Decorating on a dime

[sabrinat]

I'd love to spruce up my bedroom and let's face it the rest of my home. I watch all the shows where they bring in someone and redecorate a little money. I have lots of ideas and I'm actually pretty good an pulling stuff off when I can get the time w/o the kids to do it. I was wondering if anyone has done or is doing this. Have you really changed or redecorated a room/home for very few $$$. It's one thing to have a team of professionals, but a real person w/o skills is another ball of wax. I'm interested in hearing stories and ideas of what you used, where you found it and how it turned out. We're probably going to be in our home a few more years and I'd like to really love the space we're in!

[caeden&connersmom]

Paint, paint and more paint!!

THats the quick fix I have found to make all the difference. We moved into our new house in January and aside from ripping up the carpet to expose the hardwood, paint has been the major thing that has transformed the house and make it more *ours*. Our bedroom went from mauve (Still have the icky mauve carpeting, but thats coming up soon!) to a beautiful burnt brownish orange. I used a picture I found to get some ideas. I am making a headboard from a piece of plywood, some foam and some material I bought (Its a tapestry and got it on cleasance!). I also made a valance and 3 throw pillows (I am SO cheap, I just recover my throw pillows when I get the urge to redecorate!) Totally new look!!

[sabrinat]

Oh...I do the same thing with throw pillow. Why go buy forms or polyfil when you have perfectly good ones right there!

[member]

Yes to all of the above!

And candles, candlelight makes everything better.

Frames can be cheap, do collages or group photos together into a new, larger picture on the wall.

[captain crunchy]

Just to expand on the frame idea, yes you can get frames really cheap... also at craft stores (I know joann etc has them) are mattes that either people didn't want or were cut slightly big or small or whatever, but otherwise really in great shape for deep discount. It is really cheap to get favorite pics blown up and (I personally love) making them black and white -- then matting them and framing them in cheap, decorative frames in a grouping on the wall. The frames don't have to be all the same (though some people dig that)... I try to do different frames but in the same *family* like all wood or whatever.

Paint is a really cheap way to spruce up rooms too.

[sabrinat]

Great idea about the pix. I'm thinking of some cool stuff to do and blow up. I never thought of asking for the miscut mats. I'm so glad I started this thread, it's giving me such good ideas. I'm going to work on my whole house scheme this weekend! I'm jazzed now!

[tamaralv]

No real ideas, sorry - just want to sub and ride on your coattails - we need *serious* affordable decorating ideas in our bedroom.

[sabrinat]

Anyone have any cool repurposing ideas. I have a dresser from ikea that has one drawer that's broken and unsalvagable. I hate to throw it out. It's totally fine otherwise.

[HydeParkB]

I've seen dressers without the drawers used at 'shelves.' Could you just make that drawer space into a shelf space?

Or take all the drawers out, put wheels on those and make them under-bed storage. Then make all the drawer slots into shelves.

[tamaralv]

We had a busted drawer in our vanity that we couldn't afford to replace so se made a flase "Front" that looked like a drawer and permanently attached it to the vanity. It looked like a drawer but didn't open (like the "Drawers" you might have underneath a sink).

[margitmama]

I just added some plants in pots that I have picked up over time - and grouped a few together in my bedroom in different places. Three on the wall in plantholders (plants were taken from one of my larger spider plants, they had been growing roots for months), and 2 (new)on one night table and 1 larger one on the other night-side table.

I think it adds some warmth, and not expensive at all - I think they were $2 or $3 dollars each.
Keep the ideas coming!

[RiverSky]

Originally Posted by sabrinat

Anyone have any cool repurposing ideas. I have a dresser from ikea that has one drawer that's broken and unsalvagable. I hate to throw it out. It's totally fine otherwise.

Could you find baskets that would fit in the open area that you could just slide in there?

I like the idea of the false front but if you can't find something suitable to do that with, why not just use the dresser inside a closet?

Sabrina, could you post some pictures of the room you want to redecorate and give us ideas as to what your budget is? I think you could totally do so much fun stuff with any room but it'd help to focus our creative ideas seeing what you have and where you'd like to go.

[sabrinat]

Originally Posted by tamaralv

We had a busted drawer in our vanity that we couldn't afford to replace so se made a flase "Front" that looked like a drawer and permanently attached it to the vanity. It looked like a drawer but didn't open (like the "Drawers" you might have underneath a sink).

False front. That's a good one. I also like the basket thing too. It's a weird space though, not very tall. I think I actually still have the drawer front.
Great ideas. I went and looked in my garage. I think I found everything I need to redo my bedroom. I had gotten some custom curtain panels at GW, much nicer than I could ever afford. There are 4 of them and a ton of fabric. I think I can make curtains for my 2 bedroom windows, plus pillows and maybe recover a little chair. I'm getting so excited about all the possiblities.

[marybethorama]

Originally Posted by sabrinat

Oh...I do the same thing with throw pillow. Why go buy forms or polyfil when you have perfectly good ones right there!

me too

[RiverSky]

HGTV online has some good ideas and free stuff to watch right now, too.

This is one has $100 ideas under $100: http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/pac_ctnt_94..._31052,00.html

Let's say you can muster up $200 for your bedroom:

I'd say paint the room, you could probably do that for $40.
Buy a new comforter or duvet cover, hopefully you can scour some sales and pay $50 for one. (It would be even better if you have something in your house already). I have seen brand new comforter sets at garage sales, in the packaging, that regularly cost $300 new (I knew that because I had just bought one, the same brand, for that much), so you never know, you could be REALLY lucky. Again scour some sales and find some throw cushions for the bed, or reupholster some that you already have. If you have a chair or piece of furniture that you could throw a slip cover over or could reupholster yourself with a screwdriver and a staple gun, cool. I just recovered 6 chairs for less than $15 and I have fabric left over.

Scour garage sales, Sally Ann and Goodwill, freecycle ads, newspaper classifieds, etc., and find any other furniture you might need, perhaps dressers or a sitting chair, something like that. I know that I recently saw a free cherry bedroom set given away on something like freecycle. We have also helped a friend "trash pick" two different solid wood dressers, both very nice...one didn't need anything and one became gorgeous with a coat of paint. It's pretty cheap to add attractive draw pulls as well, if you want to spruce something up. Add a couple of inexpensive house plants and use some paint to paint your own art for the room, whatever you can muster, even if it is abstract or geometric.

HTH

[tamaralv]

I have one now! lol

If you have furniture, you could paint it - even paint it all to (gasp!) match each other lol. I'm thinking of our hideous bedroom where nothing matches. It's like I never left collage. No, wait - my room looked *better* back then

[4evermom]

I'm working on a bedroom, too. My local MAB paint store sells mistints for $5/gallon. I needed 3 so I bought 3 similar shades and mixed them together in a big bucket. They also sell 5 gallon buckets of paint for $20 but they are usually exterior paint. I bought some king size sheets from a thrift store that I could turn into curtains, avoiding the worn areas. I'm planning on painting some wood shelves to match the trim in my bedroom which will make the room look more unified and less cluttered.

[sabrinat]

In my mind I'd like to use what I have and say $500-700 to redo my house. I have lots of items already that I can repaint or repurpose in some way, plus I sew and I have tons of fabric to make slipcovers, pillows and what have you. I also have a garage full of various paints. I started already. I was at Target and they are either doing away w/the Thomas O'brien line or something, but it was on sale, I got 3 5x8 rugs for $120. I put two together in the lr and one in the dining room. It's already changed the look of the room. I'm going to do the false front on the ikea dresser and use it in the lr to store dvd &cd (there's bunch...). I have 2 matching lamps that my mom gave me that I'd like to spray paint and also a funky home interiors mirror from the 70's that is now back in style as it looks somewhat baroque.
My bedroom. I have some chocolate colored microsuede that I will make a headboard slipcover with. I'm thinking of repainting my sage colored walls...mocha or taupe and using my red curtain fabric to do all the accent fabrics in the the room . The furniture is a mix of midcentury in a maple tone and a few traditional(well the nitestands are) and the bed is the morkedal bed from Ikea so that's sort of modern too. I think I have some artwork to use, but I'm also going to do this thing with paint color swatches and little frames and make a collage as well as blow up some photos that I like to get a sort of abstract thing going.
Any more ideas?

[Penelope]

I have actually gotten a lot of ideas from Real Simple, although they're not a "budget" publication by any means. They have lots of examples of rooms with nice, clean lines though.

[sabrinat]

Originally Posted by Penelope

I have actually gotten a lot of ideas from Real Simple, although they're not a "budget" publication by any means. They have lots of examples of rooms with nice, clean lines though.

I subscribe to that magazine. It does have great ideas...just not budget friendly. I like Domino too for ideas.