How I Bought Furniture for our Waco Fixer Upper Project

  

Many months ago, when our Waco Fixer Upper home was in the early stages of construction, I started planning the furniture for our home. I decided early on I wanted to create the perfect mix of new and vintage modern farmhouse furniture. Why did I start so early? The main reason was due to the amazing partnership I had with Overstock to buy furniture online for our living room and dining room.  Of course, the other reason I started early was that I could not wait to determine how I was going to decorate the Waco home! 

Today I am going to share the process I went through to plan and buy furniture online quite a few months before the construction was finished. I am sharing a sneak peek of the finished space but I promise the full reveal (with a gazillion photos) will be on my blog in two days!

The Fixer Upper Before Photos

We bought our one hundred year old fixer-upper home in Waco, Texas almost a year ago. We bought it as an investment to remodel and offer it as a short term rental (on Airbnb). The home was in terrible shape as we had to redo the foundation, plumbing, electrical, heat and air, roof, and more. This is a photo of what the living room looked like when we bought the home. 

Soon we began the demolition to open up the entire left side of the home to create a living room, dining room, and kitchen.

We found lots of surprises (good and bad) during the demolition. 

But after many months we were able to create the living space I had envisioned. My goal was to create a calm and relaxing ambiance in the style of modern farmhouse decor. Once the home looked like the photo below, I started planning all of my furniture needs. 

How to Buy Furniture

The first step to choosing furniture for a room is having a floor plan that matches the scale of the space. Originally I was using hand drawings on a napkin (seriously, it’s true!) but I was very fortunate to hire my sister-in-law at Sandy McDaniel Designs. She created all of my drawings for the remodel which also allowed me to determine the furniture placement. 

Selecting furniture is a fun task but it takes a bit of trial and error. I started by creating a list of the items I needed for each room. I made a list of which items I thought needed to be new and which could be vintage. As you can see, most of the furniture is new. I feel strongly that vintage furniture works great for tables and cabinets. But I think most of the items you sit or stand on should be new. 

Living Room Shopping List

Living Room: NEW: sofa, love seat, chair, rug, drapes, lamps, side table

Living Room: VINTAGE: coffee table, an armoire for TV, a cabinet for coats, and side tables/cabinets

Dining Room Shopping List

Dining Room: NEW: table, chairs, chandelier, rug

Dining Room: VINTAGE: table, chandelier, sideboard

Obviously I wasn’t sure if my dining table or chandelier would be new or vintage. Since I hadn’t started shopping yet, I was open to both.

How to Buy Furniture Online

Overstock has an incredible variety of furniture for Living and Dining Rooms. So I started by narrowing my choices to my color palette which was offwhite, gray and tan. Each time I selected items from Overstock, we placed the furniture in the plan to make sure it would fit. (It is possible to do this all by hand with your own drawings or with one of the online virtual room planning programs.) Most of the items worked on the first try in the floor plan, although I had to try a few different sofas to make the seating work. I also decided to hang the drapes almost to the ceiling. Our ceilings are over ten feet tall, and the dramatic impact of the tall drapes is probably the smartest choice I made in our home!

Here are the items I selected from Overstock.

Living Room Mood Board

Rug – Sofa – Accent Chair – Loveseat – Mirror – Table Lamp – Pouf – End Table – Curtains – Curtain Rod – Rug Pad

Dining Room Mood Board

As soon as I found this farmhouse style wood dining table on Overstock I knew I was going to buy a new table. It was love at first sight and it is the most perfect dining table ever! The chairs are an excellent match and are really comfortable.

Table – Chairs – Rug – Chandelier – Curtains – Curtain Rod – Rug Pad 

 

Months after I ordered my furniture, the living space started to look like a real room!

I also went to the Round Top Antiques show and loaded up an entire truck with all of the vintage items I needed for our home. 

I decided to create a ladder chandelier similar to the one we have in our home in California. I used a vintage ladder and three chandelier lights from Overstock. We hung it above the dining room table and I love it. A complete DIY blog post on how to make this ladder chandelier will be available next week.

It is not difficult to buy furniture for your home, even when it’s under construction. All it takes is a little planning and organization. Mixing new and vintage furniture is so much fun and I love the final outcome of our living and dining room. Be sure to check back for the final reveal later this week. It really is incredible.