Interior Design - Karen's Perspective

Decorating on a Budget – Accessories

Accessories

Trying to update your home on a budget? How about accessories?

If you can’t buy a new sofa, buy some throw pillows! You can find them inexpensively at craft stores, garden supply stores, discount stores like Target or K-Mart. If you don’t find a pillow you like, buy a pillow insert and enough fabric to cover it. Even without a machine, you can sew up a pocket for the insert and make your own throw pillows! Or maybe you can switch pillows from one room to another to create a new look!

Have a Garden Ridge near you? They’re a fantastic source of great, inexpensive accessories. Search through other craft shops for ideas, colors and styles you like.

Candles are wonderful accessories. They not only look good but should smell great, too. One of my favorite fragrances is vanilla. Nothing makes a home cozier than a soothing fragrance. Candles come in all sorts of colors and sizes so they’re good even in small areas like bathrooms. But be very careful using lit candles if you have small children or pets.

Decorating on a Budget – Paint

Angled Wall

Suppose you don’t want to move (or can’t) but you want to freshen up your home so you’ll feel good, like you have moved! What are some inexpensive things you can do to get a new look? How can you get the most bang for your buck?

Well, one of the least expensive ways to achieve the most dramatic change is with paint. Sometimes you’ll want to paint a room to give it an entirely new and/or fresh look. You can also paint just one wall for accent or drama. I’ve done a one wall paint in several different ways. One idea is to paint the focal wall. In most rooms with a tv, the tv wall is the focal wall. If that wall is darker, you’ll be surprised how it improves the look of the images on the tv screen. I think everything looks better against a dark wall.

Or, you may want to accent a wall that’s not the focal wall. A wall with a door and windows takes less paint and will accent the trim around the doors and windows. If you have nice trim, an accent color paint on the wall will really make the window and door trims pop.