Eye Opener: Photo Essay

The first thing that came to mind when hearing about this assignment was my house.  As I am sure is true in most college houses, my house is filled with hand-me-downs, garage sale furniture, and things found off the side of the road.  As I started taking pictures I was thinking about what I would say in this post.  I realized there is a story behind each and every piece of furniture in my house, everything has character and adds a little something to the lives that are lived here, and we did it all for really cheap.

These two chairs are in the "formal sitting room" in my house.  They were found at a garage sale for $3 a piece.  These chairs are rarely used for sitting and often used for holding our junk.  If you're missing your keys at my house they're probably under the cushion of one of these chairs.  The table in between the chairs was left to us by the previous renters of our house and the lamp was given to us by the sister of one of my roommates.

This couch has had an interesting life.  It's previous home was the house next door.  I don't know how long it was there previously to my friends living there, but their landlord told them they could have it.  Three years ago when I moved into my house, my friend, who had previously lived next door, moved in and brought this couch with her.  She lived with us for a year before graduating and getting married, leaving this beautiful floral couch.  Three years ago I believe there were no tears in fabric and that the middle cushion was covered.  After being loved by everyone who has lived here, and our friends, the couch has developed a lot of character, as you can see.


My desk and holding place for a lot of junk was found on the side of the road.  With the help of a friend I loaded it in my car and the rest is history.

The chair at my desk is a set of four that were left at my house from previous renters.  Two of the chairs reside in the formal sitting room, and the other two are used by another roommate and myself for our desk chairs.

My dresser, like my desk, was found on the side of the road.  At first I wasn't sure if I would keep it, but I was in desperate need of a dresser and wasn't having much luck finding anything I liked. The day I painted this dresser started out as a really boring Sunday, and turned into a day that my roommate and I will never forget, and neither will all of the random stuff around our house that we painted blue and black that day.

This table was found at a garage sale for $5.  It sits in front of our beloved floral couch and acts as an over-sized junk drawer.  No matter how many times we clean it out, it still manages to turn into the go-to place to stash things when we're just doing quick clean-ups around the house.  Looking for cards or crayons?  Find them here.



The last three pictures are the TV stand, TV, and speakers in the living room at my house.  The TV stand was found at a garage sale for $5.  The TV was found while an old roommates boyfriend was volunteering at some store like Good Will in his home town.  They test all the electronics and don't sell them if they don't work.  The TV's sound didn't work so they weren't going to try to sell it, he asked if he could buy it for cheap and ended up getting it for free, thinking maybe another one of our roommates could fix it.  This leads me to the speakers, which are another thing that were left by previous renters.  My handy-man roommate hooked them up to the TV and tada, working TV!

It is funny to look around at the things that I see every day and think of where they come from.  I have lived in this house for three years, we started out having very little furniture; a couch and an end table in our living room, and a few random table chairs in our dining room.  Slowly but surely we have furnished our house into a home, probably all for under $30.  Through this Eye Opener I have realized that all the Ikea online-shopping (okay, dreaming) I do won't really be necessary when I get my own place after graduation.  As long as I stay as thrifty and resourceful as I have been in college, I will be able to furnish any place I live for cheap.