Inexpensive Home Decorating Hints
Tiny budget but big dreams? ‘S ok, we have some great home design tricks for you.
Paint will usually give you the biggest bang for your buck. A warm, creamy beige instead of boring white, a faux paint finish on one wall, a wall mural – there are many options here.
Take colors from the room’s furniture and accent pieces from your room and use them on your walls. You might use different hues of the same color for a coordinated, but not boring look.
A pretty, plump pillow or a throw casually laid across a sofa or chair can really brighten up a room. Several pillows to match or contrast with your walls will bring the room together nicely.
And, a couple of throw rugs – they’ll work out great. They’ll create a bit of a “spark” to the room, can cover up stains, or be a warmer winter alternative to cold uncarpeted floors.
LightingâÂ?¦ Use three way bulbs and you’ll have soft, indirect lighting to create a soft ambience and direct light for reading and other tasks. Consider colored lighting for bathrooms and bedrooms for a slightly different look. Unshaded lamp shades might work well also.
Your bathroom, or at least the guest bathroom, is the room your company will see the most. So spend a little extra $$$ on pretty towels, an attractive shower curtain and unusual shower hooks, and other low-cost accessories. Tie the bath towels back with raffia or pretty ribbon. Use your imagination. I have a pretty green wire wine rack where I hang my white guest towels on in one of my bathrooms. A loofah and a nice wood body brush adorn the tall faucet in one of my guest bathrooms. In the master bath, where I am a lot, I have about 8 bottles of body gel, butter cream lotion, pretty bars of natural soap and other similar items. A candle, lit in a small bathroom creates instant atmosphere. A simple silk plant, or fresh flowers will add more ambience to these rooms.
Another low-cost option is a little work but well worth the results. Decorative molding and medallions look terrific. Or, a chair rail bisecting the wall around the room. You might consider wall paper on the bottom half of the wall after you do this. I have plans for a medallion on the ceiling where my fan will go in my bedroom. And, another in the dining room, once I find the perfect chandelier to that room.
Photos! Collections of family photos warm up a corner of a room or part of a wall. I place a collection of photos in a variety of frames on the top of my entertainment center. (Can’t use the mantel because my cat likes to push them onto the floor – hence, I have a very boring, blank mantel!)
Pretty curtains or drapes, hanging from ceiling to the floor will add instant interest to a room. They can be very inexpensive – in my dining room I’ve hung off-white sheer lace panels which cost me six dollars at a yard sale. You might take solid color drapes (from any inexpensive store like Target or Wal-mart) and tie them back with a co-ordinating pattern fabric. Use a topper created from real or silk vines entwined with dry or silk flowers to go over the curtains on a window. Placemats hanging across the top of kitchen windows are a low-cost alternative to full curtains on those windows.
If you have a pretty view, consider partial curtains on just the bottom part of your windows. My kitchen and family room windows face the back yard, with tall trees and flowering bushes beyond my back yard fence; I took white Battenburg lace curtains and hung them from spring tension rods on the bottom half of these windows. Privacy, but with a view on top.
“Stage” your own house. Staging is something realtors and home sellers will often do to get top dollar when they sell their homes. So, do some of this yourself. Remove the clutter – one terrific looking piece on a table instead of several pieces. Remember, less is MORE. Put a couple of place settings on your kitchen table (or counter), complete with place mats, dinner and salad plates, fabric napkins, glasses and silverware. You might place a basket of dinner rolls or loaves of bread (fake, of course) in the middle of the table. On your dining room table, you might set it with a beautiful tablecloth and six or so full place settings.
Get creative and have fun!
