The Most popular column in this frugal series has been the one on cheap decor. This surprised me, but remembering back to my student days and actually for a few year after, the real challenge was finding a way to furnish an place without spending much --if any money. It can be done!

A great idea I came up with for kids room pillow covers is to recycle my kids favorite sweaters (called "jumpers" in the UK I'm told). I use the existing pillow with the too young kiddie pattern on it. Then I remove the arms from the carefully hand knit sweater that is now too small. I stitch the neck and sleeve openings shut. Then I place the old pillow inside, and sew the bottom edge shut. If you want to make it easy to wash, you could add a zipper to the bottom of the old sweater/new pillow cover. Thsi way all your hard work making a fancy knit sweater/jumper does not go to waste! When its had a stint as a pillow cover, you can add it to a quilted wall hanging or memory quilt.

A quick way to spice up a room is new pillow coverings. You don't need a sewing machine. You can hand sew them as an evening television project, or can splurge and use Fusible bond and just iron them together (not suggested if you have kids or pets).

Wall coverings are another problem for people. Cheap discount store paint works for a while, but you can do "fancy" decor by pasting cloth on the wall, or do a wall in a decoupage of your favorite scenes from magazines. One friend of mine pasted pages of the local paper on one wall to give one end of the room more impact than the cheap discount paint that was everywhere else. I took several yards of discount cloth scraps and did one wall of our large living area in an abstract pattern. I just pasted the cloth pieces on with wall paper paste. I think it looks nice.

Eventually, as a recycling ART project I intend to make a whole living room from cardboard boxes. When I complete that project, I'll post it and instructions to the list. I just want to prove you can make temporary furniture from recycling. This would be a great way to get started on the rotation method of working your way to a more conventional decor that I suggested in my suprisingly ever popular CHEAP DECOR article at this site.

So look around for multi-use furniture. Talk to friends and relatives, checkout garage sales and thrift shops, and watch the curbsides for people moving who can't take perfectly good furniture with them when they move.

Here's a link to a great cloth sale online. Free shipping!
Jo Anne Fabrics

For more ideas Check out these Frugal Living Books!
Complete Tightwad Gazzette
The Complete Tightwad Gazzette

Declare Your Finanacial Independence
Declare Your Financial Independence

Complete Cheapskate
Mary Hunt's Complete Cheapskate

Miserly Moms
Miserly Moms

You Can Afford to Stay Home With your Kids
You can Afford to stay Home WIth your Kids