We have a small 2 room guest cottage that is late 1800s and I have done a dramatic renovation with dark walls and a mix of vintage and modern furniture. For the longest while I wanted a 4-poster bed and was trying to find an old one but couldn't get one in King size (well, they rarely came in king size!) and this year I resigned myself to buying something new, but then baulked at the 3K pricetag. I got lucky, on FB marketplace someone was selling their 1 year bed due to moving, and we got a bargain (we did have to drive an hour for it).
I love this because I didn't have to do a single thing to it, the very dark timber suits the space, phew! And, this bed has been described by one guest as 'the comfiest bed in Australia'.
my other fave piece is this hutch we converted into a kitchenette. Again, me being frugal, we pulled out the original ugly kitchenette years ago and then never got round to putting in a new one, because the quotes were 5-7K, and all the designs were so bland. So I got the idea to convert an old kitchen hutch, I found one on marketplace for $150, and as I was interstate my daughter did all the work (also my fave part, haha), fetched it, sanded it back, painted, removed some doors, replaced knobs, and I chose the sink and tap, and the most expensive part was probably the plumber. all up we made this cute kitchenette for $1200, and it suits the style of the cottage perfectly. This pic was taken before we finished the drawer (had to cut it into a U-shape but it's still usable for small things), we still have a kettle, toaster and microwave in the lower section (that hardly anyone uses), and the important things: wine glasses, coffee machine and cheese boards, on display. I've actually bought new coffee cups and jars since this pic was taken.
What we didn't account for was the darkness of the space and the hutch just swallows light, so i'm going to change the main room light for a much brighter chandelier, eventually.....