Budget Decorating
(featured column)
Quick
and Cheap Decorating Ideas for Family Living
by
Kathleen Wilson
Any space in
your home where all the family tends to gather can be considered family living
spaces. Generally, the family room or den, and the kitchen and dining areas are
areas that need to accommodate the needs and tastes of all the family members.
Here are some great low cost ideas for dressing up those inviting rooms just
right for the whole clan! More...
1. Color your world! Don't be shy about adding color to the walls of your rooms.
Family oriented rooms tend to be busy, sometimes crowded spaces, so I recommend
some calming colors to create more restful retreats. Blues, greens, and neutrals
rate here. However, if you have a high-energy family, go with the flow, and
bring in some yellow, terra cotta, or even lime green! Paint makes a dramatic
impact in as little as one afternoon, for a pretty low cost. If you are
wondering what the colors will look like in your room, check out the online
personal color viewer at BenjaminMoore.com.
2. Let the sun shine in! Most family oriented spaces don't demand the privacy
that a bedroom or bath would, so strip off those curtains and blinds and see the
light! It makes the room look bigger (always a plus when the whole family is
there!) and the extra light really brightens the mood in the room. If some
nighttime privacy or light control is needed, such as in a TV viewing area, make
sure the curtains or blinds are hung totally clear of the window so that when
they are drawn, they don't block out any of the light. To bring focus to windows
with no treatments, use a stenciled or wallpaper border around each window
casing. And you thought those window treatments would be expensive! Who needs 'em!
3. Create different use areas in the room, so that more than one activity can
take place at a time. This gives you more opportunities to be together as a
family, and just requires some rearranging and creativity, not bucks! Set up a
small table and two chairs in an unused corner for a game table, sneak an unused
easy chair into the room for someone to read, pick up a couple of bar stools at
a yard sale to add to the kitchen counter. Store placemats in drawers to turn
the coffee table into a quick dining area, and make sure there are a couple of
floor pillows for impromptu movie night!
4. Create some personal accessories for your family spaces that celebrate who
you are as a group. No, you don't have to spend hundreds of dollars having a
family portrait painted to hang over the fireplace! Print out pictures of each
member of the family in black and white, then hang them in matching black frames
gallery style as a group on one wall. Frame those special family moments to
share with your guests. A wedding or graduation invitation, love letters your
grandfather sent your grandmother during the war, "secret" family
recipes, or one piece of treasured childhood artwork from each of your children
or grandchildren.
Forget those
time-consuming photo albums. Set a bunch of snapshots out in a pretty basket you
picked up at the dollar shop. You'll be shocked at how often you catch your own
kids musing through them! Want a really interesting conversation piece? Print
out family candid snapshots on regular paper, then use polyurethane to decoupage
them onto a tabletop, cupboard door, or even a whole wall! Slightly overlap each
photo, and then seal the whole top with a final coat of polyurethane to protect.
What a collage!
5. Finally, bring comfort into your family space to encourage loved ones to
linger, and spend that precious time together. Stitch up comfy throw pillows
from old childhood sweaters or dresses. Stencil or free hand comforting quotes
around the ceiling line or over a door. Keep a few fleece blankets tossed over
the back of the sofa, just right for those "cuddle up on the couch"
evenings with loved ones.
These are some great ideas for adding more than décor to a room. It's about
interjecting your family into the spaces you inhabit. None of these ideas cost
more than a few dollars, and many of them are free for the use of your creative
mind! Make your family spaces rooms that you will all remember as places where
life was lived, and memories made.
* * *
Copyright © 2006 by Kathleen Wilson. All
rights reserved.
Budget
Decorating Article Index
Want more money-saving tips? Get a FREE
Subscription to our monthly newsletter!
