Part One
Introduction to Budget Decorating
There are a few steps I feel are important as you take on each room in your
budget decorating.
1. Trust yourself. This is my most important piece of advice.
You know a lot more about what works than you think- if it looks great to
your eye, that’s all that really matters, its YOUR HOME! It is difficult for
some to let go of the WWPT Syndrome. (What Will People Think). To be
truly happy in your own surroundings, the only people you need to think
about is yourself, and the ones who live with you! Try to let yourself dream
of crazy colors, mismatched styles, or homemade vs. storebought. Let
yourself know that we are all human, but that it is important to be true to
yourself!
2. Select the most important object in the room, and make it your focal point.
For instance, the fireplace in a room makes a classic focal point, and
furnishings and objects are arranged around it. There can be and often is
more than one focal point, but they are secondary to the main one. Also, if
you spend your money on one nice quality item in the room, then the budget
ideas that support it are all the more convincing. By the way, by quality, I
don’t necessarily mean expensive. A $3000 French armoire may be beautiful
in the store, but it isn’t necessarily going to make your American Country
house more believable. It also isn’t going to help you sleep at night as you
lay awake worrying about the bills! Better to spend $50 on a cabinet the
right size and scale for your room and purposes, then spend your time
making it beautiful and one of a kind with creative paint finishes and
personal touches. Now, that’s a quality piece.
3. Set a theme for each room.. It helps tremendously! You wouldn’t write a
story without a main idea, would you?
Even if your theme is just a color combo that you love, it will
give you a starting point and guide you. Don’t be afraid to use those
magazines to help you narrow down your choices! Home improvement
centers will even color match paint now for free, so if you find that perfect
shade of blue on the walls of your favorite mag, take it with you and get it!
4. Work from the largest part of a room to the smallest when planning your
design. For instance, start with walls, then windows, floors, furnishings, and
accessories. The larger the decorating surface, the more impact it will have.
Which also means the more impact your decorating dollar will have!
Especially important if you are working in stages to stretch your budget over
time. Greater impact early on will continue to motivate you!
5. Have fun! Part of the satisfaction in decorating your home yourself is
being proud of your creativity! We are ALL creative. Use these ideas to find
it in yourself.
Other than that, there are no real rules except for the ones you set for
yourself. And that is key. For YOURSELF!!!
ORGANIZE!
Key to a well decorated home is an organized one. I know this means
cleaning, and what fun is that? Well, what fun is it to put all your time and
energy into producing beautiful projects, richly painted walls, or one of a
kind accessories only to have them hidden behind clutter and kid’s toys? So
the first thing we are going to do is get organized.
I have a section in my book that addresses this situation, but what it comes
down to is this…get rid of what isn’t used, file what you need for later, and
move things that don’t belong to where they do!
Get rid of what you don’t use! Get a box or bag right now and mark it
charity. (Or better yet, mark it garage sale and make some money fordecorating projects!) Go through your room and put anything you haven’t
used or enjoyed in 6 months into the box. (Ok, special allowance made for
holiday items and the like, but that falls under #3). Be ruthless, you will be
amazed at how different your room will look when you are done!
File! Make a bill file from a cardboard box and separate it into two sections
with files, or cardboard separators. File your mail as soon as you receive it in
the bill section, the “save” section , or the garbage can. It amazed me how
much better my house looked (and ran) after getting the bills off the kitchen
counter!
Move things that don’t belong! Kid’s toys all over the family room? Jigsaw
puzzle been stealing the kitchen counter? Make sure everything in your
room is actually used in your room. Kid’s can help put toys back in their
rooms at the end of play time (I know it’s tempting to keep big plastic bins
in the kitchen, but wouldn’t it be nice if they weren’t there?). Try to pick up
a separate table at a yard sale for hobbies, and work it into your decorating
scheme as a function of the room if that’s important. Make sure the kid’s
schoolbooks and backpacks do not find a permanent home in your foyer, and
whatever you do, do not let the sewing machine live on the kitchen table!
(Guilty.):)
Utilize the internet. One of the benefits of this course is that I’ve been able
to update web recommendations, many of which are not contained in my
book and which you will find throughout this course to help guide you.
Some great organizational sites to check out are
GetOrganizedNow.com! An excellent ebook highly recommended for
getting all areas of your life organized.
MyOrganizedLife.com Another great site for getting it all together!
http://www.flylady.net/
This is a great one, run by author of “Sink Reflections”. (No, it’s not about
sinks…well, not really!) She has a great free program to sign up for to help
you totally organize without overwhelming! Spend a little time at this site, it
will be worth it!
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