Chippy old door

I rescued this old door out of the dumpster during the early days of our renovation, with the intention of saving the doorknob for some future use. I'm embarrassed to say that the door sat in the front yard for over a year after that, braving the weather and numerous "You might be a redneck" comments. That is, until last week when I hosed it off and shoved it into the corner of the living room on a whim. I kind of like it. It has a nail already in place for hanging a wreath or other little whatever, so I'm looking forward to styling it up for various occasions. I'm also planning to paint the top of that cheap old IKEA side table white.

In a way, having a door that leads to nowhere is an homage to the Pit of Despair the living room had when we bought the house. Fortunately that pit is long gone, now integrated into our new living room. I'm thinking the despair part might still exist in the form of lead paint on this decorative door... but we don't have any kids yet, so that's not currently a major concern.

Side note: I feel I need to mention that the delish bread and cheese tray on the trunk was not put there just for photo styling purposes -- it was from a party we had over the weekend. (And the computer is set up next to the TV for busting out some tunes!) My mom thinks it's funny that we still manage to entertain with only half a house. We like having people over, so we make it work.

Anyway the total cost of this little door-as-decor endeavor was a whopping $0. You can't beat free -- that's my philosophy. The living room is still a major work in progress decor-wise, but it's getting cozier a little at a time as we work with what we have. I've said before that I'm not the type to buy a bunch of stuff all at once to decorate a room. Slow and steady wins the race -- that's my other philosophy. Anyone else have any good philosophies to share?