color of your walls can give your living room, bedroom, or dining room a brand new look and feel

Tired of ogling the latest styles in brand name home furnishing stores and catalogues, only to find that the price of one little coffee table equals more than half your monthly salary? Don’t be discouraged — with a little ingenuity, your home can be as beautiful and stylish as a Hollywood celebrity’s, for just a fraction of the cost.

* Start with the walls. It’s easy to forget that sometimes just adding a fresh coat of paint or changing the color of your walls can give your living room, bedroom, or dining room a brand new look and feel.

Wallpapering is another way to jazz up a room — but don’t break your budget hiring a contractor. Consider wallpapering just one wall, or only wallpapering borders.

* Create atmosphere with Light. Don’t overlook the power of a lamp. The right lighting can transform any room. Forgo overhead lighting for lamps, and stay away from halogen unless it fits into your modern decorative scheme.

Wall sconces are another great way to add a stylish touch to any room. Look for the type that lends itself to easy, self-installation.

* Accessorize. Another inexpensive way to create a designer look is to buy a few key accessories, like silk pillows, chenille throw blankets, and fresh-smelling candles. Choose an elegant centerpiece for your dining room table or coffee table, like floating white candles, fresh flowers, or a ceramic or glass fruit bowl.

Pictures, photos, prints and paintings can be hung around a room to create whatever look or feel you desire. Shop flea markets and thrift stores for prints and interesting photographs, or go to a discount store for frames and hang some of your own creations.

* Buy furniture that won’t break the bank. Shop smart for couches, lamps, tables, entertainment centers, and more. Estate sales, consignment stores, flea markets, junk and thrift stores can be gold mines for second hand but stylish furniture.

If you don’t want second hand, shop clearance sales or online. Online furniture stores can be treasure troves for good deals, since they generally have little overhead and therefore don’t pass those costs on to you, the consumer.

* Can’t afford a new couch? If you are somewhat handy with a sewing machine, use discounted fabric or beautiful sheets to sew yourself a couch cover. Still have energy? Create more cheap but beautiful “new” furniture by sewing upholstery covers for your armchairs or dining room chair seat cushions.

If you can’t sew, buy a shabby chic slipcover or tuck in a large beautiful sheet or blanket for a homemade slipcover. Finally, consider simply rearranging your furniture — finding a different wall to put your couch against can create a whole new look for your living room.

Use any or all of these tips to achieve the style you want at a low, low cost. Amaze your friends and family with your stylish home, then dazzle them with the shoestring budget you had to work with. Go ahead! It’s your home and you deserve the best without having to spend the most.

Posted in Living Room |

The cheapest way to totally change the look of teen bedroom designs

If you are on a budget then finding great teen bedroom designs in your price range might be a bit discouraging. However, you can get a great bedroom for your teen without having to take out a second mortgage if you are willing to do a bit of legwork and put in some elbow grease.

The first thing you need to do is come to an agreement with your teen on how the room should look. Do they like specific colors or perhaps a theme of some sort? Once you have a broad idea of what you want, you need to find an inspiration for the room. This could be a particular item like a chair or a lamp that you could base the design of the room around, or you could scour magazines for a room that appeals to you and your teen and try to replicate that as close as you can.

Now that you have a general idea of what you want, you need to think about color, bedding, furniture and accessories.

The cheapest way to totally change the look of the room, and one that will go with most teen bedroom designs, is to simply paint it. Pick a color that goes with the design you have chosen and get out your brushes. If you want to add some pizazz you could do some faux painting or paint stripes or different colors on the walls. There are plenty of interesting paint techniques that can really make the room look neat and the best part is that you can learn to do most of them for free down at your local home improvement store.

The furniture can be the most expensive part of the whole bedroom design but if you use your head, you can get great furniture your teen will love without spending too much. First of all, look at the pieces you already have – could the be repurposed by painting them and adding some new knobs? Just doing this can dramatically change the pieces and costs barely anything but a weekend of your time.

However, if they are not the style that you need for the new room design, you probably should look at getting something different. But who says you have to go out and buy something new and expensive? Take a look at your local consignment shops and on Craigslist to see if you can get a used set. Many times you can get a set that is just like new but for a fraction of the cost.

Matching bedding is easily purchased in sets and you can get these rather inexpensively but if you can’t find anything that suits, you can buy separates. If you are handy with a sewing matching, you can embellish them with piping or ribbons to give them a custom look. When you buy bedding, remember to get pieces that match in color and style but have different patterns and textures for interest.

The accessories are the icing on the cake and here’s where you can really save a few bucks on your teens bedroom by shopping at flea markets, yard sales and consignment shops. It might take a while to collect all the pieces you want, but you will end up with a unique and interest room that didn’t cost a lot!

Teen bedroom designs can range from a retro look to a sports theme to a pink princess palace, but if you use your imaginations and shop wisely you can come up with a great designer look without having to pay the price.

Posted in Bedroom |

The reason modern art paintings become successful

Many collectors and investors choose modern art paintings because they are the cutting edge of art today. They reflect the energy of today’s world and serve as barometers against the ever changing art scene. They can also become significant investments if they are created by an up and coming modern artist and bought early in their career.

The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Min...

The reason modern art paintings become successful today is the same reason Picasso’s paintings were successful in his day. The art scene is full of movements over time. These movements are usually reactions to previous contemporary art practices of the previous eras. For example the Impressionist artists the world over developed a completely revolutionary way of creating great works in their era. Instead of painting inside studios as had been the custom for hundreds of years, Impressionist painters from around the world such as Claude Monet, Pierre- Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Paul Cezanne in France, and in Australia, Tom Roberts, Fredrick McCubbin, Jane Sutherland, Charles Conder, and Authur Streeton took their palettes outside and captured the light in “plein air” in completely new ways with colour. In the late nineteenth century, these were ground breaking modern art paintings at their best. Today these paintings are revered the world over for what they brought to the art world at the time.

However if you put a Monet beside a Jackson Pollock, you will see the amazing differences in conceptual development, technique and practice in paintings. This is a reflection of the development of art over time. Modern art works are successful because they break new artistic ground and show us our world in new and fresh ways. Today, some think current practices are not a reaction to previous genres but a totally different attitude to making art.

Many savvy collectors invest in modern art paintings. They choose to invest in these over traditional paintings for the reasons I outlined above. It is great to be part of an art movement, whether as an artist or someone who collects the art of the time. As a collector it is most exciting to invest in an artist’s work when they are young in their career and emerging in the art world. The excitement lies in knowing you are onto something that will pay big dividends in the future. It is always a gamble, however there are usually some indications that these paintings will be a great investment. The other reason people invest in young and upcoming modern artists is they have an emotional resonance with the particular modern art paintings they purchase. Throughout time, artists have always relied on collectors following their work and investing in it. Back in the days of Michelangelo, it was the Catholic church who collected his modern art paintings. These days it can be wealthy collectors, celebrities, artists themselves, art lovers and just about anyone who collects art works of modern artists.

I believe everyone should hang modern art paintings in their home. Each new development in the art world needs to be supported by the people living in the world at that time. However, art is a very personal matter and highly subjective. What one person loves in a painting, another will absolutely loathe. The art works I have collected from fellow artists I have bought because I love them and I also love to support fellow artists. I would not buy something I did not like simply to make money on it in the future as I have to live with the art in my home. I also buy from artists I believe are still emerging and have not yet been discovered but have the potential to do really well in the future. The best way to approach collecting modern art is to combine personal taste and with business savvy. Remember you may have this hanging on your wall for years, so if you are not a fan of Damien Hirst’s self portrait with severed head image, then don’t buy it.

There are many reasons we can be shocked by modern art. The themes are not that different to some of the themes presented in art paintings over the last few hundred years. Death, life, love, sex and animals. However today, it is their presentation that can cause people to feel shocked. The fact that Damien Hirst uses a real dead sheep, encases it in a glass box filled with formaldehyde and stages it in a gallery causes a different emotional reaction than a neo classical painting of a sheep being killed for sacra-religious purposes. There has been a growing irreverence in modern art since the 1980′s and 90′s and it somewhat reflects the state of our society today. Cynicism has played a key role in the modern art of the last 30 years. Not all of it is shocking, it can be subtle, witty, humorous, clever or simply beautiful. Whichever way you look at it modern art paintings cause us to stop and stare and wonder about life today as we know it. They resonate or shock because of the values we place on the subject matter involved in the art and our reaction to it is based in our personal belief systems, life experiences, relationships and the world we as we know it.

Posted in Interior Decoration |

« Previous Entries