My Sister is a Craigslist Addict

Do you ALL have any idea how much you blessed ME on Monday?

Wow, was that a lot of fun to read all your comments. Thank you so much for taking the time to tell me a bit about all of your lives too. I had SO much fun reading them all and seeing where y’all live and what you do and about your families. And your ages…from 20’s to 70’s, that’s just amazing! I’m right in the middle, so what fun to have so much diversity on here.  So much wisdom to be shared.  I just loved that and will  have to go back and read them all again when I get a minute.  I know I missed a few questions buried in there, but I’ll try to find them again and answer individually.

If you missed my sister’s house that I posted earlier this summer, you will see what I mean and how I got the title to this post.  Yep, Renee is totally a Craigslist addict and it has really made a difference in her house.   And I’m really mad that it wasn’t around when I was buying furniture about 3 years ago.  I would have done the same thing.

Hurry over and look at the BEFORE pics in that post, then you will appreciate this one even more. The changes are dramatic! You might remember they found that gorgeous entertainment center and kitchen island from Craigslist in that earlier post too and now there’s much, much more.  Pay close attention to the livingroom and diningroom combo in those BEFORE pics.

We found this sofa up in the NC mountains while we visited up there earlier this summer.  It’s a Clayton-Marcus and really, really pretty.  It was on sale, so a pretty good price and this is one of the few things she bought new.  It’s a gorgeous camel color with black piping.  This piece was the starting point for her livingroom redo.  We have been emailing back and forth as she has found things on Craigslist and runs them by me.  Then she goes to look at them and has brought many things home, from chairs to light fixtures.

And things are looking GREAT around their house!  They decided not to downsize after all, since the market is not that good.  They also live about 10 minutes from my parents and that has been a good thing for all of them.  Instead of moving, they are working on doing some upgrades and Renee will finally get to do some things around the house she has wanted to do for a long time.

The drapes are from Ballards online.  She  ordered 2 different ones and waited to let me pick the ones to keep and these striped ones are perfect with all her things.

Come on and we’ll look around the living and dining rooms.

She used my same wall color, Whole Wheat in the main areas and one shade darker in here, Camelback.  It looks great with all the furniture.  This natural fiber chair was found on Craigslist too for $239, which was a good deal, I think. 

This ottoman was ordered from the same furniture store in NC (Gibson’s Furniture in Andrews, NC).  Our family has ordered many things from them over the years. If you have a manufacturer and all the fabric and stock #’s, you can call and order over the phone. They are always less expensive than the Atlanta retail stores are and they deliver for free to Atlanta.   So, while we were there in August and found the sofa, we looked at this ottoman and fabrics to work with it and she picked one out at that time.  One of my friends here had ordered this ottoman and I told Renee that she would love it, so she ordered it too.  And she does love it.

The ottoman just got delivered right before I got there and it’s beautiful.  It’s made by Fairfield and I’ve found that they are a good mid-range furniture company to deal with. I’ve had chairs by them before and I think they have a nice selection and good fabrics to choose from and are not that expensive.

These 2 chocolate brown chairs are by Drexel and she found them on Craigslist for $500 for the pair.  Not cheap, but much better than new would have been and a great name brand too.

Do you spot the Boston Terrier, Buster?  He sort of blends right in with the rug.

Here’s the ottoman again and you can see how pretty the fabric is. We decided to use a print fabric on the ottoman and keep the rest of the furniture neutral.  She had been dying to have a zebra rug and ordered this online (not sure where it came from, it’s stamped cowhide) and I told her to layer it over a seagrass rug that she could get for a good price on Overstock.com.  They have really good prices on things like this and I got the seagrass rug in my diningroom from them too.  Love these 2 layered, I think it turned out gorgeous!

She actually found this pair of black lamps from Ashley Furniture when we were up in the mountains too and they look great in here.  That big urn is from Tuesday AM.  I love it too.

If you’re looking for some reasonably priced drapes, these are from Ballard’s.  I told her about the cotton twill drapes and she ordered them and tried out a couple of colors.  These, I thought, were the best ones for the room. They are a cotton/linen blend and they also come in longer lengths, these are 108″.  Check  them out for lots of color options and priced at $35 to $79 per panel, not a bad deal.

Looking towards the diningroom.  She had kept the red paint in there (even though I told her she should lighten it up too) when they had everything else painted, then changed her mind and they painted this in Camelback too.  And there’s that beautiful  hutch that she found for $150 on Craigslist and painted black.  Love, love it!  I would really like to find one of these too.  She already had the round table in between the chairs.

The round dining table was also a Craigslist find for $600, which is not a steal, but it’s a really nice table.   The leaves come off around the edge and the table can be smaller or larger, as needed.  Love how this turned out.  This is a new light fixture that they found, but I’m happy to say that the $20 yardsale fixture that I found for her is now hanging over the table. Her hubby changed them out after I left.

She found 8 of these beautiful Parsons chairs from someone on Craigslist, all 8 for $450 and that really is a steal.  Check out the nailhead trim on them too.  They were custom made for someone and the designer was selling them,  I’m sure for a fraction of what they cost.  I just adore how the table and chairs came together for really a great price.

Here’s a closer look at the beautiful black hutch. You may remember I showed you this while it was in their garage and it was all pine.  I told her to paint it like this and it turned out fabulous!!  She took lessons from me too on starting a cremeware collection and that looks wonderful too.  I cannot believe the changes in this room.  It is totally different now.

Centerpiece on the table.   She will be looking for a large piece of artwork for that wall to the right of the hutch.

And while out on a Goodwill (the Woodstock location, btw)  jaunt with my friend, Vicki, while I was in town, I found a really great set of white cremeware to add to her collection. All this for $25, quite the deal I thought.  She loved it and we added all these into the hutch too.

Now, moving on to the kitchen.  They got new granite too and ended up with Napoli, the same granite in my kitchen.  We both have white cabinets and this is a really good choice for all white.  They are getting a new backsplash installed soon and it will be tumbled marble with a pretty black accent going through it.  We also went fabric shopping and she’s going to get new valences made for the kitchen too.  Time to change colors.

Her hubby picked this pretty edging and I think it all turned out great too.  She didn’t even remember that I had picked Napoli, but I had told her that it was very similar to Santa Cecilia, which is everywhere.  It’s actually the same stone, just cut on the grain differently.  I didn’t know they were getting granite right now and she told me over the phone that they had chosen Napoli. I said, “you know that’s mine” and she didn’t remember what mine was called, so we picked the exact same color without even knowing it. Ha!

It’s beautiful.

And she also got the same sink I did, the Blanco Silgranite after I told her about it.  I know they will love it too, I am totally diggin’ mine.

Moving on into the familyroom, she found this sofa on Craigslist too for $600 and it is Norwalk, which you may know is very good quality furniture.   She emailed me this one and I said, YES, get this one, so she did.  She has driven ALL over Atlanta shopping this way, but it really has saved them a lot of money.   The brown leather chair and ottoman was also from Craigslist and is Bernhardt.  She got the set for $250.  And it’s the match to my brown leather loveseat in my den, so I knew all about it too.

Next up is a rug for the familyroom and she has one picked out already.  I really think she has done an outstanding job shopping this way. Now, it’s not dirt cheap, not yardsale stuff or low quality furniture, BUT it’s WAY cheaper than buying brand new and when you can find things like this for really good prices, then it’s time to jump on them if you can.

After my niece moved out earlier this year, she redecorated her old room too and it turned out really pretty.  I’m trying to talk her into painting this room a soft aqua blue and I think she will eventually.

I hope you enjoyed going on a tour of my sis’s home with all the changes they’ve made.  I think it’s a marvelous way to shop on Craigslist and pick up things way cheaper than buying new.  Renee is a court reporter and works part-time now, so she’s making these changes a little at a time.  But, it has all come together very nicely, I think.  Don’t you?   She said it does take a lot of time and she had to weed through a lot of crappy furniture to find the gems.  But, she found them, scored them, and brought them home! So, if you live in a larger city, this might be a great way to score something new yourself.  I think it only works well in the larger markets, but Atlanta has TONS of things available.  We don’t seem to have as much here in Birmingham as they do.

I’ll do a shopping post in Marietta tomorrow, so come back for that.  All my favorite shopping haunts all in one spot.  🙂

And one more fun thing to share with you.  I got to meet a very sweet blog friend, Susan from Between Naps on the Porch.  She lives about 10 minutes from my parents and my sister and we have been trying to meet up, so it finally happened this trip.  Susan invited me to come by her house and she is so sweet and gracious and it was like meeting up with an old friend.  It just seems to be that way in blogland.  We talked and talked and I hated that I only had an hour or so, but we had a lot of fun chatting!  Thanks, Susan, for the tour, your home is beautiful.  That porch is truly to die for.  🙂

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