With fall just around the corner and the stock market still making corrections, you're most likely even more budget-conscious than this time last year.
But that does not mean you have to put off making needed updates to rooms that may look tired and outdated. There are many ways to rejuvenate a room, according to Linda Witter of Lititz, PA, who owns Roomscapes by Linda and helps homeowners reinvent their spaces to get the most out of their rooms and interiors.
Interior redesign and home staging—how the industry refers to this particular niche of the home decorating and interiors business—is one of the biggest trends right now with homeowners looking to stay in their homes while the economy sorts itself out but who are still interested in giving their homes a "facelift." They just want to do it on a smaller budget, according to Witter. "With some thought and just a few hours, you can bring economical and striking change to a room."
More cosmetic than architectural, redesign requires that your approach focus on reshaping the existing space with simple updates, rather than making any big renovations.
Here are things to look at with a critical eye:
- how are the "bones" of the room? Is there flexibility to the floor plan?
- is furniture placed well and is there space to easily move about?
- can you work off the existing color theme of the walls - will you need to repaint?
- if your room has a theme is it outdated?
Once you can answer these questions, you can begin making choices.
Floor Plan and Accessibility
If the room feels heavy with too much furniture, choose your favorite pieces and remove the others. If there are pieces of furniture that serve no important purpose, get rid of them. Then try changing the locations of what's left. Once the room is free of excess clutter there are more options for how to "stage" the room to bring openness and simplicity to the space, and your eye will pick up on this more easily.
Color and Dimension
"Build around color," Witter says. If you need to repaint, either to freshen up dulling wall finishes or give the room a new color scheme, try doing it yourself if you have the time and the tools to avoid the higher costs of hiring a professional.
If walls are still in pretty good shape though, choose an accent color from a fabric, painting or piece of furniture in the room and paint your dominant wall in that color scheme. The room is immediately refreshed. Bold colors, like burnt orange, smoky gray, claret and moss green offer sophisticated hues that can have a dramatic impact on the room, just by changing one wall's color. This is a great way to accent the walls of bookcases too and really have the color make a statement.
Draw your primary color into the room more completely and at the same time add dimension by incorporating it into new throw pillows or rugs, lamp shades, linens, or small home accents like candle pillars, framed art, vases, or bowls filled with seasonal items.
An interesting way to add extra color depth to the room is to buy new pillow covers for your existing pillows for a quick decor change. Cull your local fabric store for inexpensive or discontinued fabric swatches in complimenting color hues and design, cut them and frame them with mat board to hang in the room. This is an easy and fairly inexpensive project, especially if you can shop at a discount craft supplier.
Themes
Themed rooms can show great decorating prowess, but only if items are well chosen. Antiques can be chic, but not if they are jumbled about and crowded into a too small space. Less really is more. Pare items of beautiful color and exquisite lines, but let them each hold their own.
Specific themed collections, whether you collect books, artwork, or mementos from your travels, need special care. If you simply can't bear to part with any items, box and store them, and then rotate through them throughout the year. Doing this can bring a newness to the room each time you change out items.
If your existing furniture's fabric is outdated or worn, slipcovers will change the entire room's look in just a few minutes at a relatively low cost.
 |
