With Valentine’s Day around the corner, why not share a little love with your home? Is there a room in your home that is feeling neglected? A complete home makeover may not be in the budget, but there are lots of cost-effective ways to give your home a special treat. Redesign focuses on working with what you already have, but finding new ways to reconfigure, repurpose, and revive for a fresh new look.

Clear Out The Clutter
Yes, this generally falls under “Spring Cleaning”, but in the springtime I like to be outside, so to me this is a great winter project. Nothing revives a room more than simply re-organizing. As much as I strive for a place for everything, and everything in it’s place, clutter can inevitably build up. Go through your closet and clear out the clothes you don’t wear and donate them to a local charity.

Then take a look around the rest of your home with fresh eyes. Are your toiletries taking over your bathroom? Pick up some matching decorative baskets and group like items together. Weed out items that are not used every day and find them a new home. I picked up these baskets at the dollar store for $2 each, but no one really needs to know that!

Re-Arrange Your Space
Sometimes we get so accustomed to our room layout, that it doesn’t occur to us to change it. In Home Staging, I find that the number one problem with most homes is the furniture arrangement. It’s amazing what re-configuring can do to a space. Be sure to measure before doing any heavy lifting. For rooms that are used often for entertaining, determine your focal point. If you have a fireplace, or distinct architectural features, this can be obvious. Otherwise, perhaps it’s a bold painting, or a focal wall, or maybe it’s a vignette that you created after reading last week’s article! Once you have determined this, arrange the furniture to compliment the focal point, and not distract from it or worse yet, hide it.

Small Projects with Big Results
Paint—I speak often of the wonders of paint. It really is the most cost effective way to dramatically change the look of a room. If you’re not interested in a painting a whole room, consider a focal wall. Take a look at your furniture. Have a piece that is dated, but isn’t in the budget to replace? Give it a face-lift with a fresh coat of pain.

Hardware—replace your hardware on cupboards in your home, whether it’s your kitchen cabinets, your bathroom cabinets, or your dresser. Updated pulls and handles can make a world of difference.

Add a colourful area rug to a room that is lacking in colour. This is an especially great tip for decorating in apartments, where it’s not always an option to paint.

Lighting—move your lamps, or add a dimmer switch to your chandelier to change the mood of a room.

Replace Your Bedding—while a decent bedding set can be considered costly, if that’s the only thing you do in your master or guest bedroom to change the overall look, it is money well spent!

Written by Shauna Lynn, Beyond The Stage Homes
www.beyondthestagehomes.com

There are lots of ways to add some colour and inspiration to a home, without breaking the budget. When you are listing a home for sale, remember that it is a good idea to “depersonalize” your home. This means removing all personal photos, religious items, souvenirs, and other knick-knacks. This will often mean that you will have blank walls to fill. Here are some suggestions for filling that blank canvas.

Scenic Photos

We all take way too many scenic pictures when we travel, and often with the landscaping as our muse, even the most amateur photographer can turn out some amazing shots. Yet we seldom actually get around to printing them out. Why not have your favourite scenic shot enlarged, matted and framed. You can also have it custom mounted for a sleek, contemporary look.

Decorative Collage

The easiest way to replace your family photos is to reuse the frames and simply depersonalize the images in it. You can do this by simply replacing the personal photos with scenic ones, or you can make a decorative collage. The photo shown here uses scrapbooking papers and wrapping paper in complimentary colours to brighten a little girl’s room. Take a look at what you already have around your house and get inspired. By re-using the same frames, you can hang them on the same picture hooks, and don’t have to worry about filling and painting the unsightly holes in the wall.

Renting Artwork
Check with your local gallery to find out who your up and coming local artists are, or simply Google it. Most artists will rent their works to you for a nominal monthly fee. This provides you with wonderfully original artwork, as well as allow the artist a little extra exposure. Be sure to put a plug in for the artist to anyone inquiring about the art.

Childish Inspiration
Has your child ever produced a masterpiece that you think truly belongs in a museum? Instead of hanging it on the fridge (which by the way is a big no-no when selling your home), frame it and hang it! The first image below shows my 3 year old niece’s handiwork, which also turned out to be the inspiration for my office. The other 3 were dollar store canvases I picked up while looking after my friend’s children (ages 7-10). I covered the table with a plastic tablecloth, set out several paints and brushes, and left the little artists to their own devices. It was amazing what they turned out! The paints were also purchased from the dollar store, but you can also buy them at any craft store. To save money remember, if you buy primary colours, then you can make all the other ones you’ll need.