Five Cheap Ways to Change Your Living Space
If you are like most everyone that I know, you have a budget.
I stopped looking through design magazines because they are usually unrealistic about this.
I will admit that the dimly-lit, high-rise loft with frameless windows looking over Santa Monica looks swell in the pictures. Who wouldn't want red leather loveseats hugging a $100,000 coffee table?
But let's be realistic. I might as well call my realtor to let her know that my wife and I were thinking about moving into a place with a little more space...
...like a baseball stadium.
We need more design for those of us who treasure the discount racks when we see them.
My response to all the overpriced hoopla is this:
Five Cheap Ways to Change Your Living Space.
1. Get rid of the clutter. Learn to subtract.
If you have neat little vases and charming wicker baskets, you probably have too many vases and wicker baskets.
I am not saying this with a bias, but from experience. Small collections turn into clutter and clutter turns inevitably into bad design.
Be honest. Did you place that lamp in your living room because you wanted it there or because you didn't have anywhere else to put it?
Having parents that kept everything, it took me a while to learn that it's o.k. to get rid of things. If you hold on to that table or lamp too long, it will become a thorn to you. You will eventually find that your tastes have changed yet everything you pick out clashes with your lamp.
Here's a simple way to decide what you should eBay and what you should let stay.
If the piece is 10-years-old, its probably outdated and starting to clash. However, if the piece has 25 years under its belt, it might be worth keeping. Design trends tend to repeat every few decades, which is why shag carpeting is starting to reappear on rugs, couches, and even window curtains.
If the piece is outdated...yet you can't bring yourself to get rid of it, don't worry. Furniture can be refinished, which we will talk about in the near future.
2. You need art.
Art doesn't have to be expensive. In reality, random pieces of junk pass for modern art pretty well. Examples under $15 include:
- Buy a set of silverware from WalMart and spray paint a couple of the utensils a primary color in high-gloss. Then hang them together mixed with the unpainted utensils in any geometric shape you want.
- Large numbers of everyday items also have visual interest. For example, arranging and adhering a 2 x 2 ft. square of #2 pencils to the wall can be fascinating to the eye. Paperclips, bottle tops, chop sticks, and straws also work well.
The key to this type of art is to get creative while staying simple. Finding a way to autograph your piece when you are finished will also give the work more credibilty.
3. Lighten up
Sometimes the problem has little to do with the furniture, or even the design, but with the lighting.
A few months ago I consulted with a young couple who had recently bought their first house. They enjoyed entertaining friends, but found they were battling fatigue and boredom every time they stepped into the family room. It was a lighting issue.
Six-foot tall dimmer lamps ($20+) have the power to brighten and energize these types of spaces. Inversely, rooms that are too lively can be mellowed out with directional lamps, ideally spotlighting a piece of artwork on the walls or silhouetted behind a peice of furniture.
4. Just a little off the bottom
Contemporary Japanese design is making its way into American living rooms. The proof is in the latest trend toward simple geometry mingled with low to the ground furniture design. This is the preferred decorating style for the urban loft and it is spilling into the neighborhoods.
To bring your furniture up to speed you need to invest in a $10 hacksaw.
You can drop your tables, chairs, couches and coffee tables 3 to 5 inches by trimming down their legs with a saw. I wouldn't recommend this if your couches are near your kitchen counters because you will create a height disparity between your kitchen and your family room. If, however, there is some distance between the two rooms, you can greatly update your furniture without having to spend thousands in the process.
5. Go-go-gadget-green-thumb
As a nifty alternative to wall art, you might want to try living art.
Flowers and plants are great because they can supply color and balance in a subtle way. What's even nicer is that they are easy to move around and can be planted outside if you get bored with them in the house.
They also flow with the emerging asian ingredients of design. Sometimes a simple plant in the office or kitchen can make all the difference.
Though these tips are basic, they should be enough to help you begin to simplify, shorten, enlighten, enliven, and autograph your living space.
Have you ever had a designer magazine suggest you take a hacksaw to your loveseat before?
The Design Guy
I stopped looking through design magazines because they are usually unrealistic about this.
I will admit that the dimly-lit, high-rise loft with frameless windows looking over Santa Monica looks swell in the pictures. Who wouldn't want red leather loveseats hugging a $100,000 coffee table?
But let's be realistic. I might as well call my realtor to let her know that my wife and I were thinking about moving into a place with a little more space...
...like a baseball stadium.
We need more design for those of us who treasure the discount racks when we see them.
My response to all the overpriced hoopla is this:
Five Cheap Ways to Change Your Living Space.
1. Get rid of the clutter. Learn to subtract.
If you have neat little vases and charming wicker baskets, you probably have too many vases and wicker baskets.
I am not saying this with a bias, but from experience. Small collections turn into clutter and clutter turns inevitably into bad design.
Be honest. Did you place that lamp in your living room because you wanted it there or because you didn't have anywhere else to put it?
Having parents that kept everything, it took me a while to learn that it's o.k. to get rid of things. If you hold on to that table or lamp too long, it will become a thorn to you. You will eventually find that your tastes have changed yet everything you pick out clashes with your lamp.
Here's a simple way to decide what you should eBay and what you should let stay.
If the piece is 10-years-old, its probably outdated and starting to clash. However, if the piece has 25 years under its belt, it might be worth keeping. Design trends tend to repeat every few decades, which is why shag carpeting is starting to reappear on rugs, couches, and even window curtains.
If the piece is outdated...yet you can't bring yourself to get rid of it, don't worry. Furniture can be refinished, which we will talk about in the near future.
2. You need art.
Art doesn't have to be expensive. In reality, random pieces of junk pass for modern art pretty well. Examples under $15 include:
- Buy a set of silverware from WalMart and spray paint a couple of the utensils a primary color in high-gloss. Then hang them together mixed with the unpainted utensils in any geometric shape you want.
- Large numbers of everyday items also have visual interest. For example, arranging and adhering a 2 x 2 ft. square of #2 pencils to the wall can be fascinating to the eye. Paperclips, bottle tops, chop sticks, and straws also work well.
The key to this type of art is to get creative while staying simple. Finding a way to autograph your piece when you are finished will also give the work more credibilty.
3. Lighten up
Sometimes the problem has little to do with the furniture, or even the design, but with the lighting.
A few months ago I consulted with a young couple who had recently bought their first house. They enjoyed entertaining friends, but found they were battling fatigue and boredom every time they stepped into the family room. It was a lighting issue.
Six-foot tall dimmer lamps ($20+) have the power to brighten and energize these types of spaces. Inversely, rooms that are too lively can be mellowed out with directional lamps, ideally spotlighting a piece of artwork on the walls or silhouetted behind a peice of furniture.
4. Just a little off the bottom
Contemporary Japanese design is making its way into American living rooms. The proof is in the latest trend toward simple geometry mingled with low to the ground furniture design. This is the preferred decorating style for the urban loft and it is spilling into the neighborhoods.
To bring your furniture up to speed you need to invest in a $10 hacksaw.
You can drop your tables, chairs, couches and coffee tables 3 to 5 inches by trimming down their legs with a saw. I wouldn't recommend this if your couches are near your kitchen counters because you will create a height disparity between your kitchen and your family room. If, however, there is some distance between the two rooms, you can greatly update your furniture without having to spend thousands in the process.
5. Go-go-gadget-green-thumb
As a nifty alternative to wall art, you might want to try living art.
Flowers and plants are great because they can supply color and balance in a subtle way. What's even nicer is that they are easy to move around and can be planted outside if you get bored with them in the house.
They also flow with the emerging asian ingredients of design. Sometimes a simple plant in the office or kitchen can make all the difference.
Though these tips are basic, they should be enough to help you begin to simplify, shorten, enlighten, enliven, and autograph your living space.
Have you ever had a designer magazine suggest you take a hacksaw to your loveseat before?
The Design Guy
posted by The Design Guy at 10:23 PM
1 Comments:
Those are all excellent ideas. I think you belong on HGTV DesignStar. I am a saver so I know how cluttered things can really get.
The one thing about this column is that is it lacked links. You had so many opportunities to create transparency for your reader and didn't take advantage of it. Transparency is a good thing. (My apologies to Martha Stewart.)
The Lovely and Gracious
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