|
|
|
Crafty Country Decorating Style Ideas
If you've ever seen Frank's decorations on TLC's Trading Spaces, then you know all about the country style of design. From stenciled drawings to wooden cows to ruffled curtains, country design has all the frills you might expect from our dear...
Decorating A Child's Room
Decorating your child's room should be fun and exciting for all involved. The most important thing to remember when planning or decorating your child's room is to keep the decor age appropriate. You wouldn't want to decorate your 3 year old...
Decorating with rocks, the beauty of rustic decor
Rocks are dirty, crude, hard, and just plain nasty. But there is another side to rocks. They are also durable, beautiful, and come in a huge variety. When a piece of stone is cut from a mountain, it is cut into a giant slab. This slab looks like...
Decorating Your Fireplace for Easter
Sure you decorate your fireplace and mantel for the winter holidays, but don’t forget this important focal point in your room as Spring approaches. Here are some nearly-instant ideas for springtime and Easter fireplace decorating:
Daffodils in...
Quick and Easy Autumn Decorating Ideas
* Fill a tall tumbler with candy corn. Be sure to have extra on hand, since some of the candy will likely disappear.
* Collect vibrantly colored fall leaves. Sandwich them between two sheets of clear contact paper for an instant placemat. Set the...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Exterior Decorating on a Budget
Exterior Decorating on a Budget
By Kathleen Wilson
Many times we are so busy decorating the interior of our home , we forget about the view most people see first…the outside! Perhaps we all believe improvements to the exterior of the home must be expensive. Not true! What a better place to showcase your clever creativity than where every passerby can see!
Your best friend here is a building site. Find out where they are building new homes in your area, and go talk to the contractor in charge of the site. Most of these sites have scrap piles where they discard huge amounts of materials they can’t use, either because they aren’t the right size, a mistake was made, or a myriad of other reasons. Ask the contractor if you can help yourself to their scrap pile, most are more than willing to let you.
Here you can find large pieces of ½ inch siding, scrap wood, broken tiles, vinyl flooring remnants, and possibly even leftover paint or countertop material. Look at everything with the eye of the budget decorator, you can make something out of all these things!
Use the siding and scrap wood to make garden furniture, decorative shutters for your windows, or as architectural elements on your existing features. For instance, we have several large 6x6 columns on our porch, very plain lumber. We are using scrap 1x4 and 1x2 to add wrap around moldings on these columns, and painting them to contrast. It looks like a custom porch column! You
Around The Jazz Internet: May 18, 2012
Ten albums for newbies, the hated Cabaret Card and composer/arranger Gil Evans' centennial.
The Harmonica-Playing Baron Of Belgium
Whistling guitarist and harmonica master Toots Thielemans has played in everything from Charlie Parker's band to commercials for Old Spice. In his childhood home of Brussels — really, throughout his homeland — the celebration of his 90th birthday is on.
could add simple shapes as appliqués to doors, gable areas, or empty walls.
Use broken tiles to make a mosaic table for the porch, or create mosaic stepping stones for the yard. You could even update a tired old picnic table with the tiles. Create a wood plaque with the scrap wood, glue or paint your house #,s on it, and add mosaic tiling around the border for a very expensive look.
If you can find a fencing company willing to give you their discards, make garden posts for hanging lanterns or plants from posts. Be sure to cement these in the ground. Use the boards to make rustic planters, or cut them down to make picket style garden fencing. Make an shingle style mailbox.
Vinyl flooring scraps can be made into floorcloths for your porch or patio with a little paint and polyurethane, and can be as decorative or as simple as you want, custom matching your homes colors and styles.
As you can see, with a little bit of hunting, you can find the materials to make the exterior of your home look like a masterpiece for almost no money, and you are saving a lot of good materials from our waste dumps!
Copyright 2002 K. Wilson
About the Author
Kathleen Wilson is the editor of a free ezine and website called The Budget Decorator. When she’s not decorating or gardening she’s caring for her 5 kids, 3 stepkids, and wonderful husband. You can get more info and free projects at her website http://www.thebudgetdecorator.com
|
|
|
|
|
|