need decorating ideas when on a budget
clueless35
My husband I purchased our first home last September and I haven't a clue to what kind of theme the previous owner was going for. The entry hall has green and white striped wall paper and burnt orange with gold accented tile(the tile is actually nice). I have a living room/dining room combo with the living room walls painted a light teal with white paneling and the dining room has green wall paper with a yellow accent and light brown paint, keep in mind that you can see all of this from the kitchen with it having light beige wall paper with a green accent and light beige painted cabinets and a wood toned countertop. Could someone please tell me where and how to start decorating on a budget.
UniquelyPainted
can you send any pictures? I am an interior decorator an would be happy to help!
vfifties
it sounds like these people were living in the fifties. do you like any of these colors? you can add softer colors to tone them down.
vfifties
i would like some help with my kitchen decorating. i would like to have a fifties theme. could you please help me on this project. thanksvfifties
decor42
I would love helping you with your decorating project. As an interior decorator I personally love the challenge of decorating on a budget. I live in a farming community and most of my local clients have limited budgets, therfor I reuse, repurpose and refinish pieces in unexpected ways. Email me pics of the spaces in question. Are you attracted to any of the colors mentioned? I know that you said you liked the entryway tiling. This may be the starting point for your homes decor and style.Cathy at SmiCth@aol.com
Kymaiden
I am no home decorator but my advice is to live in the place for about 6 months and then start.Sometimes I have found if you jump into doing rooms when you first move in, You later about 6 months down the road you find you hated what you did when you where tired from moving and unpackingAnd then you are redoing it againAlso take an afternoon and go to the library and just look at books on design. Forget the fansy ones look at the simple ones.That will help too. hey Decor42 I could use some help with a very small space
cheeseonmyhead
I recently moved after getting married again. The new house was great; however, the master bedroom was much much smaller. Here is what I did:1. In the master, we found these beautiful oblong pieces or artwork for the walls and kept all pictures on tables, so not to stunt the height of the room. It makes your eyes travel upward and the room seem much bigger2. We called 1-800-Mattress and and got a great mattress for the guest room (that one was easy), but also got a new one for the new husband and I in the master. We argued alot about what type of mattresses we wanted, but the person on the phone helped us figure out how to compromise. I picked a bed designed by Vera Wang. That bed has become the centerpiece of the room! It is gorgeous! And to be honest, we both have been sleeping great. The service was great too! I haven't been this excited about something since I first discovered ebay. (I collect silver spoons.) Anyway, it was incredibly easy!Anyway, those are the best recommendations I can make! I love my new house and I wish you both good luck with yours.
chickory
Shop online. There are a lot of websites now that will compare prices for you. It's easy to find sales, used stuff that is like new, etc. Check out http://www.mytriggers.com they will even email you when something goes on sale.
catwoman708
Sounds like a ... well, never mind. Keep the most permanent/expensive features that you can live with and don't clash with each other (like the gold tiles in the entry or the wood toned counter tops in the kitchen). Paint is relatively cheap, and your labor and elbow grease are "free". Start scraping wall paper and thinking about whether you want to paint or re-paper. If you re-paper, why not get some of that textured, paintable wall paper? It will be much easier to redo later. Cabinets, walls, and even paneling can be painted any color you want. I usually stick to neutral walls, floors, and furniture, then accessories can be chosen or changed so much easier.
LizzyC
It sounds like you have a good base to start from- its cheap to get rid of the wallpaper and repaint. When we moved into our house, I was clueless where to start as well, but we just started tackling each room with new paint and it has made ALL the difference. It might also be nice to try some faux finishes on the walls to add some personality into the rooms, which are both easy and inexpensive. Good luck!!
Megan22
If you're keeping the gold and orange, choose your color scheme around rich golds, yellows , reds, and greens. To compliment the tile in the entry, make sure to use paint with yellow or red undertones. Depending on how orange the tile is, Green may also work very well. I would definitely get rid of the teal. Maybe paint the living and dining room the same color as the entry or a complementing color, and either get rid of the paneling or paint it a cream color, I would not leave it white.. The kitchen doesn't sound too bad except for the countertop, but laminate is rather inexpensive to replace.
brasov
I keep all my patches of removed wallpaper as a memento (maybe I'll make some hideous scrapbook someday.) No kidding, if it's bothering you too much, just start removing it and start fresh on your house. Ideas will come to you once you've freed your eyes of mismatched colors and patterns. It took me 6 months to strip wallpaper and repaint room by room, but I'm happy I did it when it bothered me the most.(The more you let it sit, the more you'll loose your focus.) Now everything flows and comes together (even if I had to paint my kitchen 3 times!)
aussieblnd
Good Gawd, Grab a sponge and kill all wall paper you see, that stuffs gotta go. In the entry you may wish to try a light color. Such as Bavarian cream (This color will change depending on the light from Tan to Yellow) which will look very well with burnt orange tile I am assuming you mean terra-cotta. Of course with all white trim. (If you don't have crown molding do install some it's an amazing feature people do notice and it does not have to be wood there are many other cheaper materials out there to keep you well with-in a low budget) And a nice throw rug. What style of home is it? As for the Living room dining room, Loose the paneling it's nasty tacky stuff. The Dining room should always have Crown Molding the larger the better (I am assuming you mean formal dining and not a breakfast nook although the colors would work well in a nook also but the molding would be smaller), but will work well when introduced into the living room combo. If your wish it to continue a theme in the rest of the house use the same colors as the hall I suggested (Bavarian Cream) and White Molding. In the Dining room use Chair and Crown Molding (White Semi-Gloss) Paint the Ceiling and upper portion of the walls Powder Sand (Home Depot) with the area below the chair rail Bavarian cream. This will add contrast to the room. In the living room portion you can use either Bavarian Cream or Powder Sand But do Stop the Chair rain before entering the living room portion.When Figuring your Budget your going to have to measure Everything and always remember that you must get a primer or base coat for paint. Stay away from Fad Colors, try to keep things neutral since your best focus point should come from accessories.Your best colors will be creams that lean towards the brown and or yellow colors since these two colors mix well and using White as the contrast. This will keep your rooms light and with a warm feel to them and what colors your do want can come from object of interest that you have acquired during you life.
jellylou
Since your starting from scratch I recommend creating a collage of things you really like first!! Look through magazines and cut out pages of things you like. You can creat a binder with all your favorite looks and colors. Then, eventually, you will probably begin seeing a pattern to what you like. Then, I would suggest creating a look that is similar to your magazine pages! You can do this quite easily on a budget once you know what you are looking for. All you need to do is bargain shop! It is easy to find things that look expensive. As for colors.....if there is something in the home you really like, then I would start with that. See what would coordinate with those colors and or styles best. If you have a terra cotta tile you like, I would suggest yellow for paint, then brightly colored accent pillows and accessories. I always recommend neutral colored expensive furniture items like sofas. It is easier to change the look of your sofa if you only have to change the pillows. It will last much -much longer that way!
planetclair
I guess it really matters what your budget is. Use this budgeting calculator to find out how much it'll cost your to paint, etc.http://www.dominomag.com/resources/calculators/fabric Also, use what you have in terms of furniture and art. Buy one nice thing you love for the room and then as you are able to save more $ toward decorating, phase out your old items for new things. Or if you really don't have any$ and can't stand what you have (or are starting from scratch) go to http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/ on the right hand side there are different cities to choose from. Lots of people sell or give away their unwanted furniture. When you are working with a budget, decorating can be a slow process but its nice to see a room evolve. The benefit of not having the $ to do it all at once is that you really take your time and are able to contemplate how you want the room to look. Good luck!
KC Ev
I totally understand where you are coming from! When my husband and I got this house, which has a VERY open layout, the living room and entryway were a sort of purplish terra cotta, the dining room (which you can see as you walk in the house) was forest green, the kitchen, which is completely open to the dining room, was a sponged bright yellow ... need I go on? What we did, and what I strongly encourage you to do, was to paint the entire first floor one color. We chose mocha (far right, fourth from top), a neutral. It looks great! You would probably want to find something that will go with your tile, of course, because removing and replacing tile could get spendy.My second suggestion is to check out the book Use What You Have Decorating. Its suggestions seem simple, but you'd be surprised at their impact when you implement them.
wasnowangel
Redecorating on a budget is not as hard as you may seem. With 6 in this household, money is a factor on things. I suggest going to the second hand shops, the ads in the classifieds for people that are getting rid of the old 50's style furnishings, and even if need be it is easy to strip and revarnish furniture. Sometimes the free ads even have things. There are also places that have reclaimed paint, wood, wood flooring and carpet. You can do it if you just look thoroughly through the yellow pages and your local stores. Good Luck!
cgreen122802
The biggest problem you semm to be having is with all of the crazy color on the walls, since you haven't mentioned terrible carpet or anything like that. Since you are on a budget, let's do the cheap stuff first. Spend a weekend taking down all of the wallpaper you don't like (which may be all of it!). This just requires a little elbow grease and maybe a bottle of solvent to remove the wallpaper glue. Then clean the walls thoroughly (even those that did not have wallpaper on them) to get them ready to paint. If you paint the walls, you can make a huge impact for little cash. Take cues from your furniture (or that tile you like) to find the color to use. Or just go with a great nuetral that will flow from room to room and make the house look bigger! you'd be suprosed what a wonderful difference it will make to do this. And since you can paint yourself, you save lots of $$$!
Cemented in Debt
i have a similar situation. i'm renting a home and the landlady has given me free reign as long as it improves the house. i hadn't done anything, hoping to move. well, now that seems impossible so i'm looking for decorating ideas to make me feel more at home. i've created a budget for each room. starting with the bathroom, i'm going to change the light fixtures and look for any clearance items that might catch my eye. my mom sponge painted the bathroom to match the hideous green sink and tub. i'm open to any suggestions
tudybabo
dear aussieblind, I love your no nonsense way of tackling clueless'es home decorating dilemma. I too find myself in a decorating "what now?". My husband and I retired to a small town in tn. Ours is a fairly new house and all the wall's are painted beige and as i'm color phobic This suit's me just fine. However not having the money to buy new furniture, we have Florida style stuff (i.e. bombay meets craftsman.) I find that my palm tree prints that I loved so much down south just don't fit here. I want to replace the pictures and bedding in the master but what to do? How does one decide when one does not have a theme?
JoeyP
Check out http://www.imagemapper.net/ They have a tool which you can use to post a picture of your house. Once it is up you can change flooring, cabinets, countertops and everything. In any room!
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