Decorating tips your wallet will love

Very few of us are born with a natural flair for decorating. We have to rely on handy hints found in magazines and tips from well-meaning friends. A lucky few are able to turn to interior decorators and style professionals to help them get their furnishings to match their curtains and lighting. Most of us, however, bumble along and hope for the best. There is some good news for those on a budget, or who are the proud owners of an eclectic mix and match jumble of furniture. With some innovative decorating methods, it’s possible to create gorgeous effects and not break the bank.

Marjorie Marcellus of The Art Institute of California says that the key components of a successful interior are balance and harmony. To achieve this, finishes and furnishings should relate to each other holistically but needn’t match in any other way i.e. price, era, or quality.

Suzanne Wilkins from The Art Institute of New York believes in mixing high and low design elements. She says that the rule of thumb is to avoid placing a cheaper furnishing next to a more expensive one, especially if they look similar. Items that look similar will naturally be compared and may make the less expensive item look even cheaper than it really is. The key is to keep lines simple and clean, which provides a naturally expensive and elegant look to furnishings.

If clean lines don’t suit your lifestyle or your furnishings then you can opt for a funky look. Funky items usually stand alone and speak for themselves. Wilkins advises that they be used sparingly as they add a lot of texture and colour to a room. Too many pieces will overwhelm the room and the identity of the individual pieces will be lost.

A simple and inexpensive way to redecorate your home and revive its atmosphere is to decorate the walls. Many people find decorating their walls to be a daunting task and either put it off completely or go overboard, filling up as much wall space as possible. In reality decorating walls can be a fun and painless experience for the whole family to enjoy.

Stencils add detail to walls. They’re easy to create, quick to do and inexpensive fun that children can also enjoy. Stencils can be used to create depth or as frames around windows, doors, and wall art. Several different designs can also be used to serve as decorations in their own right.

Create a dramatic wall hanging by using a large piece of plywood and painting a word or a string of words that have a special meaning for you. Decorate the plywood and the surrounding piece of wall as you please and you’ll have an interesting conversation piece to treasure.

Hang larger items on the walls to make rooms seem bigger. An embroidered rug or quilt works just as well as a painting or mirror. Unconventional items can also make interesting pieces to decorate your walls with. If the idea of plywood with inspirational words on it strikes you as too twee, perhaps you prefer the idea of hanging some weathered driftwood that you salvaged from the sea. Dream-catchers that you and your children made on a summer’s day can have pride of place in the centre of the lounge wall. You are limited only by the extent of your imagination.

Interior decoration needn’t belong only to the highly creative and highly priced. As a realm it can be entered and conquered by any of us mere mortals so long as we use a little bit of thought and common sense. Items that we use and see in our everyday lives can be given a fresh twist and incorporated in the revitalisation of our homes. We hold our creative power in our hands. Sometimes all we need is a piece of driftwood to unlock it.

Recommended Sites:

http://www.rentaldecorating.com/0506/styleandbudgetdecorating.htm

http://www.rentaldecorating.com/0407/easywalls-wilsonrevised0407.htm

Sandra wrote this article for the online marketers Garden and Home News garden and home news one of the leading site indexes when it comes to news regarding creative ideas for your garden and home.