Six steps that will transform your space on a budget.
Declutter your living space. “Less is more” and that it often true in design. You might start with the closets. Get rid of anything you have used in 2 years. Make some space for the things that you use, albeit infrequently and then move those things into your closets and cabinets. They will be handy but out of sight.
What’s Not There matters as much as what is there. Take a little mental inventory of your living space, noting anything with a plastic surface or overtly shabby appearance. Think of things which could be swapped for the plastic. For example, many of us have plastic trash cans that could easily be replaced by something more pleasing to the eye. A small plastic trash can could be replaced by that seldom used wine bucket. You can still use it for wine when the need arises but the rest of the time it can function as a stylish trash can.
Dishwashing liquids can go into pump containers or those glass bottles that include their own stopper and gasket.
Picking a wall paint color can be a real challenge in designing interior spaces but there are some basic methods that nearly guarantee your space will look magazine ready:
– Use lightly tinted paints, earth tones and the off-whites look great and set off whatever you put in the room. A very limited and light palette for the walls is more flexible, less dominant than walls that are saturated colors.
– There is a temptation to paint the walls your favorite color — don’t do it. Use a background color that will showcase the things you have that ARE your favorite color.
Paint wall surfaces that need it. Start with a touch up for door and floor trim, probably that means a quart of white semi gloss latex and a decent $10+ paint brush. Great value and quick way to refresh the space as you start transitioning to your new design.
Collect Swatches and Pictures. As you pick your paint, fabrics and other surfaces, collect samples of them in a form that you can take with you when shopping for subsequent items. When you have your paint open for the touch ups, paint on a sheet of paper or the cover of the swatch binder itself. Do the real paint in your can, not the chip on the little cards in the store.
Add pieces of any fabrics you already have or close accurate pictures of them. With a smartphone, check to see that your shot on screen matches whatever you just took a picture of. Put the phone screen right next to the item, if it isn’t accurate color matching, try different lightsources — direct sunlight, indirect, flash, no flash, etc.
Wall Hangings. Look among your personal treasures for things that could be wall hangings. Replace or expand from framed art to include items that both look interesting and relate to you and your journey. If you plan to hang items in clusters lay them out on the floor first. Try different spacing and configurations. Shoot pictures of the ones that seem to work then pick from the pictures.
Personal treasures would include anything that is not a frame-able item. Long items work well — canes, golf clubs, skis, boat oars, kayaks, reclaimed boards, and rope. Collections can used to invigorate forgotten spaces but you have to create a pattern with them and mount them to the wall minimally so that your eye goes to the pieces and not the mounting, for example shelves would invalidate the concept. It has to be a collection of similarly sized things — Matchbox cars, lunch boxes, Pez dispensers, — or you risk re-cluttering what you uncluttered 5 steps ago.