The Lotus is a chair with the characteristics of an armchair. The backrest and the arms form a divided collar with lapels that fold around the seat from the floor in a manner similar to a long coat. Colour contrasts accentuate this idea, making it look as if the user is enveloped by this lined coat. Montis.
Breath out, relax your shoulders and prepare to be creative with dressing your home. Furnishing your house (or apartment) on a budget does not have to be stressful, but can actually provide the perfect reason to develop an interior design scheme that is very uniquely you.
First things first…say goodbye to matching! You may not know this, but releasing yourself from the chains of matchdom is such a relief and a healthy challenge. Learn what colors appeal to you, and do a little color-wheel research to discover what colors complement one another. Some rules of thumb I’ve learned from experience: soft pastels accent earth tones very well. Create an arresting scene: clash colors, sparingly; and couple elaborate textures with pieces sporting little to no texture. (I have a plush, deep red, faux fur throw that I liked to drape over my cream-colored chaise whose upholstery displays light embroidery. I’ll tell you how I found those little gems, shortly.)
Secondly, be honest with what you like. For the longest time I avoided succumbing to stereotypical “girlie” styles. But, you know what? Flowery is alright with me, to a degree. And, I like pastels, to a degree. And, I like pink. Period. So there! Many more doors are opened to you when you allow yourself to test the boundaries of your likes and your dislikes. Besides, not every new discovery has to be applied to your home; in my case, my wardrobe is pretty in pink, not my wall.
Thirdly, the most important ingredient in furnishing a home on a budget is patience. You don’t want to settle for just any old piece of furniture. You want what’s right for your home. This will mean waiting on sales. Wading through estate/garage/yard sales. Weighing the options given you via freebie sources. Just remember, the home interior you create for yourself is one you’ll want to return to for many moons, so why rush to create a less than fulfilling space?
Here are a few ways to uncover that hidden treasure, that jewel, that furnishing waiting to be discovered by you!
Check out Craigslist.com. This is a free classifieds website started as a way for one friend to connect with his other friends. It’s grown to offer free info on jobs, personal ads, and every item under the sun available for sale and for free. Many of the ads for furnishings even include pictures.
Drive around posh neighborhoods. I found a pristine, country phone cabinet glistening under the summer sun as it sat discarded on the curb. I knocked on the homeowner’s door to verify it was okay to take away. They approved, explaining that it had a crack down the back of the table (barely noticeable!). I drove away a very happy camper.
Sign up for local estate sale e-newsletters. Though the Estate sales are hit-and-miss, (you’d be surprised what is dared called an “estate” sometimes) these venues can offer top-notch furniture that actually possesses distinct character. And, you can often find them for hundreds cheaper than the standard offerings in today’s furniture store. I once bought heavy, lined, cream drapes that, when hung, extended from ceiling to floor. They cost me $25. I got up on the ladder myself and quickly unhooked them from their old hanging posts. It’s at estate sales that I also found the French Victorian Chaise lounge and plush, red throw referred to previously. If you’re in California, get started by signing up with estatesaleshop.com, a company hosting sales throughout Los Angeles County.
Be vocal about what you like. If you let a friend know how much you like this, that or the other you’ll stick out in their mind should this, that or the other become up for grabs. I was giving away a lot of items before I moved to another location and remembered a friend who really liked one of the paintings on my wall. That and one other piece of art now hang, comfy and cozy, in their new home.
Turn lemons into lemon-squares. Maybe you know what you want, but it’s not in your budget. Consider the essential characteristics of what you’re looking for and then look around your home or local store to see if something else will meet that need. I wanted a long rug to distract from the ugly tile that ran the expanse of my long kitchen. The knit table rug that I spotted did the job perfectly, fitting my color scheme and my narrow kitchen. My comforter’s been in need of a duvet cover for quite sometime. Instead of spending additional money, the thought finally came to me to use a couple old sheets. I sewed them together leaving an opening at the top. Not only do I have a duvet cover, but it’s dual colored in case I want a change of scene.
Decorating your house on a budget is an exercise of the right mind. But, the end result is a home that is truly yours, one that expresses your heart and greets you and those who know you with its familiar warmth.
As you look back through your life, can you even begin to count how many interior design styles you’ve gone through? There were the character-based and dramatic styles of your youth and teenage years, the trendy styles of your post-college years, and various themes, styles and colors throughout your adulthood.
You’ve probably noticed that nearly every trend has something in common. At the time, it seems like that trend is the most elegant and sophisticated style ever, and one that you will love for years to come. But, invariably, you begin to not love it so much. When you do finally redecorate, you find that the trendy furniture that you loved so much just a few years earlier isn’t going to work with your new style. So out goes the overstuffed sofa, the papasan chair, or the distressed country-style TV cabinet. What could have been investment pieces are now at the second-hand shop or decorating the first apartment of a young relative.
Contemporary furniture carries with it a very interesting ability. When used in a contemporary room, contemporary furniture makes a big statement. It is a dramatic focal point of the room. On the other hand, when contemporary furniture is used in rooms of other styles it does just the opposite. It blends in seamlessly.
Let’s look, for example, at the biggest, most dramatic contemporary furniture piece out there. The red, leather sofa.
Now imagine that somehow, somewhere down the line, your tastes change from a preference for contemporary design to American Country style. You’ve fallen head over heels in love with it. You want your house dripping with old kitchenware, advertising art, pictures of farm scenes and flowered fabric.
Two styles couldn’t be further from each other if they tried. So… what do you do with that red, leather contemporary sofa?
First, drape a crocheted afghan over the back of one arm of the sofa. Don’t cover the arm up, just drape it there. Arrange several country-style pillows at the corners. Maybe one pillow has a bit of red in the flowers to pick up the color. Then put a white tatted doily on each arm of the sofa. Now your sofa looks perfect next to the white eyelet curtains and the old wooden rocking chair. Using bits of red throughout your home will also help solidify the red leather sofa into your design and make it look like a purposeful decorating decision rather than something you’re making due with.
Most other home decorating styles are even easier to combine with contemporary furniture. It’s easy to soften their sleek, modern lines to reflect more casual or trendy styles, or incorporate their strong shapes into more historical styles.
Begin to look at your large pieces of furniture as investment pieces. By using contemporary design for your main furniture style, you can easily move from one design style to the next by changing just a few things rather than having to replace your furniture every few years.
|
Decorating your home? Need designer furniture that is as unique as it is stylish? Have a look at the Beyond Furniture range and I am sure you will have a hard time choosing which piece of furniture you like the most. Whether you need living room, dining room, study or bedroom furniture we have a distinguished range that is sure to appeal to your tastes. You can buy our furniture Sydney wide and if you want to view our furniture online you can do so on our website. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=B_Williams |
Last week I spent a day with a group of volunteers at the Beyer Home Museum in the town of Oconto. Constructed in 1868, the building was one of the first in the community to be made from brick. The interiors have been restored to the period of the 1890s–the time when lumber baron George Beyer transformed the home from an Italianate mansion into a Victorian showplace.
I photographed several examples of local furniture, including a small hanging corner cupboard attributed to John Van Rens (above). It’s decorated with fine marquetry and inlay, and the shelves are lined with red velvet paper. Other artifacts I documented were some examples of porcelain hand-painted by local women, three quilts, and an unusual handmade banjo decorated with half-moons.
I also got to see another object of historical import–a five foot animatronic fiberglass pickle that once served as the mascot for Oconto’s Bond Pickle Company! Too bad it’s outside of my date range for this project. The pickle reminds me a bit of “Big Dreamers,” a documentary I saw last month at the Wisconsin Film Festival about a small town in Australia and its quest to build a giant fiberglass rain boot in hopes of attracting tourists.
Posted by Emily Pfotenhauer.
I have been looking at furniture over the past few weeks since I am planning on replacing a sofa and adding a couple more pieces. I came across an advertising supplement in one of my “decorating” magazines for “Canopy” furnishings. The furniture looked really nice but I was really surprised by the low prices. Of course, I immediately got online to see if I could find more information. I checked out http://canopyliving.com/index.html and found that this line of furniture (as well as other home goods) is sold at select Wal-Mart stores and walmart.com
I had to see if for myself since it looked so nice in the ads and online so I took a little trip to my local Wal-Mart! They didn’t have many pieces there to look at but what they did have was very nice. The information online says the furniture is made with solid hardwood covered with veneer.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/catalog.gsp?cat=921919
It is very sturdy and the inside of drawers (in the desk and chest of drawers I saw) are truly made well (with wood) and appear quite solid. I’m not sure about the exterior finish though in terms of how it will hold up over time – but for the price, I think it will do the job!
Price: $279.96!
I had the chance to sit in a comfy cushioned chair. I liked the fabric (chenille) and it was a very pretty ivy green color. It seems to be made very well too.
Price: $399.96!
The coordinating sofa is $699.96!
As for rugs, this is my favorite:
One of the reviewers at walmart.com was correct about this rug being a “gold” color rather than more neutral as it appears in the picture online. However, it is a very pretty pattern. (Price: $19.96 – $189.96, depending on size).
Other home goods: dinnerware, table linens, shower curtains, bath accessories, and the list goes on!
So, take a look at Canopy for yourself. I’d love to hear from you if you have purchased any of the furniture.
