Thursday, May 3, 2012

INTERIOR IDEAS: Quick & Easy Changes To Welcome Spring and Summer.

Spring is here and Summer is in queue.
The flowers are blooming, the air is abit warmer and the sun is shining brightly.  As you fling open those drapes to welcome in the light, you turn around and find......the living room needs the Easter Bunny to deliver alittle bit of something to spruce it up.  For the last few months we've all probably have stared at the same ole rooms more than any other time of the year.  Just like the new season, we all feel like it's time for a change.  Some folks can greet Spring with a brand new interior.  But now-a-days, fully redecorating even just the living room with a new sofa, rug, lamps and art just doesn't seem economically feasible.

So how do we give our spaces new life without replacing everything?

You don't need huge changes to create a completely new feeling or look.  Here are some simple changes that can create small or big impact, depending on what you are hoping to acheive.

Make an inexpensive sofa look custom by recovering the seat cushions and/or pillows.  In this home we turned a pre-fabricated sofa into a custom piece by doing just that.  The wall sconces were a find on the internet and a bench was turned into a coffee table.


Pops of color always brings a room to life.  In this living room, the main base color was a yellow-beige.  The dark wood is a great balance but its the red that adds that bit of spark.  By simply adding in elements of fire in pillows, drapes and even candles, this neutral room is now ready for a fun time.


Along with color, patterns can add alot to a room.  In this guest bedroom, the client's wanted to play with that, on a limited budgeted.  Our solution, was to  paint the room a strong orange using their existing bedding as inspiration.  The art work compliments the new color scheme and makes the room a forever spring/summer space.  The clients can also tone down the feel by replacing the bedding with more neutral pieces.


Sprucing up this breakfast nook was fast and easy.  The built-in banquette, table, chairs and flooring were all existing.  Taking inspiration from the artwork, we found some inexpensive blue fabric to make a cushion for the banquettes and to simply recover the chair seats.  Throw pillows from a home store and a $60 pendant found on the internet rounds out the group.  


When we first saw this guest bedroom the walls were stark white, the bed was on the right hand wall and it was poorly lit.  The clients had some various drapery they had stored away in the house that we found and used as the starting off point for the newly designed room.  We picked up a "bed-in-a-bag" at a home store along with the table lamps and the pendant.  We stole one of the nightstands that was being unused in another room and paired it with the bed and the existing nightstand.  Wanting color, the clients said yes to the bright yellow.  Now the room is a balanced and functional room.


Hopefully we've given you some ideas on how to spruce up your home without breaking the bank.  Paint is one of the easiest and least expensive ways to transform a room, but sometimes fabric or even a lamp or two can do the job too.  So how will you tackle your next project on a budget?