HOME IMPROVEMENT

Who said you have to suffer to live beautifully

After a cold, gray winter, nothing says spring like a home design facelift. But how can you get a fresh new look for your home without spending a fortune?

Simple, say design experts. Pick one room and make inexpensive, yet big changes. If you try to spread your budget around too many rooms, you won’t see much change and may be disappointed for all your work.

To begin, start with color. According to Glenn Currie, of The Art Institute of Pittsburgh, it’s one of the easiest ways to give a room a lift. “Most people are afraid to choose color, but they shouldn’t be,” Currie said. “A bold palette choice will have an immediate impact on the look of a room. One idea for walls, he suggests, is to select wonderful wallpaper, cover one wall and then choose a color you like from the wallpaper to paint the other walls.
Another way to add color to a room is with area rugs. “Area rugs are an easy way to unify the walls, furniture and accessories in a room,” Currie said. Select a colorful rug in a traditional or modern pattern; affordable choices can often be found at carpet outlets or local auction houses.

Windows offer a great way to alter a room’s appearance. Nancy Lowe, with The Art Institute of Colorado, likes to use inexpensive and simple fabrics for draping to create window treatments with a little drama. “I’ll buy a simple cotton muslin or beautiful remnant and play with ways of draping the fabric over a rod until I get an effect I like,” Lowe said. For the rod, Lowe suggests looking for an inexpensive and unusual option such as copper piping from the plumbing section of a home improvement store.

If it’s your child’s room that needs updating, look for ways to change the room that can grow with the child. Donna Fullmer, of The Illinois Institute of Art Chicago, suggests removable wallpaper borders.

Before applying borders, Fullmer paints the room using two different colors; the first color is from the floor up to approximately five feet; the second color from the ceiling down to meet the first color. To divide the two colors, she adds a picture rail molding or narrow bookshelf to create display place for a child’s treasures. “The two paint colors and trim create an implied wall height that is a more tangible scale for a child,” says Fullmer. She then adds borders using pretty flowers or bold graphic patterns, some with scalloped edges and cut-outs, for a more grown-up look.

Remember, to give your home a facelift that will elicit oos and ahs from friends and family, “Don’t play it safe or you’ll end up with nothing for all your hard work,” Currie says. Be bold, experiment and most of all, have fun. That’s what makeovers are all about.

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