Living Room: Decorating on a Budget

“You don’t have to spend a million to look like a million” 

This quote often rings true, and not only with personal style of dress, but with room decoration as well. It’s not necessary to spend a lot of money to make your living room look spectacular. Here are five of our favorite tips to give your living room some pizazz.

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Plates Are for More Than Just Mealtime

Hanging plates is a design trick you’ve probably seen a million times, but perhaps never registered. They look lovely on a breakfront or your walls. You can choose from your own or go antiquing to find some special plates you’d want to display.

Make Your Own Art!

Frames have an amazing way of turning anything into art. Take some drawings you or your children drew back in grade school – even a letter to Santa or a home-made birthday or holiday card – and put it in a gorgeous frame.

Make Your Own Art! Part 2

Blank canvasses are not very expensive in art supply stores, and you can either paint them yourself with your favorite colors to match the room, or you can get the kids to create something special and heartfelt.

Repurpose!

Take ordinary items from your favorite big box store and then wrap it in something like a map or an optician’s chart. Broadway show playbills or posters can be glued – and then varnished – onto end tables to give them more depth and artistic value.  Corks and/or labels from wine bottles can also be incorporated into a frame to make a beautiful wine label collage.  Anything is possible when you repurpose!

Candles and Candlesticks

In addition to the warm light they give off when lit, the right cluster of candles melted together becomes an ever-changing sculpture. As time goes on, you can add more candles allowing you to watch your art change and evolve.

 

Ideas for Living Rooms

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Does your living room need a bit of updating?  Are you seeing some inspired decorating tips? Your living room redecorating doesn’t have to be a major project. With a few simple tips, you can completely change the look of your space, but still recognize it as your own!

Lighting Changes Shapes and Space

Changing up your living room’s lighting scheme can do incredible things for a room. If you have a main source of lighting, such as a ceiling lamp or row of track lighting, consider either replacing them with, or adding to them some floor and/or table lamps. Simply changing these focal spots of illuminations and shadows can make your room feel fresh and new.  It’s really a simple step with big results.

If you have track lighting, changing the position can also dramatically change the shape of the room and also create new focal points such as on a particular wall or a fireplace.

Make a Memory Wall

A good focal point of a living room is a wall dedicated to photos of family, friends, and mementos such as those “first drawings” by your children, or ribbons from school events.

A Book A Day

A recessed bookshelf as part of – or entirely using – one wall is like art in and of itself. Some homes come with recessed bookshelves, but it’s not difficult to construct your own. The wall can be a complete recessed shelf, or you could do staggering and protruding shelves up a wall which provides a more modern touch.

For classic living room design, use lots of books of all types to give a ‘cozy conservatory’ type of feeling, or use a few large hardbound books for a more contemporary feel.

 

Whichever design style you choose, make sure it’s yours. There are many styles available, and it’s up to you to choose just the right touches to make your living room into a true sanctuary, for your mind and your body.