Home Decorating For Dummies

Step aside MissKatonic, your sister in decorating dumbness is here. I have a great project for decorating the light switch covers. Hey, it's cheap and it actually makes the room look different, with minimal fuss and bucks. If you like Asian things, how about taking some butcher paper or other similarly inclined paper and some black pain you get at a craft store or from a friend and doing some Chinese/Japanese writing symbols and fraying the edges slight to look like rice paper and hanging those puppies? You could even come up with some string or yarn to hang them with. If you live in a college town, or a town that has a college, it's getting close to school being out. Check around campus and see who might be getting rid of a futon or some such thing. You'd be surprised at the stuff people decide they don't want to lug home. Congratulations on moving up in the rooming world by the way!

My first advice is...don't buy cheap paint if you paint your walls. It's tempting, but cheap paint really is lower quality, and you'll end up paying more in multiple coats and/or repainting later. You don't have to get a premium paint, but definitely don't go to Wal-mart for it, either. Asian decorating isn't really that difficult, because Asian styles tend to be fairly minimalist. I'd suggest getting some paper lanterns. They're usually fairly cheap and practically scream oriental.

First of all welcome back, as I saw you and your discussion after a long back. Well as you are a girl, girls like pink color a lot. I recommend you to do the same color on walls, buy a bed of pink color. Try not to buy cheap paint and if you think you will make your walls dirty in some while try to plastic paint your whole room with pink color. Buy a good dressing table. Try to buy everything pinki pinki, it gives a cool look to your room. It will be like everything matching contrast. Buy a pink clock. Buy pink curtains, even wear pink dress :p heh! As you said, you are on limited budget and want to give your room a look. I recommend all these things to use it. And I think bed, dressing table, a clock and some daily routine stuffs like 'shoe rag' is neccessory for living try to match all thing. It gives you a very outclass look! Have a good day! Happy earnings.

One thing I'd like to point out: if you try too hard, or overdecorate, you'll create a place you aren't comfortable in. I've done this to myself before, and regretted it. It was so "nice" that I was loathe to mess it up, and so I didn't even want to spend time in my own room. =p I think you've gotten a lot of good advice so far, so I'm having a bit of a hard time thinking what else to add. When it comes to actually acquiring decorations, I think yard sales are the best. It might seem a little cheesy, but often I've found so many neat things at them. Most of the time it's because the owner is updating their house to be more "trendy", and getting rid of anything that doesn't fit with their new focus. My best find ever was this little lamp that had dragons twined around it, not fantasy-style dragons but Asian dragons, and I spend $2 on it.

Visiting jumble sales, car boot sales, second hand shops and flea markets would be a good idea. So many cheap items but really good quality, even antiques can be found in these places.I used to find many of my best buys at these places and the pieces were original and unusualo and every one used to like them,

Great discussion. I love to decorate and have learned a few things over the years that I will share with you since you so kindly asked.:) First to decide what you want to be your main focal point in your room, be it your bed or a beautiful picture or a collection that you want to show off. Decide what the main color would be to enhance your focal point. I recommend painting no more than 2 walls in a bedroom as they are generally not large enough, and to paint walls darker colors makes them appear even smaller. Two walls though are good. I usually will spend more on my focal point and then decorate with "cheaper" items around that. Cheaper doesn't necessarily mean junk. Just not as expensive. I have gotten some amazing deals at Big Lots, Marshall's, TJ Maxx. Even Mervyn's when things are on clearance. Just depends on how much you like to shop and if you like the bargain hunting aspect. I also go to thrift stores, flea markets and garage sales. I'm always amazed at some of the beautiful things that I have picked up over the years. I have attached a picture of the dining room of a home that I had a few years ago and will give details in the picture. Hope that you find it useful. Good luck and remember to have fun with it, if you don't like what you started it's easy to rectify. Remember it's a work in progress and can take months to get it just right. Unless you have endless amounts of money you can't do it over night. Start with the focal point and work from there.

Congratulations dear. I hope you will be comfortable and happy in your new room. As long as you figured out the theme, go from there. Paint is the cheapest way for walls, so that is done. As long as you like the color. If you are going Asian, what about lots of pillows on the floor instead of chairs. Buy some straw or paper fans and hang them on the wall. Or, perhaps you can find a nice collectin of posters of Asian theme and put them on the walls. Are you artistic? If yes, you can paint a murell on the walls. Get a nice paper rice hanging lamp. Go down to China town, or a flee market to see what they have to offer and to price things. Oh, a nice area rug would be nice, unless it is already carpeted. Good luck dear, and have fun.

As you like Asian designs why not go to Chinatown and look in their shops. We have some here in Australia and you can find many good bargains. We also have lots of Asian two dollar shops where you can find even more nargains. Decide whether you want dragons or Buddhas or good luck talismans (talismen?) Black and white works well in an Asian theme and throw in some red accents. Good luck!

Two inesxpensive things you can do; paint and poster art work. If you like sunny, paint a pale yellow/egshell while, or paint one wall with a dramatic color and accent it with a lighter color on the other walls. Also, look at some of the poster sites online, and you can order all types of art as well as contemporary prints very affordably, and save even more by getting them framed, or buying frames locally. Hope that helps.!

1)A deep rich red seems to be the predominat color for an asian look. Jade is another color, but I get the feeling you can handle the dramatic from reading your posts. 2) You should be able to pick up some used tables - paint with a black lacquer, high gloss. They don't have to match, the color will tie them together. 3) You can pick up some oriental art or murals in a poster store. 4) Use a bit of gold as handles on the tables or furniture, some gold pillows. 5) A couple of water fountains would also add to the theme. 6) Those cool paper lanterns can be used as an inexpensive light. 7) You can also paint some nice designs on the walls.

Yah, forget about the dummy book. It's much cheaper to just log at the design magazines at the grocery store... and if something really catches your eye, spend three bucks for a magazine, instead. I don't know what sort of town you live in, but you can get a really long way with your money by paying a visit to local thrift stores. Also-- if you're in a city of any size, check the "free stuff" area on craigslist-- people who are moving give away all sorts of furniture, rugs and so forth when they are about to move out of town... free for the picking up. I got a perfectly OK futon frame and mattress for free-- was probably a $600 piece of gear to start with, and all I needed to do was dust it off and toss the futon cover in the industrial washer at the laundromat. If you like Asian style things, the best places (to get bang for the buck) are probably going to World Market and Pier One Imports. I'm no design expert-- but a basic tip that seems to work: If you keep the furniture really "simple" looking in style, you can make a room look "Asian" by adding a couple of Asian looking prints to the walls and some Asian knick-knacks. Similarly, if you like an "industrial" look, keep the furniture, but put different art and accessories around. That's the easiest/cheapest way to do it.

First up, I think I'd want to leave the walls white, especially if its a small room, because dark colours make a room look and feel smaller. Figure out what you'd like as a focal point, whether it be a big picture or your bed or whatever, and try to work around that. I have found many unbelievable bargains at places like Thrift Stores, charity stores, flea markets and even, from time to time, what someone has thrown out for trash. You don't need to spend an extortionate amount of money on decorating a room, regardless of what others say. Have a look also for magazines on home design and decorating. They usually contain numerous tips for making something out of something else at a very cheap price.

Oh I know the perfect place to get blinds, floor mats, pillows, lanterns, etc.... It is very, very cheap! It is called Pearl River you will like the stuff there it is all asian style. You can get paper lanterns for as cheap as $3.50 they also have teas, beauty stuff, herbs, shoes, anyway the site is http://pearlriver.com/v2/index.html I am sure you will love it! Let me know what you think.

If you have cable or satelite tv, try watching HGTV (Home & Garden Television). That is what the network is all about. Try shows like "Design On A Dime". Be sure to check out their website for all of their program listings and for other design tips. I love my HGTV! The public library is also a good place for getting information on design.

You might also try shopping at a Chinese or Japanese market in your area. There is one that I used to go to and they had very neat things that you could hang from your ceiling for cheap - a couple of bucks apiece! I also got a feng shui (sp?) compass there as well that had a little mirror on it.

You can go to overstock.com and look around. There you can find things from art to furniture at really low prices. Pillows aren't just comfy, they can really make a room stand out. Especially with white walls, you can hide that with art work, family pictures, shelves and don't forget a clock. You have to get a clock. Shelves are really good ideas, because you can put things on them that expresses yourself. You can also go to Allposters.com and look around, it doesn't have just posters. You can find pictures of nearly anything that is an interest to you. Lamps are also a good thing, since you don't have to use the full light in the room. Curtains, again those have to be the style that you like. I would tell you to get dark ones since it will hide the light better when you don't want all that brightness. Now when you want to change the color of the walls, you can go to any paint store and look at paint colors, pick the ones that you like. Take them home and put it on the wall with some tape, step back and see which will fit better, and remember the light shades will look even lighter once it's on the walls. So once you pick a color go a degree brighter or darker in that same shade. Most of all just have fun, I always said if someone doesn't like how I decorate my home who really cares, it's not like they live in my home. If you feel comfortable, then it's just right.

How about a design on the picture I uploaded here. In my city the cost with decoration like this including furniture is about 120000 dollars in our currency. I think it is about 15grans in US money. Or why don't visit the shops of Ikea. They display various kinds of room decoration in their shop. Some of them are nice looking but cost at an affordable price for most citizens. You may get inspirations from their display and design your own room according to your budget.

Well brown, taupe or tan and red might make a good color scheme or use natural light wood, aqua blue and white would work well. You could make a platform bed easily to put your matress on and so with some very simply non cluttered accent pieces like a nice picture. You can find inexpensive furniture at garage sales, target or even make your own. Take a look at platform beds on yahoo under images and they will show you pictures of rooms you can get ideas from. Do a little at a time and you should have a really nice room in no time. Make sure you have plenty of storage so you don't clutter up the room. Good luck.

good to have anthic forniture... the room make sense if the designe showing your personality.. and some ways, nice to be change sometime,like designing asian type,am from philippines,our typical design here,really can't forget to put lamp on the post,then picture frame of your family,or either your picture.. a big one huh? put som sollectible things thats al i can share...

Be economical in decorating your room. Apart from durables furnitures & fixtures have a couple of painting & flower stand with a door mat & curtain. That is because you are tight pocket.