Where do I even start, with decorating our apartment?
In November, we moved into a really nice 3-BR apartment that has lots of empty white wall space. Well it’s been four months and we still don’t have much of anything on the walls; it looks in some ways like we haven’t really "moved in". The problems are, 1) I don’t even know where to start, with making it look homey and pretty; and 2) Wall art and pictures, etc. are SO expensive that we can’t afford much. What can I do to make our home look more decorated and lived in?
Related home decor picture
- Buy Turtle Reef Canvas Wall Art – Set of 3 At Amazon! « jayleen995945
- Gay man found dead in D.C. apartment : Washington Blade
- Why is Glass Wall Art Unique? | Wall Art Beautiful Gorgeous
- Wood Wall | True Purpose
- Jonny Flynn: (Hip) Out 3-4 Months? – Rotowire | Muratayumi.com
walgreens has sales all the time on photo prints. you can get like 50 for $5. & you can get frames from the thrift store or the dollar store. & you can paint them if you want. it doesn’t matter what size the frames are because if they’re too big, you can put a mat around the photo. it looks really nice with a mat too – more professional. hang them all over the place! you can put themes of pictures together or have them go up your stairs.
curtains help places look more homey. & lamps. so many of my friends just leave the blinds & overhead lights that came with the place. you can find lamps at yard sales or thrift stores. & curtains are a little expensive but you can be creative. put one on & pull it to the side or just add a valance.
pillows are easy to make & you can make them coordinate with your frames & curtains. old t-shirts work or old sweaters. then get the stuffing at the craft dept. it’s like $2!
if you want to paint, get a kind like kilz that only takes one coat to cover. & you can just choose focal point walls to color. so you don’t have to go all out & take a long time getting your place homey. just make one wall beige or something & you can paint doors & stuff too.
good luck
You can get black pic frames from the dollar store for like $5. Put cute fun stationary paper inside of them and hang them together closely. There are a ton more easy cheap ideas on the site
I understand where your coming from as we also moved into our new home in November last year. Take one room at a time & look at the room and the wall space you have to work with. To decorate the room even one or two family photos would be nice on the walls. You don’t want to over do either with lots of pictures or decor on the walls. When yard sales come that is one of the best places to look for something nice you would like in that room, another place is Goodwill. Go by what you like either by color or design. I’m sure you’ll just fine if you take one room at a time & make it feel lived in.
Plants, if you’re willing to stay aware of their needs. Put them near windows on TV trays. [Thinking 'budget' here.] Posters with push pins or the frames for them. Cute chairs you find in salvage stores, yard sales, you repaint in fun colors. Not a set, deliberately different ones. Floor baskets with magazines. Cute tables by the chairs with hanging lamps [the cheapest]. Those are ways to start. Throws on the chairs, or a pretty fabric. Add and/or replace as you go.
You can start with the living room and place pictures on the side table, or cushions on the sofa and have a small rug with a coffee table. The kitchen could have small grapes or chicken pictures or designs or even sayings and flowers that you an buy at walmart. for your rooms you can also place pictures of yourself and family and have a lamp or two on each side table for your bed, it’s all up to you.
I would try some thrift stores.Pictures,dolies and maybe a afgan.You can find some real bargains sometimes.Good luck.
there are many great shows like "Design on a Dime" that you can watch to give you ideas. I would start in your main living area and your bedroom. don’t try to do it all at once. Decorate with stuff you might already have like personal pictures. There are cute window treatments on e-bay – I bought some for my office for $9.00 each.
Look at thrift stores; you’ll find all kinds of cheap treasures there!
One of the things you can do to save money on wall art is to make it yourself,or if you don’t have the skills of an artist,find a photo of something you like on the web,print it in black and white,or sepia tone,and then frame it in store bought frames,I find that "floating" frames work well with this,as often the prints come out in odd sizes. You can see some samples of this in my apartment on my yahoo group dbdezignz-http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dbdezignz
You can also use T-shirt printing paper to personalize decorative pillows with your own photos.
I agree with the earlier posts about starting one room at a time. The first thing I advise is to think about your favorite colors and paint a room. Remember to keep the paint chip of the color you select so when you move to the next room you can compare the color you already have with the next selection. I use a notebook and just paste the paint chip in.
When painting think outside the box, you can create a very interesting design on two walls of your room by just using a flat and a semigloss of the same paint color or one shade slightly lighter (think stripes, large diamond patterns, a repeated stencil pattern, etc). This is a very inexpensive way to make your room instantly unique.
Posters and poster frames are also a quick and relatively inexpensive way to decorate a wall especially a long blank wall. Pick a subject like flowers, cars, golf courses…or anything else you particularly like and get the inexpensive poster frames (if you end up liking the posters you can always get them professionally dry mounted and framed later).
Try experimenting with posters of various sizes and play with the composition on the floor in front of the wall you are going to hang them on before putting nails in.
I have a picture on my blog with an example of just such a poster combination with a travel theme here. http://amusingreflections.blogspot.com/2010/07/dont-forget-walls.html
Also something as simple as black floating shelf with cobalt blue glassware that can hold tea candles can make a dramatic and romantic focal point for a minimalistic designed room.
One last thing to think about is looking for home accessories at yard sales and thrift shops.
Be bold, be brave and be uniquely you when designing your interior spaces.
Cheryl Gallagher´s last blog ..It’s Your Home you determine room use- not the floor plan!