A home should be interesting. It should be vibrant. It should tell a story. Your story.
While there is an eternal quest for one’s guests to come home, look around and proclaim – what a lovely home you have - it is not necessary to spend a colossal amount to achieve that. Sometimes, constraints such as living in a rented apartment or even simply a lack of budget do not allow one to spend on expensive furniture and furnishings. Yet, there is a lot that you can do to make your home the talk of your social circle.
Design your own curtains: An alternative to purchasing expensive material from regular furnishing stores is to pick up cloth from local cloth markets. Printed cottons, ikaths, lace dyed in several colors of your choice are good options. Get a local tailor to stitch the curtains for you. A full length curtain, including the loops, requires around 2.75 meters of cloth. Use embellishments like lace, sequins and sari borders to make the curtains even more interesting. A red border on a black and white ikath print is a great example.
Interesting Wall Art: Who says your wall embellishments have to be sky high expensive to be interesting? Get creative. Here are some options: Buy interesting handmade paper in different designs, cut out squares in varying sizes, frame them and make a collage of these frames on one wall.
Instead of simply putting up random photographs on the wall, construct a theme or concept and put up relevant pictures. For e.g., if you have a passage, along the length put up photographs chronologically such as from the first year of your married life to the current. It will ensure a lot of stopping along the way, plenty of oohs and aahs and definitely a memorable time for all your guests.
Don't discard. Take old glasses that are no longer usable and put flowers in them and place them across the house. Old whiskey glasses and water glasses look lovely holding single flowers with their stems cut short. This also allows you to buy lesser flowers yet create the illusion of having flowers everywhere! You can also use old cups to pot plants.
Place plants and lamps strategically. While both lamps and plants are great accessories by themselves, together they create an amazing effect. Keep low lamps in front of potted plants like palms etc. This creates interesting and soft silhouettes/effects on the walls.
Pick up décor items when you travel. This has two attached benefits. Since you are sourcing local crafts, you will get them at a far more reasonable rate than if you were to buy them at a store in your own city. Secondly, there will always be a story attached with that particular item which will allow it to become a conversation piece.
Use Color. Color provides a sense of warmth to a room. Even if you sway towards lighter shades like creams and grays, break that with strategically placed color. Use contrasting curtains and cushions. E.g., if you have cream sofas, rather than cream curtains, it would be interesting to have curtains in red and cream prints. It will instantly lift the room several notches.
Create focal points. This could be a corner or a wall. This is helpful when you don’t have the budget to do up an entire room.
Source from local exhibitions. Every city has exhibitions/sales where a lot of home based designers set up shop. It is a great idea to pick up interesting knicks knacks from them. This gives you access to cheap yet unique products.
Use Aromas generously. Invest in oil burners. They leave the house smelling fresh and also create a sense of calm. There is a reason that spas use them all the time.
Lastly, remember, décor items by themselves are flat and boring. It is the story attached with each that is interesting. Create a home that allows stories and conversations. A vase picked up from an interesting shopkeeper during a holiday or a collage of photographs presented by your partner on an occasion, are far more valuable than the most expensive artifact. These are products that will ensure that your guests go back enriched with memorable moments from your life and leave you with a lingering sense of pride and smile on your lips long after the last guest has left.
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Chillibreeze's disclaimer: This is a contributed article and was published on Chillibreeze in July, 2011. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article. The relevance of the facts and figures cited (if any) could change after a period of time.
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—About our writer:
Dipika Singh has an MBA in Marketing and works as the marketing head of a media company. Extremely creative, Dipika brings a fresh perspective to every project and tries to make her articles immensely readable. Her forte is her ability to connect with the reader. She has experience in the subjects of home improvement, relationships, business writing and article writing.
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