Decorating with thrift store pillows

Once again I have to say a heartfelt thank you to my readers for your comments, emails, posts on facebook, and just general concern/comfort in the recent passing of my father-in-law.  So many people came to the viewing and funeral – personal friends of ours, co-workers from many, many years of my FIL, church family, and friends from years past – many, many people were touched by his life.  The funeral was a beautiful service filled with comfort, the promise of seeing him again, and my husband even managed to speak and his brother sang.  My father-in-law served in the Navy while in his twenties for several years and had wanted a military funeral which was done at the graveside and it was so touching and beautiful.  So thankful for those that have served for our freedom.  This week has been one of trying to catch up, get back to a somewhat normal routine, yet there are many moments when we are faced with the reality that something/someone is missing.   The Lord gave me this verse/phrase on Sunday to claim for the weeks to come as it was sung as a choir special – “”Be still and know that I am God… I will comfort you and even give you strength.”  Thankful for the comfort and strength that He has given this week.

But back to the post for today… I am itching to get back to sharing “Friday Frugal Finds” here with you.  Yard sale season really never ends here in GA, but it does get much better as the temperatures get warmer and yard sales pop up everywhere!  This weekend is going to be gorgeous – 75 degrees on Saturday!  So hopefully in the weeks to come I will start having weekly frugal finds posts to share with you.

This post is sort of a Friday Frugal Finds + decorating with those finds kind of post.   I don’t always remember to show you how I incorporate my finds (something I hope to do better about this year).  Here is my living room filled with frugal finds… in the form of pillows!

When I packed up my Christmas/winter pillows and got out any springy pillows I had in my stash, I realized I had a lot in the same color scheme.  And I also realized that almost ALL of them were purchased last year from yard sales or thrift stores! 

I labeled the picture above with the prices as I recall them.  The only “store bought” pillows were the one set of 2 brown pillows I picked up a few years ago on a Kirkland’s deal.  2 of the pillows were homemade – my DIY sweater pillow, and DIY easy envelope pillow cover.  The rest are from yard sales, Value Village, Goodwill, or another thrift store.  I just picked up the set of 2 teal/blue colored pillows with feather inserts for $3.00 ($1.50 each) at my parking lot yard sale 2-3 weeks ago.  Even the chunky, knit, white throw was a Value Village find!  I was specifically wanting/looking for a chunky white throw and couldn’t believe the great price I found on that one!

Also totally keeping it real in these pictures… yes, those are paint test spots painted on the wall.  Hint: yes, pretty much all the main areas in our house will be getting repainted this year – and the entryway/living room is first – hope to show you in a week or two!  The art on the right wall is going to the yard sale pile to be replaced by some DIY art probably, the brown wall is going bye-bye (SOOO excited about that and ready for a change!), who knows what will go back on that wall – maybe the same things just repainted?, and I am sure as I clear out the room to paint that things will get rearranged and I hope to put less back.  And the pillows aren’t permanent either.  I actually just pulled out all I had and they just happened to work together but I would like to add some more color along with the teal/blue once I get the new paint on the wall.

But for now… it says “spring” to me.  And I am very thankful to have a couch full of pillows bought for very little money.

Pillows can really make or break a room and I don’t think I have totally gotten a handle on color/patterns/mixing/matching yet but I am doing much better than a year ago when all I had was 2 brown pillows on my couch!  Thanks in part to my friend, Molly, inspiring me to look at yard sales and thrift stores to build my pillow collection. 

By the way,the large mirror was a $10 find, the decorative scrolly piece above it – 50¢, the coffee table was purchased for $3.00 – yes, $3.00 and I refinished it, and the milkglass candle stick was a yard sale find.  

So there’s my living room thrift store pillow collection!  (And yes, they are all washed and cleaned – I take them straight to the laundry room when I bring them home, remove covers if possible, bleach pillow forms, and wash in hot water.  I do this with every pillow I buy – even feather pillows, silk pillows, etc.  The feather pillows turn out great and fluff up so well in the dryer.)

Do you buy pillows/linens at yard sales and thrift stores?  Do you feel like you have a handle on decorating with pillows?  Please share!