A Georgia Home Full of $5 Finds

Some people know just what to do with junk — and Amy Lind is one of them. She makes a habit of bringing home finds from yard sales, flea markets, her local Goodwill, even the trash. But nothing looks like junk after Amy has styled it in the adorable 1930s brick bungalow she shares with her husband, Josh, and their 22-month-old son, Forrest, in Savannah, GA. Three years after moving in, the couple embarked on a reno that expanded the attic to create a bathroom and a studio space for Amy, a painter, bumping up the home’s square footage to 2,213.

When it came time to decorate, Amy didn’t budge from her budget-minded philosophy, scouring town and the internet for deals, and supplementing them with pieces handed down from family and the occasional new purchase. “Amy will come home beaming after a morning of ‘junkin’ ’ and ask me to guess how much she spent on a lamp, a trunk, whatever — and the answer is always $5,” says Josh. “I’m not quick to furnish a room, because I love the hunt,” Amy says. “I don’t mind if it takes months, even years, to find the right thing, especially if I can get the right thing for crazy cheap!”

Amy and Josh with Forrest, 22 months.

Of all the steals homeowner Amy Lind has nabbed, her favorites are three rugs she found (on different outings, no less!) and laid in a row to get the look of one. She scored two for $5 each at yard sales, and the third was free. It had been draped over a railing outside a house nearby, and when Amy asked about it, the owners gave it to her. “My friend tells me the rug gods are with me,” Amy says. She teamed the rugs with newer pieces, like a gray IKEA sofa and a molded plastic rocker by LexMod. The leather Eames reproduction chair was a Craigslist score. 

To brighten the blah kitchen, the Linds put in white subway tile and painted the walls pale green and the cabinets white (Whitened Sage and Ultra Pure White, both by Behr). They made the shelves out of stair treads from The Home Depot, and put two mats from HomeGoods together to make a runner. A friend spotted the pendants at an antiques store an hour away. “She called, and I got in the car,” Amy says. “They weren’t $5 — but cheap enough!”