Home Design Guide

You may love the home you live in, be it a single family dwelling, condo, duplex or apartment, but not be so thrilled with the size of some of the rooms. For some folks, remodelling or adding on to the structure is a solution to the size issue. For many others, the budget is not there for such a project. And for a growing number of people, they are renting a residence and therefore do not have the option of remodelling. In fact, the majority of homeowners (we’ll use the term ‘homeowner’ knowing it could also mean someone who is renting a property) are often looking for ways to personalize, improve and decorate their homes inexpensively.

You can give the overall appearance of more space in a room by taking some simple steps. You don’t need a large budget, and some steps don’t require that you spend any money at all.

First, make sure that the walls are a light color. They don’t have to be stark white, although if you love that look, it’s fine. There are hundreds of shades of off-whites that can add interest and warmth to a room while maintaining an overall neutral palette. When you put dark colors on the walls of a room or area, it can make the walls recede visually, and that is what you want to avoid if your goal is to make an area appear larger. The ceiling should be kept ‘Ceiling White’ for maximum overall lightness in the room.

Your next step is to evaluate the flooring in the room. Your goal is to have flooring that gives a light overall appearance. For example, if your room is carpeted or tiled, ideally it should be a light, neutral color. It’s okay to have a small pattern or variation as long as the overall look is neutral. Wood flooring should be a honey tone or lighter. You want the ceiling and walls to flow into each other as much as possible, and avoid a stark breaking point of light to dark color.

Your third step in this strategy is to remove any unnecessary furniture from the room. If it is not critical to the function and use of the area, remove it. For example, if this is a living area and you currently have a sofa, two upholstered chairs, a wood rocker, two end tables, cocktail table and a floor lamp in the room, consider doing this: remove the wood rocker, cocktail table and floor lamp. You have kept the most important seating in the room as well as a place for lighting and other incidentals. The extra pieces were taking up space and making the room look smaller and more crowded.

The next step in the process is to make sure you are not over-accessorizing the room. I always advise taking all accessories off of the walls, tables, etc and literally removing them from the room. You might put some of them back in the area, but start out with blank walls and furnishings. Your goal in this step is to accessorize the room to add warmth and interest, but not clutter. If you had three pictures, a mirror and a wall sculpture on the walls of this room before, try two pictures and a mirror. Keep it very simple. If there is so much going on in the room that your eyes don’t have a resting point, it will seem cluttered, and that is what you want to avoid.

Finally, if at all possible, keep everything in the room to an overall neutral look, and use color sparingly and only as an accent. For example, your walls may be painted Navajo White, the ceiling is white, your floor is carpeted with an off-white Berber and your upholstered furniture is beige/light brown. You love the color red, so this is your accent color, but sparingly. On the wall is a picture with a burst of red in it. On the sofa are patterned accent pillows that include bright red.

As you look around this room as described, you see soft, calming, neutral colors, with no stark stopping or break points between walls, ceiling, floors and furnishings. However, the room is interesting and has some drama with the addition of red as an accent color. Best of all, you now have a room that has an open, spacious look and feel, yet still functions well for your lifestyle.

It happens to all of us at one time or another, and it doesn’t matter what type of home you live in, whether renting or you are a homeowner. You take a look around your home and decide that it’s time for a ‘design facelift’. The surroundings that have provided comfort and enjoyment are now looking tired and ordinary. But, your home decor budget is slim to none, so what do you do? Don’t give up before you start. Here are five easy, simple, inexpensive to no cost home decor changes you can make right now that will give any room in your home a fresh, new and interesting look. These strategies will be applied to your living room in this article, but will work effectively in any room of your home.

First, clean out the clutter. Our ’stuff’ has a way of accumulating without us realizing it, and after awhile can become more of a hindrance than anything else. Take each room in your home individually so you won’t become overwhelmed with the task. Then, remove anything that you have not used in the last three months. If it is an appliance taking up space on your kitchen counter, put it in a cabinet and out of sight. You may have set a floral arrangement or some other type of nic-nac on a table thinking you would find a permanent home for it later, and there it still sits. Move it. You may be surprised at how much brighter your rooms look when they are clutter free.

The next home decorating idea in this project is to rearrange the furniture in at least one room, and preferably two or three rooms of your home. You may need to enlist some help with this step, so plan ahead and gather a few pairs of hands to accomplish the task. If your sofa has been in the same place in your living area for more than two years, it is time to make a location change! You may not have many options if your living area is small or limited in other ways. At a minimum, pull the sofa away from the wall (I know that’s where it is right now for most readers) and angle it toward the television, or whatever the focal point is in this area. You might be limited to a move as subtle as pulling one end of the sofa about a foot or so from the wall. But wait, that’s not all. Then, take the other seating in the room and angle it just a little bit, swapping locations of chairs (if you have more than one in the room). Now step back and notice that your room has taken on a different feel because the position and angles of the larger pieces have been changed. Your interior decor project is making progress!

After giving your room’s largest pieces a new perspective you will now do the same for the accessories. I always advise that you physically remove them from the room or area you are working in. Bring in accessories from another room, or take the extra inventory of pictures out of the closet and try something different in this room. Go ahead and take a decorating risk!

That leads right into the fourth easy and no cost home decorating idea for you. Carefully consider the existing color scheme in this room and introduce a new, never before used accent color. If you’re not sure what type of color could be added, here is one course of action. Purchase something small and returnable, such as an accent pillow, and just try it. What is the worst thing that will happen? You won’t like it and will take it back to the store. But, you might love it, and it is always so much fun when the decorating ‘aha!’ light goes on. When that happens, you will be able to add, in a small way, more of this color to the room. Remember this rule, though; more is not always better. Be thoughtful and particular about where you place this new color. If you don’t overwhelm the room with it, the result will be that breath of new life for your room.

If you desire, there is one more home decor idea to introduce to the room, and that is the addition of some beautiful greenery. Placing greenery in the room can provide the finishing touches to your interior design project. Again, use a light touch with the silk plants or trees, and if possible use good to better quality merchandise. The thoughtfully placed, better quality silks will enhance the class and polish of your newly redecorated area.

Now that you have successfully made these easy, simple and low or no cost home decorating changes, step back and enjoy your surroundings. Better yet, take a break, have some refreshment and enjoy the view from a new perspective!