This story came from www.baltimoresun.com with 10 great tips on renovations with a budget. See the story for all ten tips.
Making big changes on a small budget – baltimoresun.com
A budget of $250 won’t get you much in the way of new furniture, flooring or window treatments, but you can still come up with a dramatic new look for that amount or less.
“When you’re on a low budget, that’s when you get to be creative, and that’s when it’s the most fun,” Fong says. “You don’t have to start from scratch, and you shouldn’t.”
Here are 10 tips from Fong and other experts for rejuvenating a room on limited funds:
- Eliminate those white walls. Painting is one of the simplest tasks for the do-it-yourselfer and has the most impact. The bolder the better, say the experts. Paint manufacturer Benjamin Moore & Co. predicts the hot color for 2006 will be Queen’s Wreath, “a chameleonlike purple,” says Eileen McComb, the company’s director of communications.
But subtle shades work, too.
“It’s a very personal choice,” McComb says. “It has to resonate in the environment you want to create.”
Whatever you choose, make sure the color gives new life to your furniture and accessories, says Diane Boyer, an interior designer in Verona, N.J. And don’t forget to paint the ceiling. “When you carry it through, it actually makes the room look bigger,” she says.
- Go for the “wow factor.” Paint isn’t the only way to spruce up walls, says Fong, whose book, Walls That Wow (Watson-Guptill Publications, 2005), gives step-by-step instructions for wall treatments made of fabric, metal and paper, among other things. Such materials can provide patterns and textures you can’t get with paint, he notes.
If you’re tired of your wallpaper but don’t have the desire or energy to tear it down, go over it with a glaze to create a vintage or sun-washed look, says Tim Fooks, a kitchen and bath designer for Home Depot in Atlanta.
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