10 quick fixes for less than $100

This may seem like an incredibly obvious solution, and in a way it really is.  But paint can entirely change the look of a room.  Beware, this is not a painting tutorial, I’ll have to cover that later when I one day have my own house to paint or a lease that allows me to paint a room.  But painting can be broken down into a couple simple steps: (1) prepare the room, (2) clean the walls, (3) repair the walls, (4) tape off trim/flooring/hardware/etc., (5) prime, (6) paint.  Still, that’s a story for another day.  Today’s story is the difference that a little paint can make. And you can’t beat the price for the impact that you get!  Even just repainting trim can make a whole helluva-lotuva difference.   Just take a look at the following rooms, all painted a different color, via BHG’s Color a Room game tool:

Cheat it

One of the simplest (and free-est) things to do to improve the look of a room is to cheat your window coverings up.  All you have to is raise the curtain rod a bit above the windows, and the look is drastically different.  For a dramatic look, put your curtains all the way on the top of the wall and cover with a trim box.  Or just cheat them up a foot or so, add in a blind so that the top of the window is less visible (i.e. the optical illusion is better), and WHAM – new window look!  Exciting, no?

Open it

Another (almost) free fix is to use open shelves in your kitchen.  This isn’t necessarily good for everyone, or even for an entire kitchen.  But even if you just remove the doors from the two cabinets that surround your stove, paint the frame one color and the back color another, you’ll have a beautiful display shelf for your prettiest dishes.  Hey, you registered for them, why not show them off?  Alternately, you could replace a solid cabinet door with a glass cabinet door.  Again, if you just do this to one or two cabinets, it won’t be prohibitively expensive, and it’ll really open up the room.

However, if you’re feeling brave, and you’ve got enough storage for the non-displayables (i.e. sippy cups and Drano), then why not get rid of all upper cabinets and use open shelving?  If you want to see a great kitchen set up this way, check out A Country Farmhouse and the kitchen they’ve set up.  She even gets to decorate her kitchen seasonally.  And really, what’s not to love about that?

Martha Stewart's Kitchen

Light it

This is a painfully simple fix, but the expense depends on your taste (and your willingness to add your personal touches to things).  Add lighting.  Really, it makes that much of a difference.  Even a simple table lamp can entirely change the look of a room, and the effect is two-fold.  First, when the light is off, the lamp itself is a decoration.  And second, when the light is on, it can change the mood of a room.  Here’s a list of lamps available from Target, all for $50 or less (or table lamp stands that can be bought with shades that will add up to less than $50).  And don’t forget to grab an energy saving lightbulb!

Raise it

Alright, that was a whole bunch of really simple fixes.  For all you go-getters out there, here’s a real project for you.  Raise, or add, a chair rail at shoulder height.  Seriously, it’s awesome.  And if you use the right trim, it can be a small display shelf for art!  To make this look work, paint the lower wall one color and the upper wall a different color.  To really make it pop, install trim or bead board on the lower wall.   There really isn’t enough that I can say about this look – it makes all the difference in the world in these rooms from houzz.com.

And don’t feel like a chair rail can only be used in a dining room either.  Use a higher rail in an office, living room, bathroom, or bedroom.  Go crazy!  Okay, well not crazy, but you get the point.

Fluff it

Say you have a couch that you got, as a hand-me-down, when you went to college.  And it works, it’s soft, but it’s boring/ugly/plain/all of the above.  What do you do?  You could get it professionally slipcovered, but that can get expensive.  You can buy a pre-made slipcover, but those won’t fit every couch.  You could slipcover it yourself, but maybe you don’t have an industrial strength sewing machine.  So what do you do?  You change the look of it with pillows!  Easy peesy lemon squeezy!  Just check out the broad range of pillows out there!  All of these are from Pier1, and all are less than $50 (although I checked on them when there was a sale, so they might not all be less than $50 anymore).  How much better does it get?  Pillows make your back, your eyes, and your wallet happy!  Yay pilows!

Change it

One of the most overlooked parts of a room are the hardware.  But why go with the manila envelope hardware that you’re handed when you can get the prettily-lined-confetti-coming-out-of-it-envelope?  No reason?  Exactly.  So grab some cute new hardware, a nice phillips head screwdriver, and improve your room in less than an hour!  This hardware is all from Anthropologie, and some of it is definitely a little more expensive, but there’s definitely some solid options in there.  And how many outlets can a single room have, really?

Arrange it

Here’s another freebie project for you, although it may require time and/or some strong friends.  Re-arrange your furniture and enjoy an entirely new look for your room.  Because there’s so much to say about this particular project, just look below each picture to see the great things that each room has done.  But first, a short list of don’ts: (1) don’t push your furniture against every wall, (2) don’t block off a room with the back of your couch, (3) don’t prevent traffic flow, and (4) don’t create a giant fort in the middle of the room with all of your furniture, no matter how much you want to.  Photos courtesy of House Beautiful.

Here’s a couple things that this room did really well:  (1) the seating faces each other, but it’s not all symmetric, (2) there’s an easy way to walk into and out of the room, (3) there is a focal point, and (4) the chairs aren’t shoved against the walls.

Good points for this room: (1) even though some furniture is against the walls, there’s a very big open area to balance it out, (2) there are tables within arm’s reach of every seat, and (3) the rug in the middle of the room anchors the space and makes it clear that the space on the right isn’t empty on accident.

This room actually breaks one of the primary “don’ts”, but in this room it’s okay.  That blue checked sofa has its back to the hallway behind it, but in such an open floor plan, it makes sense to use the sofa to define the edge of the room.  Also, look how the rug extends behind the couch?  That’s the open-room version of not pushing the couch against the wall.

Three particularly great things about this room: (1) you can kind of see it, but there’s a desk behind that striped couch – so this room serves as a sitting room AND an office, just because of furniture placement, (2) the couch and the settee face each other, making a clear seating area, and (3) the settee has no back, so it doesn’t visually block the room off.

This room is a great example of how to set up a sitting area around a focal point.  The triplet on the back wall (window-fireplace-window) is mimicked by the triplet on the floor (chairs-coffee table-couch).  But the room doesn’t look matchy-matchy because those are pretty much the only symmetrical items in the room.  So if you want a cohesive look without buying two of everything, try matching the general set up of the room and then relax the decorations.

Finally, this room is a beautiful exercise in symmetry.  Notice that although the chairs are against the back wall, they aren’t against the side walls.  And all of the seating has at least one furniture foot on the rug.  Also, although I’m not usually a fan of matching coffee and side tables, I really like this pair.  Maybe because they’re decorated entirely differently…

Store it

Now that you have successfully re-arranged all of your furniture, you may realize that your space looks a little emptier than before.  Or you realize that you have a table that you HATE.  Here’s a great and simple solution: add a small side table or coffee table!  You can either buy a premade one at Ikea, Target, Home Goods, WalMart, your local thrift or consignment store, Habitat ReStore, Goodwill, etc., or if none of those ideas work for you, you can make one yourself.  You can finish an old stump (check for bugs, rot, support, sturdiness, etc.), place a beautiful tray on a beautiful stack of books, or even use a different piece of furniture (like an ottoman or nightstand) as a side table.  Here’s just a smattering of some of the beautiful tables out there, all courtesy of Ikea, and all less than $100.  Although you could probably make one for as little as $10.  Happy hunting!

Hatten table

Hol side table

Karljohan side table

Klingsbo side table

Klubbo Nesting tables

Lack coffee table

Lack side table

Lindved table

Trollsta side table

Decorate it

Finally, nothing finishes a room like fresh flowers.  So head down to your local grocery store or farmer’s market and pick out some flowers that just make you smile.  Make sure they have a great smell too.  After all, Martha says that a clean house should smell like fresh breezes, candles, or flowers, not disinfectant or Febreze.  And there’s no way Febreze could look as pretty as these lovely blooms:

So there you have it, 10 quick fixes for your home, all for less than $100, and most for WAY less than $100.  I’m off to make some quick updates to our own little maison, I’ll catch you on the flip side!