More Decoration Ideas

These may not work for you, but we use pottery and books to decorate.

 My mom is a potter, and her cast-offs are just as good as the real thing to me, so we always collect her throw-aways. Most of these are just that, and I can barely tell anything is wrong with them.
I realize that's convenient to have a mother as a potter, but you can get pottery elsewhere. Some of these pieces came from thrift stores. Places like the Salvation Army, GoodWill, Deseret Industries, Savers, Thrifty Shopper, etc, have all contributed to our pottery collection. They're beautiful and affordable, so why not? You can also get cheap pottery at some small potter shops. In my mom's home town, for example, there is a potter who sells his castoffs (which are all incredibly good and beautiful) for $5 a piece. All potters have throw-aways that they can't sell for the full price, so they may be willing to sell them. We actually use these pieces to eat on. Might as well have functional decorations, especially in a small apartment.

Books might seems like a weird way to decorate, but when you absolutely love books, it's not. They are a feast to the eyes, and whenever we have visitors, they always end up scanning our bookshelves. We get our books mostly from a sale in our area called "Friends of the Library". This sale lasts 3 weekends twice per year. The price diminishes with each weekend of the sale, ending up with 10 cent day, which is veritably treated as a holiday in our household. I even take time off to go to this. You can get everything there, and we always end up purchasing around 200 books at each sale. You can find cheap books though, at thrift stores and yard sales. We've landed some real finds at yard sales when a family is getting rid of an old collection. And again, it's functional decorating! We love books, so having so many right in our home is a pleasure.