t include the TV)

For fun, I added in some accessories to that design…

Just a few simple additions really pull this space together!

This second design is even less expensive, at under $2,100…

and with accessories…

I hope this helps show you that you really can create a space you love without spending a fortune! It just takes more time, patience, and research.

Some of my favorite online resources for affordable furniture are:
-Wayfair
-Hayneedle
-Target
-Joss & Main
-Amazon
-IKEA
-West Elm (amazing sales!)
-Overstock
-TJ Maxx
-AllModern (part of Wayfair)

Again, I hope this was helpful!! I’ll be creating similar posts for bedrooms, dining rooms, etc!

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