All items from the Fort Myers/Naples CraigsList. Started with the rug and was really surprised how many items of quality I could combine for such a small amount of money.

Beverly what surprised me is how easy it is when I'm not decorating for myself or son's. I tend to over analyze and over think when I'm looking for myself and family.

Mid Century Dining Set 750. (table, 5 chairs, hutch, server, cute round side table)

Chandy 200.

Rug 5X7 64.

bolt of fabric and pillows 30. ( seats and drapes)

cypress lamp and shade 85.

magazine rack 5.

vase 40.

painting 4X7 69.

plant 15.

I'm learning...

Nosoccermom, I would grab that tufted leather sofa in a hot minute! $40? Something must be really wrong with it.

Nice work everyone. It's really quite inspiring what can be bought for so little money. Our CL is just awful. I hope to have time to work on this later this week. I may have to pretend to live somewhere else, and use a different CL.

Of course, now I'm wondering whether I need to buy some of that CL stuff. Road trip?
Justterrylynn, are those chairs gold or black?

And regarding my used mattress phobia and staying in hotels-- I really, really struggle with sleeping in hotels, especially unless they're immaculately clean. I am such a weirdo that I basically take the bed apart to check for bedbugs, and I can't stand to touch the comforters. I don't sleep well when traveling :-)

I grabbed that leather sofa. What's wrong with it is that some frat kids played darts and it has tiny pin pricks. Still, it looks great and is super comfy. Not as blotchy in real life.
I missed the armoire, though. The tables are still up for grabs as is the rug (but I find that a bit scary after the mentioning of bed bugs.)

That is an awesome score! I'm so envious! The pinpricks will just add patina :-)

Hi
Nosoccermom , I’m not sure of the chair color but it looked neutral
enough and went okay with the close up provided by the sofa’s seller. Not knowing the furniture's condition, in my mind I wanted the accessories and art work to provide the rooms interest and maybe the eye would skip over minor flaws. The furniture does not look in bad shape though.

This is an interesting thread. As a recycle/upcycle kind of gal, my whole house uses this approach. My sitting room is 100% upcycled, with furniture from CL, Habitat, and freebees. I calculate that I spent less than $400 on everything. I would much rather reupholster an old piece than buy new. I think pre-1950's furniture is likely to be more well built than almost anything new. And my other issue is that I rarely see upholstered furniture offered in fabrics that I would choose. Of course I LIKE the work that goes into making something my own, so that is what drives me. I guess that I am in the minority here.

Diane

There was junk furniture built int he 30s and 40s just like there is now, so age has little to do with the quality. My grandfather worked for one of those companies and the furniture was made in the US, and it wasn't particle board, but it was terrible. However there is much more junk furniture now than before sitting in consignment and resale stores.

I'm a big believer in recycling furnishings. I'm sitting in one of two Barcaloungers I purchased at a Habitat for Humanity store for $59 each, next to a lamp I purchased for $90 at a resale store that I just saw for sale on line for $750. Both are next to a Bernhardt sofa I purchased at a St. Vincent DePaul thrift store for $150 that was almost new. However, when I hit the stores, it's likely I only purchase one time in 10 visits. It's always hit and miss and you have to be patient. The good stuff will always pop up when you don't need it or after you just purchased something else.

My hesitancy in doing a DAT revolving around something fully upholstered is that I would need to reupholster almost anything I found on CL which would take the entire budget, pretty much, even if it were very cheap or free.

Here's another quick LR.

DC CL. Not my taste at all, but perhaps for a young grad student...

Credenza and sofa, free

leather arm chair, 280.00

CB2 arc lamp, 140.00

metal cabinet with glass doors, 145.00

cocktail table, 30.00

Framed silk piece, 19.00

I was looking for a shag rug or Flokati in white, but it's still 500.00. Still, I might go for it :)

WOW! Impressive! Here is a throw together. I would say it is sort of my taste. Used Austin's CL.

All below are from CL

Sofa: 200

Coffee table 40

Rug: 180

Buffet: 200

Chair set: 90

Nesting tables: 40

Sid table: 40

Lamps: 70 for pair

Overstock.com

2 Pillows: 40

Curtain Pair: 100

GRAND TOTAL: 1,000

Gosh, just realized I am missing art!!! I bet I could hunt down some good stuff on CL for the remaining 500 I have.

BTW, some of this free stuff amazes me!!! I wish I lived in some of your cities!

Well, yours isn't too shabby, either. Love the table. For art, a good bet is also Ebay, either the art directly from artists or old prints from the European Ebay sites. Most will mail to the US.

Here's another one.

Thomasville leather bed, 180.00 (will reuse existing mattress)
Pair of Crate and Barrel sconces, 75.00
Possini chandelier, 160.00
Faux Crate and Barrel cow hide, 150.00
Vintage Rolf Armstrong pin up poster, 23.00
pair of copper drapes, 15.00
Electric fire place, 160.00
High dresser, 90.00
antique side table, 95.00
H&M duvet cover, 50.00 (new)
Total: 998.00

These rooms are great! I am looking at CL in a whole new light...I have never considered getting everything from CL. I tend to go there only when looking for a specific item. All our beds are from CL, but we definitely bought new mattresses :-)

Me, too, especially that elusive farm table :)

This 8 piece bedroom set is $580 Canadian in Surrey BC. Solid wood and dovetailed joints they claim.

I'm trying to decide if there's a pattern to what stuff is reliably a good deal on craigslist. Solid wood furniture of a style that is not in vogue is definitely one.

The faux bamboo is quite expensive in my area now.

This was so much fun! I waste too much time cruising CL. I felt semi-productive putting my never-to-be-actually-purchased finds together in an imaginary space! Plus, I learned the basics of olioboard!

I used the CT/NY CL. Here's the breakdown:

Custom made brown velvet love seat: $400

Sisal rug: $100

Moroccan table: $120

Antique oil painting: $50

Cane chairs: $50/pr

Antique stripe chair: $225

Antique french sofa table: $100

Pottery Barn wheat dupione silk drapes: $100

Restoration Hardware brass floor lamp: $150

Vintage lamps/pr: $125

Nickel finish drum stools/tables: $90

Pottery Barn crewel/zebra pillow: $35

Total: $1,495

Very nice. Great mix of antique, vintage, and modern.
Gotta say, this is addictive.

Here's another one.

Chandelier: 250.00

5 panels of Ethan Allen silk drapes: 200.00 (one behind the bed)

Bed: 80.00

Swan chair: 200.00

Nightstand/dresser: free

walnut dresser with Carrara top (from 1840): 120.00 (I'm seriously tempted)

Stiffel table lamp: 60.00

5x3 gilded mirror: 150

8x10 silk rug: 200

Total: 1260

I thought I'd try something a bit more traditional.

I hit Freecycle for this one, The sofa, wooden barrel chair, floor lamp, and baby grand were all from there (Oakland, San Francisco, Marin, and Berkeley).

From Craigslist San Francisco:

Rug - $175

Rocker $70

Painting $125

Coffee & end table $300

Table lamp $75

From Ohmega Salvage in Berkeley:

The needlepoint chair--$510

For a total of $1255.

Catching up on comments:

Patrickthedestroyer. Love the chairs and the fabric.

Nosoccermom's with the tufted sofa: Glad to hear you scored the sofa, it's fabulous! And the apothecary chest is a nice find.

Justterrilynn: Nice contemporary collection. The color of those chairs is really ambiguous. It reminds me of that dress image that went around the people were spit between white and blue. Since you don't know what the lighting was or what is reflection, it could be black, gold, bronze or brown.

Palimpsest: Cohesive, as always. Love the wall color with the furnishings.

Beverly: Nice use of color. The Asian items add interest.

Missymoo: The dining set is lovely and looks great with the chandelier. I love the vase.

Nosoccermom, LR with orange chair: It may not be to your taste, but I quite like the colorful chair and rug. Nice job matching styles.

Aktillery: The sofa looks comfy and I like how the soft yellow is picked up in the rug. I would happily live there.

Nosoccermom, bedroom with Sputnik lamp: I love that lamp.

Teeda: Very pretty! I love the striped chair, and it goes so well with the drapes. I like the browns and creams together.

Nosoccermom brass bed: You are really having too much fun with this. Lots of really nice finds in this one, and they really work well together. The chandelier is great! I love the rug, and the arm detail on that chair is beyond awesome!

Given the quality and diversity of the rooms that people have turned out, I'm wondering if this was really a challenge at all! What then is hard about using Craigslist? You have to do a lot of legwork and driving, but you also have to do a lot of legwork and driving if you want to research new purchases and go to showrooms. I guess it doesn't work if you are picky and not all styles will work as well as others. Pal put together a cohesive room for $1500, but I feel like that would have been much more difficult to do if she had chosen to go with a cohesive midcentury modern room, since that stuff is so in vogue and thus costs much more. Being willing to work with furniture that the generation that is currently downsizing bought as signs of being established and successful (like federal revival) helps a lot.

Re. the quality of older furniture, it may also be that the crappy furniture from the 30s and later succumbed to its flaws and only the better constructed stuff survived and that's why we see it now.

This one is not Craigslist, but it is all "Buy It Now" on eBay from local sellers with the exception of the painting which is from ArtGate in Europe. I think this has a Hollywood Regency sort of feel. I am not in love with the rug, but most of the cheaper rugs were not so great.

Patrick, you are absolutely right about being able to do a room more easily based on what is showing up at estate sales before it's hot. The china cupboard in my first one was worth thousands new and is in pristine condition. It's too big, it's too traditional and neither the buyers of the rest of the dining room nor the family wanted it, so it was going for free.

But that's how all vintage styles come around. I started buying non-iconic mid century modern when it was flooding the market from estates and people were still turning their noses up at it. Same with Hollywood Regency and Brutalist furniture. Had I had a few thousand dollars to spare maybe 15 years ago, I would now be the proud owner of a gigantic bronze Paul Evans sideboard that you couldn't touch now for under six figures. But you have to like it anyway, when it is not in style, to get in ahead of the curve. Because you don't really know what is going to strike the popular fancy. I think good colonial revival furniture is going to be a bargain for a while.

Here is the local eBay buy it now:

$1412 total, so you'd have money for lampshades. The cheapest item was the "practically new" sofa at $55:

I think that there are also some structural changes about how people live contributing as well. At least where I live, in Vancouver, the trend is for smaller and smaller square footage, and people just don't have room for a stately buffet and hutch or 8 piece bedroom suite. I have a hard time imagining overstuffed furniture coming back in a real way here, just because if bedrooms don't have room for a nightstand, they probably don't have living space for an overstuffed sofa and armchair.

I think that's regional. I recently sat in a sofa in a showroom that was so deep my legs stuck straight out. Almost everything in the Ralph Lauren catalogue is about 30% too large, and lots of Baker furniture is also very large. And the lower price point furniture is big puffy stuff. My niece's boyfriend just bought a "chair and half" that is bigger than a full-on love seat from my parents' house.

This was my first DAT, and what fun! These items are all from the Dallas-Fort Worth area CL. (Not saying this constitutes good design, but I do like the colors.)

Sofa - $80

Rug - $175

Blue lamp - $60

Side table - $80

Floor lamp - $10

Sailboat painting - $80

Lot of 6 pillows - $18

TOTAL: $503!

They just keep getting better and better!

I think this is very fun, maybe a twist would be doing a starter 1bd apartment off CL for under $1000 or using only the free section and elbow grease

Haha, I just went through that in real life for DD's shared huge and empty (and temporary) apartment.

You all must have tremendous patience! I started looking through pictures on the nearest Craig's list to us (Atlanta) and after about ten minutes of seeing dreck, gave up. It is mostly junk or formerly good stuff in really bad condition, and all the upholstery is either floral or shades of brown, ugh!

OK, I took the Atlanta challenge and agree that my CL is way better :) Way overpriced. it's used furniture, folks!
I spent 15 minutes and came up with this girl's room. No bedding because it was either overpriced or creepy or both. I'd get some IKEA duvet cover.

Here's my tally:
IKEA 4poster bed, 100.00 (with 4 netting curtains)
Kid's sofa (new), 89.00
Kid's chair (new), 65.00
PB silk curtains, 30.00
chandelier 91 year old), 100.00
PB rug, 25.00
dollhouse (it's huge), 55.00
night stand (wood), 25.00
Old dresser, 50.00 (supposedly n good condition)
Book shelf, 25.00 (supposedly excellent condition)

Total: 564.00

Initially was planning to paint the dark wood, but now I think I'll leave as is.

Love that girl's room, nosoccermom--great job!

I really like the fun room you put together NSM :-) I had to take the "Atlanta Challenge" too, but I agree there's a lot of overpriced items to sift through.

Price breakdown:

The biggest expense was the 8 x 10 wool rug for $650

Black tufted king headboard/bed rails $300

Two pendant lamps $80

White bamboo dresser/mirror, tall dresser (and end table I didn't include) $100 - I think the listing said they had to repair a drawer, and it looks like the dresser/mirror could use a repair, but we're somewhat handy ;-)

Tall dressing mirror $100

White end table (for a nightstand) $75

Rattan chair and stand (for other nightstand and a side chair) $60

I found two twin/boxspring sets (used) for $25 and $50, respectively, but I would only use them until I had saved up to purchase something new

Used bedding from CL: $20

And I'd supplement the bedding with Ikea purchases.

Total: $1460

I assumed a larger bedroom, mine is about 11 x 10 so if this were my own bedroom I totally overbought.

Edit: forgot window dressings! I guess this room divider would provide some privacy and block a bit of light for $25 (up to $1485 now)

Me too me too, I want
to play the Atlanta
area challenge. But, I failed on
the budget and came in at $1669. I could have done it if I did an incomplete room
though but what's the point of that?

This is a room for a
first time apartment or home. Some of the stuff is nice. The sofa is Ikea and
could be swapped out down the road. The Atlanta
area has some nice stuff if you look hard but it is pricier than my area.

Side chairs $400 CL Tucker

Swag light $49 CL Clackston

Big cow rug $160 CL Atlanta, Johns Creek

Walnut Credenza $475 CL Athens

Walnut end tables $65 Marietta

Spider coffee table $395 CL Doravll/Tucker

Ikea sofa &100 CL Decatur

Oil painting $25

. Love the swag light!

Okay. This is my
first time doing this. My room is a large (40' x 20') living/dining room
combo in a 1930's house with 10' ceilings and hardwood floors. I did
a shabby chic room with lots of white. Samples on Houzz show LOTS of
stuff in the room. There is a rug that I covered up and did not know how
to move. While the room already has white mini-blinds, I think I would replace the bench ($125) for some gauzy white curtains for the six large windows in the room. Also, I forgot to get a desk chair. Edited to add: This is the DFW Craigslist. I also don't see the dining room table which I believe was $200. The bench is definitely out of there.

Total came in at $1485. I might have underestimated the paint.

Couch $200

Armless chair $90

Chair
$150

Rug
$60

Desk
$50

Lamps (2) $10

Art work $20

Mirror
$20

Big Mirror $75

Sofa Table $50

Coffee Table $60

Side Table (2) $150

Pillows $40

Cabinet $195

Bench $125

Decorative Vases $10

Lamps (2) $15

Ice Bucket $35

Replacement Lamp Shades
$30

Paint $50

Console Table w/2 lamps
$50

Melle, you found some really nice stuff (the faux bamboo is certainly more in my area now);
Justterry.., great finds. That swag light is super cool! As is the cow rug.

Thanks! Before I perused Atlanta CL, I had asked for bedding similar to the bedding in my "collection" for my birthday -- $20 seems like a bargain compared to the cost of the bedding on my list!

I LOVE this DAT CL challenge, suddenly all my CL stalking has usefulness LOL! I'm still hoping to re-do our living room in the next year or two. I'll probably buy a new sofa, but potentially the rest could be from CL!

I like that grape cluster swag light too, in fact I look for swag lights every so often -- if I can find just the right one it will be the inspiration piece for re-doing the LR.

FH -- your collection is too small for me to see it well, but I like the white-on-white tones, very soothing. Not something for our house, with two boys (10 and 6) and two small black and tan dogs who are allowed on furniture ;-)

I found this pink leather sofa in Atlanta for 110.00.....

I love the lines of that sofa! What a bargain.

Nosoccermom, I have known for years your Cl is much, much better than mine.
And I'm two hours away from the Big City of Atlanta, where the good stuff is!

Used Big Lots anyone? Gun Cabinets or Fake Oak? Only $300.

Actually, the sofa is from a lawyer's estate in Kennesaw, GA, wherever that is.

Yes, my CL is good. However, house prices are way higher in my area, so young buyers need to get their stuff from CL :)

Oooh, i really like this sofa on my Sacramento CL! Might have to design another LR (assuming they would sell one for $700)

https://sacramento.craigslist.org/fuo/5119833185.html

Kennesaw is just northwest of Marietta. I have some colleagues at Kennesaw State Univ. Love the pink leather sofa.

What I find interesting with all the pics is that most of these items I would have never given a 2nd glance at. I think it is a talent to be able to look at things and see the potential.