Home Décor on a Budget
For many of us the thought of changing the look and
feel of our living space is directly related to the amount of
discretionary money we have in the bank. Those who have money to throw
away can just simply decide they want a new look and go out and buy it.
For the rest of us we need to consider just what we would like to
accomplish and what will give us the biggest bang for our buck. This is
not always easily done, especially when we have very little to spend.
Here I hope to give you some ideas of how you can
stretch your dollar so that you can have the look of an expensive home décor
without having had to pay the price for one.
The first thing we have to do is decide what it is
we want to accomplish and what look we are trying to achieve. Do we want
to modernize our existing furniture or simply change the look and feel
of the room. We have to take stock of what we currently have and what we
want to replace or redo and what we want to stay. We need to work around
what we want to stay and what we have to work with and the budget we are constrained
by.
The simplest and least expensive way to change the
look and feel of a room is merely paint. We can change the color or add
design by sectioning off areas and using differing colors of the same
color scheme. A border near the ceiling like a crown molding or a phony
wainscoting at the lower 3 feet or differing painting techniques like
sponging, dry-brushing, stencils, or design patterns may be all that is
needed to make a room look and feel more what you want.
For those who know how to sew, slipcovers on old
furniture may be the answer. There are places where you can buy pre-made
slipcovers or have custom ones made. Many of us have either got hand me
down furniture from our parents, that is outdated or we have just
decided we no longer like the look of. Those of us with kids may have
severely worn furniture but do not have the funds to replace it with
new. Slipcovers are a quick and fairly cheap solution. If the couch has
lost its firmness we can add polyester or foam stuffing that is fairly
cheap. For those who have the touch we can refinish wood and make covers
that look like they were always a part of the furniture.
Lighting is another way to bring new look to a
room. As the years have gone by our shades have become dingy or the
lighting itself is outdated. You can purchase new shades or make your
own and many craft stores offer new light fixture pieces that we can
build our own lamps from. If the budget allows we can just purchase more
modern lighting or lighting that fits with our design Ideas.
Curtains are another fairly inexpensive way to
change the look and feel of a room. Again for those who know how to sew
this is a simple process of going to our local fabric store or ordering
online what we want and making our own. For others it may require they
purchase new or see what is available at the local second hand store. A
simple addition of side panels and valance will change a lot.
Placing
of wall hangings whether it be paintings,
photos, prints, quilts,
fabric, or placing shelves and displaying
some of our favorite things
can also be done on the cheap. I
tend to be sparse in what I do on my
walls as too much clutter makes the
room feel smaller but a well
proportioned wall hanging that ties
into what the room is about is a
great way to draw attention and change
the feel of a room. Be careful
not to overcrowd the area as if you
do no matter how great the taste of
the objects you have, you will have
not done more that make an awful room
into a cluttered one.
As
an example; A few years ago I went
house hunting with my mother when she
decided to purchase a new home. We
saw many homes and most were staged
in that professionals or perhaps
the owners themselves removed a lot of
items. We could easily tell as there
were telltale marks in the carpet
that had yet to fluff back out and
newly painted walls to cover nail
holes. We could see this by the smooth
patch under the fresh paint. ( As
an aside, when filling nail holes
or doing other patches try to emulate
the surrounding texture of the wall
so it does not show.) The ‘less is
more’ became very apparent as they
were trying to give the rooms the
look and feel of being larger than
they were. We saw many homes where
the owners did nothing and the clutter
made it feel claustrophobic and
so though the house may have been
large it did not ‘feel’ large.
Also when several differing design
materials were jumbled together one
actually felt nauseous or confused.
I tend to keep design ideas
separated by room or by distance
within a large room.
One
of the prime examples is a home we
saw where the owners were obviously
quite rich. They had real Kincaid
paintings on the walls and real
statues on tables and tiffany lamps
and high end furniture but though
the house was fairly large at nearly
3000 square feet you could barely
pass two people in the narrow passages
between the furniture and to
really have a good look at the paintings
you had to be sitting on the
furniture to be far enough away to
get a perspective. This caused you to
be below eye level with the paintings.
It was a very upscale house with
upscale décor but it looked small
and cluttered and we were turned off
right away. It felt as if we were
being led through an obstacle course
or maze.
One
of the best places to find really
good used furniture is on
Craigslist.com. or through you local
paper. Many people who move will
sell their furniture for pennies
on the dollar just so they do not have
to pay to have it moved and in some
cases retired people are moving to
smaller places and have no room for
their large dining room table and
hutch. This can be a great opportunity
to purchase great furniture and
even decoration for your home at
less than wholesale prices. I in fact
found a large dining room table for
$25.00 and was able to get 8 nice
dining room chairs for free. They
needed some refinishing and new seat
covers but with a bit of sanding
and stain and some recovering of the
chairs, in a week, I had a beautiful
set that I gave to my nephew and
his fiancé.
Each of us has our own idea as to what is
good home décor and what is not. Your taste
will not be the same as mine nor most anyone
else. But no matter what you have in mind
you can accomplish it for pennies on the
dollar with some forethought and a bit of
time looking for the right additions. And
of course some elbow grease. I would suggest
you watch those home decorating shows on
TV and maybe act like you are house hunting
and go to some open houses. Go to some furniture
stores and see how they have used style and
color to make their furniture look better
and if you can pick up some home décor magazines
with lots of pictures before you get started.
Decide
just what it is you want to accomplish as like they say ‘Failure to
plan is planning to fail’. If you just jump in without a clear goal
you will wind up with a room that has nothing going for it at all. Those
of you that have some skills can put them to use in sewing, laying tile,
refinishing furniture and all sorts of ways. Places like Home Depot and
other stores have free classes in “How to?’ just about everything
they sell. We went to several before building our first home and as a
result were able to save thousands in doing much of the work ourselves.
Having rental property hubby has had to work
on many things from stopping leaks to installing
windows and doors. Much of which he had no
knowledge of going in, but after talking
with people at the store where he would buy
the products he had a general idea of what
to do and he has a knack for figuring out
things. He, so far, has been able to do most
anything he has set his mind to, though failing
health has forced him to hire things done
lately he once did everything himself including
building 3 homes prior to his heath problems.
He contracted out some of the work ( Foundation,
Framing, Drywall) but did a lot himself,
especially when it came to the inside of
the house. There he did pretty much everything
after the drywall was in place. He tiled
the floors, wrapped the windows in wood and
hung the cabinets as well as many other things
including the counter tops and installing
all plumbing and lighting fixtures.
And yes I was right
there lending a hand and doing whatever I could to help. I have the calloused
hands and bad back to prove it. Though it has been years since I have
had to do such physically demanding labor I still do the odd decorating
about the house cause, I at least, find I am never quite
satisfied.
I guess what I am trying to say is if you
have the time you can do much yourself
and
save tons of money. You can do simple
things
that will makeover a room or your entire
house. Armed with a bit of knowledge
from
a local store employee or a book or
here
on the net you can make great strides.
Finding
some deals on slipcovers or furniture
or
decorations and/or even a bit of paint
can
be well within your budget. You do
not have
to suffer the same old décor day in
and day
out if you use a bit of common sense,
planning
and budgeting; and maybe some elbow
grease.
And unless you are being forced to
sell or
have some other time restriction you
can
take the time to learn how to do whatever
it is you want to do and most often
even
if it means buying tools you will never
use
again, doing it yourself will save
you tons
of money. You can always sell the tools
and
any extra material on free ad sites
like
Craigslist or in a garage sale and
recoup
some of your costs.
Good
luck on you next home décor / improvement
project. Write an article of
what you did and how you did it and
submit it to the site. Pics too if
you want.
Thank
you
Tami
www.vintageslips4u.com
www.cpfsn.org
| 
2007 -2010