A Couple of Zero Dollar Home Updates
by Katy on September 9, 2025 · 35 comments
The paint on our front porch finally cured enough to put the old furniture back in place.
• Thrifted couch and matching chair — $45 Goodwill
• Throw pillows — $0 curb picked
• Rug — $0 curb picked and then painted
• Green tiled table — $3 Goodwill
• Round metal table — $0 hand me down
• Flowerpot — $0 curb picked & the plant was also $0 as my neighbor didn’t want it.
Total cost = $48!
My backyard is back to her normal self again, without all the random extra furniture and plants. Ahh . . .
I also decided to see if I could improve the top of this thrifted Ikea end table. My husband uses it next to his recliner and although I like the simple design, the top surface was ug-lee!
My first step was to wipe on some wood stain, which I found in the basement. It helped a bit, not not enough, so I got out my kids’ old set of markers. Hello . . . Pentel #S360-118!
It took a bit to color everything in, but I think it turned out pretty good. Especially since I followed the coloring with magical Restor-a-Finish.
Total cost to spruce everything up was zero-point-zero dollars, as I didn’t buy anything new to “freshen up” the porch. That, my friends, is my favorite price!
Katy Wolk-Stanley
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{ 35 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve spruced up many a piece of furniture with a brown Sharpie!!
So smart!
That porch looks so comfortable. Did you paint the floor?
Yes, my husband just painted the porch a couple weeks ago, which is why all the furniture had been sequestered to the back yard.
May I ask the color of the paint? It’s gorgeous!
Your porch looks beautiful!
Thank you!
What comfortable looking spaces!
Do you have any grass, as in, do you save money by not having to maintain a mower and do the mowing?
I have no interest in maintaining a lawn, so we get a free load of wood chips every few years and spread them around the yard. No need to water, decomposes naturally and requires no maintenance.
So no issues with infected wood? Which may not be an issue if no other trees in proximity to the wood chips, aka mulch.
Nope, no issues.
I am so impressed! Particularly interested in Restor-a-Finish. What a difference!
Thank you, Restor-A-Finish is an amazing lazy hack.
Beautiful porch and yard, Katy! Impressive! I’ve used Sharpies to restore black enamel furniture scratches as well. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. 🙂
I’ve certainly used a Sharpie on black furniture!
It’s all beautiful. Like Sunset magazine… I use that felt marker hack on my floors, if there’s a scratch.
I’d run out of pens if I were to use this trick on our floors!
Looks great Katy!!
Love it! The porch looks fantastic and that table does too! A little effort is all it takes sometimes. Thanks for the inspiration!
Katy,
You probably do not ever see Southern Living Magazine up in the Pacific Northwest, but it is a publication that shows lots of very fancy, very expensive, homes (both brand new and vintage) throughout the Deep South, Florida and Texas, along with cooking and gardening. It features top-of-the-line decorating and remodeling (nothing cheap what they do!) and often shows outdoor spaces such as porches and verandas…this is published in the South, after all. Usually the homes are owned by “prominent” Southerners, such as doctors, lawyers, architects and wealthy business owners. Old wealth, in other words.
I’m telling you all this to explain that when I say your porch looks like something a reader would see in Southern Living, it is incredibly excellent indeed. So….
Yes, your porch looks like Southern Living! I cannot give you any higher praise than that…..except to say you are a brilliant frugalista to come up with all that on a zero budget.
Also, the round table in the living room looks brand new.
Wish I could be there to sit and visit with you and Frugal Girl Kristen when you are at Fin Con next week (?), and I hope you have wonderful weather when that happens. Enjoy!
That front porch is gorgeous!
What a lovely outdoor space you’ve created! Very inviting — I could sit out there with my coffee and a book for a spell!! 🙂
Exactly!
A beautiful welcoming spot! I find patience combined with a make it do frame of mind is a great combo to create a comfortable home.
It is also helpful to have a reputation of accepting furniture. I just accepted 2 Adirondack chairs made out of wooden skis, I put them on the pond dock.
Another friend dropped off 2 hanging ferns. They will hang in the guestroom bathroom for the winter.
What kind of paint did you use for front porch? It looks great!
Benjamin Moore porch paint.
We are a fan of all Benjamin Moore paint – they really hold up to the elements. Love the color and the overall vibe – great job decorating!
Nice work! I have a lot of thrifted and curb-picked items in my house, and I feel more attached to them than I do to the things I bought with real money.
I guess that’s a meaningless statement since the “real money” items are the mattresses. (I do have some standards.) Ha!
Great looking porch!
Do you know that Adirondack chairs are meant to be used on hills/sloped ground? That’s why the front legs are short. When you are on a slope, then you are sitting up straight.
Anyway, to quote my Amish kids when I dropped them off after school…
“HAVE A FUNNY DAY!”
Your porch looks so welcoming, Katy! Mine is still covered with many pots of garden harvest to be sorted, so the sense of repose is sadly lacking.
1. I picked up some FlashFood deals as I was already in the store and so was able to peruse the offerings – including a bag with 4 enormous eggplant for $3, I also got a bag of corn for $1 and a bag of super lovely roma tomatoes (probably 6 pounds?) for $3. Now to deal with it all!
2. That same store has a fairly extensive international aisle (our neck of the woods has a lot of people from India, so the Indian food section is particularly well stocked). Knowing this, I was picking up garbanzo beans by the big bag, and discovered that the price for spices in that section is significantly lower than the bottled spices in the spice asle. I picked up a number of staples including some things I need for the eggplant pickle that I now really must get made.
Thanks to everyone here who keeps reminding us that the ethnic food stores and aisles in stores can be a great location for lower cost ingredients.
3. I attended two events that both had offerings of garden harvest brought to share. I came home with a bag full – a pie pumpkin, two mid sized zucchini, 6 or 7 cucumbers, a bag of delicious yellow and red cherry tomatoes, a head of broccoli, and a stalk of dahlia flowers.
4. Although I spent a considerable amount of time on the road picking up then dropping off a young man who came to garden with me, and although he is no Wonder James, I still feel ahead of the game as he costs about half of WJ – (works at about that pace, mind you).
One of my BB came over to assist and a significant effort was made to clear out my raised garden beds and the ones in the big greenhouse. So many dill and fennel and coriander and lettuce seeds were gathered, as well as some more random garlic, 5 pounds of volunteer potatoes, a rubbermaid tub of kale that needed to be discouraged from growing into the paths, and other things I can’t remember. Considering I didn’t plant a garden, mother nature has been kind to me.
There is a lot more to do, of course. The weight lifting and training that I have been doing for the last 9+ months is really paying off, as although I ache in numerous sections of this – almost Senior Citizen – body, I was able to pull, dig, clip, lift, twist, step up and jump down, carry, and push for over 5 hours! Go me!
5. The young man arrived at my house hungry, so was fed eggs from the chickens and a discount bagel. Lunch was buns from the discount rack with some of a chicken I had roasted, plus gifted cucumber and tomato (#X above). Before I took him home I made him a peanut butter and jam sandwich with another of the discount buns, the PB was from the discount oversized jar I got for the purpose of baiting the rat traps … Usually I don’t eat sweetened PB, but it was the only jar opened and the young man was hungry and not a PB snob, so he was happy to indulge. The jam was a gift from a friend. So feeding the worker, which usually isn’t expected, was no skin off my nose – and he is one of those basket ball player kids who needs lots of fuel and is thrilled to be offered food! Kids sometimes don’t think to pack a lunch for a job, only for a school day…
6. I dropped in to my favourite thrift store to see my buddy who volunteers there, and did a quick run through their furniture store. Several weeks ago I had admired a couple of newly recovered wooden upright chairs with padded seat and padded back, one was golden upholstery the other a lovely red. I have been looking for two chair in my living room (have been place-holding with two mis-matched dining room chairs, which had the right light profile, but aren’t lovely in any way). The price wasn’t right, but this time it was – I paid less for both chairs than I would have paid for one, two weeks ago. SOLD! I knew I needed to be patient with my manifesting.
I heartily agree that the porch looks very inviting and comfortable. And $45 for the outdoor loveseat and chair is such a steal!
Over the (almost 10 ) years I’ve been reading your blog, I have adopted a similar free/cheap is best ” philosophy when it comes to decorating. The other day, during a lull in my work, I walked around our home and noted how many furniture items were acquired 1)free, 2) secondhand/used, and 3) new. I counted only eight furniture items in our 3-bedroom home that were bought new — and those were all purchased at least 5 – 15 years ago. A particularly nice find was a free (via Nextdoor) Scandinavian Designs chaise sofa + ottoman that we received 5.5 years ago when we were furnishing our newly converted garage/ “bonus room”. This has become our 3 sons’ favorite hangout space over the years and is almost completely furnished with free items.
All this is to say thank you for the continued inspiration! I know I’ve saved thousands of dollars over the years with the mindset of “if I wait a bit, I think I can find this for free (or cheap)”. 🙂
Katy, your porch has great curb appeal and your backyard is a beautiful oasis.
Love your round pillow, love embroidery!
I can’t take credit for any needlepoint here, as the pillows are all thrifted!
Beautiful, and for under $50! Love that paint color – it makes such a difference. And you are the queen of DIY jobs…that side table looks so much better!