With the holiday season fast approaching, now’s the time to make sure your home looks nice and inviting for all those guests. If your living room furniture is showing its age and you’re feeling embarrassed at the thought of visitors seeing the worn out upholstery and garish 1980s pattern, don’t worry. Whilst new furniture may be way out of your budget, inexpensive slipcovers can transform your old sofas and chairs for much less.
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Depending on who you ask, living in a studio apartment can be both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, studio apartments are great for living on your own. A studio offers you privacy and convenience. Everything is in close proximity to everything else. For instance, if you wake up hungry, just roll out of bed and cook up something on the stove that’s 5 feet away. On the other hand, chances are that your bedding is now going to smell like whatever you just made on the stove. It’s a lose lose! While this is purely an exaggeration, there’s no sense harping on how small some studio apartments are. You just have to make use of the space you do have. Here are some simple and economical ways to furnish and decorate your studio. More on Decorating Your Studio Apartment on a Budget
With discount wood bar stools on sale for under $30 each, it’s possible to get extra seating for a kitchen island or breakfast bar without blowing your budget. If you’re really strapped for cash you may be able to find some even cheaper stools by visiting local yard sales.
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It happens to the best of us when we set up our first homes. Furniture, down payments, shifting and other ‘important’ things drain our finances so much so that we are left with nothing to decorate our new home with. Artwork is generally costly and while nobody likes bare walls much, we are forced to live with them till the time we save some extra dough to buy prints for our walls. However, if you have just shifted into a new house, then you can be sure that you won’t be able to save much till at least six months or more, what with one thing or the other coming up. In such a situation, creating your own art work is the next best option, and if you are a fan of customization and originality, then it is certainly the best option. You can use your imagination to create extremely cheap and affordable art pieces for your home. These pieces will not just be unique and beautiful; they will also not burn a hole in your pocket. Some ideas for creating beautiful artwork yourself are-
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Everyone knows that newlyweds usually don’t have much money when they first get married. Not having the extra cash to spend on home decorating can be especially bothersome around Christmastime, but don’t worry! Decorating on a budget is fun and can bring a newlywed couple closer together as they create new holiday traditions.
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A large number of people are turning to do-it-yourself home improvement projects in an attempt to save money or as a means of expressing their creativity. If you are also thinking of trying out a DIY job, then remember that while you will definitely save money, chances of going wrong are also pretty high and most DIY projects sound simpler than they actually are. However, you can easily succeed at DIY by indulging in careful planning before you start your project and by handling and carrying out your project in accordance with the plan throughout the whole process. Some tips that will help you in planning out and executing your do it yourself projects are:
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An Inexpensive Way to Add WOW to your Backyard
Love the idea of a gazebo in your backyard but fear the high cost? Relax! You can have the gazebo of your dreams at a cost that won’t bust your budget.
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Quickly Convert a Closet to a Home Office Nook
When I got my first computer and launched a consulting career more than a few years ago, I was desperate to create some type of office space in my tiny apartment. I couldn’t imagine where I was going to find that necessary nook until I found some inspiration in Martha Stewart and set about converting a closet into a functional and space saving home office nook - what a terrific concept!
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Don’t look now, but those retro designs so popular in the 1970’s are back! Perhaps it’s because kids leaving their parents’ homes and establishing their own are raiding family attics and basements and hauling out all that stuff their parents started out with 30 years ago. Or maybe it’s that a modular sofa from the 1970’s is easier to find and less expensive to purchase than, say, a Queen Ann desk actually made during Queen Ann’s day.
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When it comes to designing décor that works for you and your kids remember these two words: Washable and safe: Washable to keep your home looking its best, and safe from the standpoints of your kids and your possessions both.
Washable is easy enough to understand. After all, kids-especially the toddler to junior high variety-are little dirt magnets. They pick up dirt from everywhere (including places that don’t appear to have any) and redeposit it to every surface they touch.
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