Are you the proud owner of a glue gun? Watch Martha Stewart shamelessly? Read every decorating blog before you can function in the morning? I need your help!
I’m working on a magazine piece for which I need to come up with 50(!) creative, unique, and inspiring home decor tips that can be executed for $100 or less, in the living room, bedroom, or bathroom.
I’ve hit up every design professional I know in Boston. Now I am asking you! Email me or post a comment with your fab’n’fresh ideas. I know you have some.
Thanks,xom
I don’t have any ideas to share (sorry!), but I can’t wait to read the article!
Fun! Did you see the tea towel, glue gun, and ribbon sink skirt that Eddie Ross did? I thought it was really inventive – and looked incredible: http://sfair.blogspot.com/2009/04/masterpiece-theatre-plus-towels.html
It’s beautiful, thank you!
I just bought a lamp at a thrift store and recovered the shade with some funky fabric and the whole shebang only cost me ten snaps. Here is my post for all the deets: http://sweetiepiepumpkinnoodle.blogspot.com/2009/05/super-easy-diy-fabric-covered-lampshade.html
Ooh this is a fun challenge. I am not very handy with a glue gun, I have to say. But here are a few very easy ideas I’ve either tried or seen done:
– Plant succulents in little tea cups, glasses or bonbon dishes and display them on a dining table or even bathroom (Remodelista had an example of this – http://www.remodelista.com/2009/04/09/bath-succelents-as-decor/ – but there are lots of variations, I’m sure)
– Instead of forking out for a large area rug in the bedroom, just buy a little 2×3 rug in a pattern you love (Anthropologie has lots) for the side of the bed – warms your toes when you most need it!
– Color code your books (or crockery or anything on an open shelf). You can turn your bookshelves into a stunning rainbow-hued art installation if you arrange them in color order. Blogger Jane Flanagan did this in her house – I think this is the right link (3rd pic down): http://seenandsaid.blogspot.com/2008/10/mini-museum-of-me.html
– Lighting! Cheap IKEA under-cabinet halogen lights are fantastic for making a kitchen more stylish – but you can use them elsewhere too (in a bookshelf, behind a low media console table). And a basic uplighter on the floor behind a plant creates instant sculpture.
– Apply your scrapbooking skills. My sister once took a very boring pine dining table and covered it in pictures of pink roses she had cut out from magazines. She sealed the whole thing with varnish and it looked absolutely fabulous in her apartment.
– some tips if you’re thinking about making your own art work (and aren’t at all artistic): keep to one color scheme (say, different pinks and purples) add a metallic (say silver) and have fun creating something really abstract on a large piece of paper. Then put the entire piece in a frame with multiple openings – a row of three works really well. The ‘art’ will be dissected in strange places but it will look really beautiful – and like you’ve paid good money for it. We did this in our first apartment – it cost us $20 in materials, $30 for the frame and took one evening. People were still commenting on it three years later!
Hope that helps. I can’t wait to see the article and everyone else’s ideas.
if you are a bit afraid of colour or are renting, an idea that i have done is to buy big blank canvesses (you can get them cheap if you shop around) and cover them with a bold patterned fabric ( ikea is good)using a staple gun, its really easy to do, also if there is a designer wallpaper you really love but are on a budget buy one roll and paste it on the canvess i used this as a headboard when i helped my sister decorate her flat.
just came across your blog today
will add it to my list
great blog