I furnished my living room for free after rummaging through other people’s rubbish – people would never know
IT’S not secret buying brand new furniture can be expensive, but you’ll still need chairs, tables and drawers to complete any room in your home.
That’s why one savvy money saver decided to revamp his living room for free, all by rummaging through his neighbour’s rubbish.
Alex Amos, from the US, took to YouTube to show off the transformation of his living room.
“My living room is falling apart and it needs a new look, so I’m going to restore the furniture I find and use it to surprise my family with a new living room,” he explained.
The first mission was to find a new arm chair, which he found on the side of the road.
The fabric needed a good clean, but after a quick scrub you’d never know it had been left for landfill.
Next, Alex tried to find a coffee table, so hit the road in his car once again and drove to the text town to see if anyone had left anything out.
He did eventually find a table, but it wasn’t in someone garden like he thought – it was in a ditch on the side of the road.
“It’s so beautiful, and most importantly the wood is not rotten,” he said.
The table needed to be sanded down since it was covered in stains and scratches, but after a new coat of varnish it looked as good as new.
“It took me about six hours, but look at how not only clean it is but how smooth it is too,” Alex said.
The trickiest item on his list to find was a new cabinet, but not once to give up, Alex continued driving around local neighbourhoods in search of other people’s disguarded furniture.
Eventually, he stumbled across was seamed to be a console table, but he thought he could make it work.
Once again, he sanded it down and added some paint he already had in the garage.
Although there were a few hiccups with his painting method, meaning he had to resand it and start again, it was all worth it in the end.
The shabby Ikea console table looked completely different with it’s fresh green coat, not to mention loads more expensive.
Although he also wanted to nab a couch for the living room, after three days of driving around he still had no luck, so decided to spruce up the old one he already had instead.
After he cleaned and polished to old sofa Alex moved in the other furniture he upgraded and surprised his parents with the DIY makeover.
It’s safe to say his family were surprised and loved their new and improved living room set-up.