A Designer Home on a Shoestring
©Jan Andersen 2001
I've read so many home decor features, with attractive titles that imply that you can achieve the same designer effects at a fraction of the cost. Unfortunately, the editors' interpretation of "budget" is not the same as mine. They mean, "You can purchase this sofa at just $1,500 instead of $5,000. I couldn't afford to spend $1,500 on decorating my entire house, let alone allocate that sort of budget to one item of furniture. $5 would be a more appropriate amount.
In the years that I spent as a single parent, supporting three young children with very limited funds, I had no other choice but to use my creative skills to build a secure and welcoming environment for my family and friends. When visitors complimented me on the décor, I realised that you can create a deceptively expensive and sophisticated abode, without spending a great deal. I also live in England, where the merchandise is a lot more expensive than in the States and yet I still managed to create a stylish home on restricted resources. Allow me to share my knowledge with you.
Clear Out Clutter
Not everyone goes for the sparse look and yet clearing something as simple as mismatching ornaments can make a huge difference to the appearance of a room. Not only that, but it means that you have less to dust and polish! The most stylish looking homes that I have ever visited have always had the minimum of furniture and decorative objects. Wealth and elegance don't always equate with hoards of material objects. Clean lines and space create an air of sophistication.
Clearing out doesn't necessarily mean throwing away, however. The quickest and most effective way to reduce unwanted clutter is to create a few labelled boxes, so that you can sort your belongings into different categories. You could, for example, label one box "Keepsakes/Valuables", another box "Items for Garage Sale" and another box, "Garbage". For those of you with children, turning this into a family activity can make it more fun than it sounds!
Design Around One Main Colour
Have you ever noticed that most of the homes profiled in glossy magazines follow one main colour theme? It's always easy to start with a blank canvas, but what do you do if you are working with a home that has a patterned carpet, a different design on the sofa and chairs, another pattern on the curtains and perhaps clashing wallpaper or paint? This is obviously the worst-case scenario, but even on a very limited budget, you can dramatically improve the appearance of your home.
The biggest investment that you will probably need to make is a couple of cans of emulsion. You can't go wrong with neutral shades, such as white, cream or magnolia, boring as they may sound. However, adding colour comes later in the form of finishing touches that you may already have and which can be easily revamped, such as cushions, vases, candles and plants.
Use Bed Sheets for Throws
I think that plain cotton sheets are fabulous and can be used artistically in a variety of ways. Old bed sheets make fantastic throw-overs for sofas, chairs and tables. You can even make a tea chest or old wooden box into a coffee table by covering it with a cut up sheet.
The sheets can be dyed very cheaply, using those little tins of fabric dye that can be purchased at most hardware stores for less than a dollar. One of the most effective methods that I used in my own home was to layer two or three sheets in complimentary colours over the sofas and chairs.
Creative Windows
The first tip is "get rid of those nets". Whatever the style and how ever luxurious the lace, net curtains can never be elegant or chic. Personally, they remind me of prying, interfering people who wish to peep out at the world without being noticed. Some might argue that they prevent outsiders from looking in, but unless you sit in your living room at night with the curtains open, it is still very difficult to see into someone's home in natural daylight, even without net curtains. Removing nets also allows a lot more light into the room, which immediately opens up your living space.
Secondly, bed sheets or even cheap ends of material can be used to make inexpensive swags, tails, drapes and blinds to dress up your windows creatively and you don't need to be an expert seamstress to make these.
I made two very pretty blinds for both of my kitchen windows from four squares of material cut from one bed sheet, dyed in two complimentary colours and each measuring 4 ft by 5ft. Obviously the dimensions would vary according to the size of your windows. I simply sewed two squares of the material together (to make one blind), leaving one of the 5ft ends open so that I could turn the blind inside out to conceal the sewn edges. I then folded the open end over approximately 1 inch (wide enough to accommodate a narrow pole) and hemmed neatly, leaving both ends open so that a thin net curtain pole could be threaded through. I then hung the blind and using two lengths of ribbon, threaded these over the top of the pole and beneath the bottom of the blind, tying these up into a bow, pulling the blind up to the required length.
If you want to add a bit more weight to the blind, you can make an extra open-ended hem at the bottom and thread through a garden cane or baton, sewing up the openings once the baton is in place.
For a really effective look, you can drape a length of fabric around a curtain pole, tying it creatively at the ends of each pole. The possibilities are endless, since there is a multitude of ways that you can do this and it is just a matter of personal choice. Using two lengths of fabric in contrasting colours produces a beautiful and very stylish effect. The bonus is that you don't need to sew a thing.
Finishing Touches
I took all of my cheap, plastic plant pots and painted them in vibrant, matching colours with ordinary emulsion to add a splash of colour to each room in my house. You can also apply techniques such as sponging and ragging to add a textured effect to your pots, vases and lampshades.
Candles always work well, especially when you group together candles of similar shades. Large cream church candles always look fabulous with any colour scheme and are the cheapest type of candles you can purchase. For a really effective look, take a plain bowl in any material glass, wood, clay or china and fill the bottom with pebbles or even gravel that you can scoop up from your own driveway; place a candle or grouping of candles in the middle of the bowl and you have a beautiful centrepiece for any table.
Vases and containers look great on their own or grouped together in contrasting or complimentary colours. However, if you wish to fill a vase but can't afford fresh flowers, you can gather together a bundle of interestingly-shaped twigs and either leave place these in a container "au naturel", or spray them in a colour of your choice.
Finally, take a look at as many home design magazines as you can. You can view these free of charge in waiting rooms of doctors' and dentists' surgeries, for example. I have been known to take sneak previews at the magazine stands in supermarkets and newsagents and mentally jot down ideas that I can recreate simply and cheaply. For further inspiration, you can even wander around furniture showrooms, where interior designers have recreated individual rooms using the merchandise sold by the store.
