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 |

Choosing Color Schemes

Color scheme helps your to determine the harmony between colors in home décor. A color wheel can be quite useful while deciding a color scheme for your home as it helps you to compare complimentary colors. Interactive color wheel tools and software are available online for your reference. The use of color wheel makes choosing the combination of colors for painting your walls, accents, furnishings, furniture and accessories much easier. Here are a few tips that you can use while deciding upon the color scheme for your home:

Monochromatic color scheme uses only one color throughout. Variety is introduced by using various tints, tones, values and shades of that key color and different textures.

Complimentary color scheme uses two colors placed opposite to each other on the color wheel, their tints, tones, shades and values such as yellow and violet. This scheme is quite bold and lend a dramatic touch to the home décor.
Analogous color schemes use three hues placed adjacent to each other on the color wheel but use either combination of warm colors only or combination of cool colors only.

Triadic color schemes use three hues placed consecutively or at equal distances from each other such as red, yellow and blue, their tints, tones, shades and values

A novice can easily decide upon the color scheme using the following steps:

Use your favorite pattern as the guiding line for your color palette. The lightest color in the pattern can be used for the background such as wall paint color, medium color for large furniture pieces, windows, doors, closets and cabinets while the darkest color can be used for accessories.

Color can make quite a lot of difference to the size and proportion of the room. So, remember that white and pale colors reflect light more to making the room appear larger while dark colors make room appear cozier and smaller.

When it comes to furniture and accessories, white and pale colored objects or objects in similar color as the wall recede into background while brighter and darker objects attract our attention more and seem to occupy more space, so if the room is really small, you can try buying furniture and furnishings in same color as your walls or pale shades and accessorize with bright bold colors to create focal points. You can also choose patriotic emblems color combination for your room.

Posted in Interior Decoration |

Living Room Painting Ideas

Do you have furniture that doesn’t seem to go with the rest of your house? Try a fresh coat of paint before you change your living room’s decor.

Let me guess, you’re cringing right now at the thought of painting your living room. You’re not alone. Even though most homeowners know painting is the most inexpensive and quickest way to transform their living rooms from drab to fabulous, they still express reluctance in vivid hues. They feel selecting the right paint colors is an intimidating task not easily achieved by amateurs. However, finding and living with colors you really love can be easy, fun and a lot lighter on your budget.

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Top 4 Tips

1. Collect Decorating Samples From Your Home The best way to begin choosing the right paint color for your living room is to let fabric lead the way. Fabric provides inspiration for a room’s color scheme. It’s also a more prudent starting point since painting your living room is much easier and costs a lot less than to change furniture and window treatments.

2. Study Color Schemes You Admire in Home Decorating Magazines Turn your magazine flipping into a treasure hunt. Mark or rip out pages with rooms that you like. This will become your decorating portfolio and will come in handy when its time to pick a mood and feel for your room.You may even see a room with the same structure as your space that you can use as a template for your wall color and furniture placement. See how the pros do it, copy them and then add your own personality twist for a fresh, new look.

3. Keep Paint Tones in Mind and Instantly Change the Mood of your Living Room You want to use colors appropriate to the natural setting lighting. To create the prefect place to curl up by, you must understand the psychology of color. The color wheel has two sides: warm and cool. Just like the group name connotes, warm colors add coziness and warmth to a space while cool colors add a smooth airiness that can translate an atmosphere of peace and relaxation. Warm colors range from red to orange and cool colors range from blue to violet.Knowing how color will affect your emotional response will come in handy when choosing the mood of your living room.

4. Notice Architectural Features Highlighting window casements, columns, staircases, crown moldings and other architectural features with shades of white can instantly turn your living room into a true showcase admired by friends, family and yourself.

If you’re feeling brave, instead of painting your living room’s architectural features white or off-white, consider the palest shade of color to coordinate with the walls. Your Home Interior Decoration Bottom Line: Painting your living room can be fun, easy and cheap. You may already have the framework for a showroom hiding in your carpets, curtains and furniture.

Choosing a living room’s feel can be as simple as flipping through your favorite magazine and cutting out a picture. Paying a little attention to details, especially architectural ones can give your living room that custom touch. This is a secret that most do-it-yourselfers overlook. If you follow these tips, you will pick a paint to please your palette and give your home the quality it deserves.

This article was provided by the American Homeowners Association (AHA). Richard Roll, Founder and President of the American Homeowners Association (AHA), is dedicated to providing over 1 million homeowners with the information, tools and resources that will help them save money and make the right decisions about their homes. For more information on how to renovate, remodel and decorate your home with less time, money and effort, go to www.ahahomenew.org for a special offer from AHA. Want to do the right things to maintain your home quickly and easily? The National Home Maintenance Manual (NHMM) helps you protect your largest investment.

Posted in Living Room |

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