INTERIOR DESIGN -1

Decorating Your Home On A Shoestring Budget

It happens to all of us sooner or later. We get that itch to actually DO something with the space that we live in. We actually want to decorate. For a lot of us it's a case of having champagne tastes with a beer bottle budget. What we want isn't necessarily what we can afford, and what we can afford, we really don't want!

But just because you have a limited, okay, VERY limited budget doesn't mean that you can't liven up your space. But where do we start?

The easiest way to give a whole room a makeover is with a coat of paint. You'll need to determine if the current paint on your walls is oil or latex. If it's oil paint, you'll need a coat of what I call "transition" paint because latex will not adhere to oil paint properly. Ask your favorite paint store for help with this.

Decide on a color. Lots of decorating stores have paint chips available for you to take home free of charge. It's difficult to tell though how a color will look on a wall from just a small two inch by two inch scrap. Once I've decided on a couple of colors, I usually buy a tester pot of each color. You might have to ask, not all stores offer this. Then simply paint a couple of two foot by two foot swatches, one on a wall that gets a lot of light, and one on a wall that doesn't. Different lighten conditions will affect the color and what looks good in bright sunshine may just creep you out come nightfall.

If you really can't decide about the color, then go with something neutral like a soft off white or a very pale yellow. One lady I knew had such a difficult time making a decision she painted every room in her house white! Sounds extreme, but with colorful furniture and accents, it actually looks quite striking.

As far as paint quality is concerned, this is a case of 'you get what you pay for'. By all means look for a good quality paint on sale, but don't buy the cheap stuff just because it's cheap. You'll regret it a month from now when you try to spot clean the wall and the paint literally dissolves on the sponge, leaving you with unsightly streaks on the wall.

Because you're decorating on a shoestring, it may take a little longer to buy the paint that you want. But your patience will be rewarded once the job is complete!