Paint a Wall

You might be thinking, “How can I paint the apartment, I don’t own it.” The truth is that if you ask nicely, most apartment managers will give you permission; and they won’t mind much as long as you don’t use crazy colors like lime green or fuchsia.

A shade that complements or contrasts with colors in your upholstery and accents would be perfect for painting one of the walls of your living room. A light teal, muted peach or soft blue would work perfectly well. Rooms are given depth, and monotony is broken, when you paint a single wall. You don’t have to stick to the walls when it comes to painting. Most tables can also be painted, as well as the base of a lamp and its shade.

Avoid Chunky Furniture

You should probably stay away from bulky and heavy furniture if you don’t have a large apartment. You will find that more space than necessary is usually taken up by bulky furnishings, and they also give the room a smaller feeling. Stick with sleek and simple furniture, stay away from over-stuffed, and bulky furniture. The only furniture that you really need for your living room is a coffee table, a recliner, a sofa and matching end tables. In the event that you have several guests over, you should probably have some over-sized throw pillows available for seating.

Windows

To say the least, the generic venetian blinds or mini-blinds that are in most apartments are quite boring. Using curtains with lots of color or a roll up shade with hues that match your décor are good ways of adding color and jazzing the place up a bit. Get creative; if making your own curtains out of satin sheets is something you want to do, go ahead and do it.

Add Texture

Fabrics that use different textures is the secret to pulling it all together. If you have a sofa made of a sleek material you should take nubby textures that are vibrantly colored into consideration for the throw pillows; and you can create a great focal point to the room, while adding texture at the same time, if you add a tapestry to one of the walls. With silky table runners, accent rugs and beaded lamps you’ll be able to add various textures to the room.

Make sure that you incorporate some of your favorite prints and accessories in your apartment when you decorate it. You will feel at home, and have created a unique look that is all your own. The apartment you live in doesn’t have to feel dull, and it doesn’t need to be a reflection of every other apartment in the building. You can really create rooms that you’ll love coming home to at day’s end by simply using paint, colors, texture and the right furniture.

About the Author…
Leon Tuberman has been part of the furniture and interior decorating  business for four decades. He owns and operates his family owned furniture store. They have a huge inventory of handcrafted American built solid oak furniture for your bedroom, dining room and living room. It doesn’t matter whether you’re shopping for arts and crafts tv stands for your family room or wood filing cabinets for your office then they carry everything you need.

Cheap decorating tips are some of my favorite things to learn and so I would like to share some of my favorites with you. My all time favorite thing to decorate with is candles.

There are two ways I like to decorate with candles and the first one is to take long stemmed wine glasses and fill with sand or fish tank gravel and put a candle down in the center. This is such a fancy look and the color of candle is so easy to change. My second tip is to take a cluster of candles and place them by a mirror or on a mirrored tray. The reflection from the mirror make an additional glow and is very appealing.

Second on my list of cheap decorating tips is throw pillows. I have always loved pillows but did not like the high prices. Even shopping at a large national chain I found the prices way to steep because I didn’t want just one pillow,but several.

Some of the large chain stores have a fabric section and most of them have material on sale. The store I shop at always has a $1.00 per yard rack to go through. I pick through the material and decide on my colors and buy about five or six yards. This will make me several pillows and cost me only five or six dollars. I then buy the stuffing which cost more than the material, however the price compared to bought pillows is still quite a savings.

You can also stuff home made pillows with strips of old clothing, but I personally prefer to pay for the stuffing. I think they look better and the cost for several pillows is still under $15.00.

Sewing pillows is easy and can be done by anyone. Just cut the material the size and shape you want, turn the material to where the wrong side is showing and sew up three and one half sides. Turn the material inside out and start stuffing. Once stuffed to the degree you want, hand sew the opening up and you have a great pillow!

Another thing I do to decorate is when I’m decorating my bathroom, I buy fancy shower curtain rings not the cheap plastic ones. This tip alone will spruce up your bathroom and for under $20.00. Over the years some of the cutest I have had were shaped like the hot and cold faucet handles and were made of Chrome.

One last tip is to take cheap but colorful cup towels and use them as place mats. This looks great and they are so easy to just wash, dry and put out again.