Decorating
Is your living room looking a little, oh, I don't know, drab? Does it somehow feel incomplete? Or perhaps your dining room table just isn't doing the room justice on its own? Your apartment could be suffering from a rare condition known as Lackofrugitis. It's okay if you've never heard of it; the main thing is that you are now aware of it.
Do you live in an apartment where a dishtowel can double as an area rug? Is it impossible for you to have a television larger than 13" because you're already sitting too close to it? When you go to purchase new living room furniture, do you find yourself looking in the toy section? It can be a sad state of affairs when the only chair you can fit into your living room is a child's Spongebob Squarepants chair!
Unless you've just signed a lease in a luxury apartment building, your first look at your new place may be a disappointment. Countless renters have opened their new front doors to find yellowing and peeling paint, scuff marks and stains on the walls or a hideous paint job in the bedroom. A few calls to the landlord or maintenance company may solve the problem. If you've just signed a lease with an unresponsive owner or want an unconventional look for your walls, you may be tempted to paint the apartment yourself. Here are some things to think about before you take the plunge.
Furnishing an apartment comes with its own set of special challenges. Your rent payment may eat up a huge portion of your paycheck, limiting the range of places you can shop. If you live in a dense city like New York or San Francisco, you may not have a car to haul the furniture to your building. If you live in a walk-up, just getting your new furniture up the stairs may require the help of a few strong friends who owe you some favors. On top of all this, your options are probably limited by the size and shape of your apartment, with its strangely shaped rooms, narrow staircases, tiny bedrooms and low doorways.
After you've moved, arranged your furniture and carpets, and settled into your new place, the blank walls can be disconcerting. If your landlord failed to paint before you moved in, you might be tempted to cover your walls with art decorations as quickly as possible and be done with it. But if you really want your apartment to feel like home, you'll want to put real thought and effort into finding the right wall decorations. Fortunately, creating a unique home decor can be fun and rewarding. There are a number of places you can look to find art for your apartment. Here are some ideas to get you started.
When you first move into a new apartment, its bare walls and empty rooms may feel like the farthest thing from home. However, with a little creativity and hard work, you can turn this sterile space into a cozy home. Read on for tips to make your apartment the place you look forward to coming home to at the end of the day.
When it comes to apartment decorating, the kitchen is often the most neglected space. Most apartment kitchens are small, packed tight with appliances, pots, pans and dishes. While your kitchen may seem too cramped and crowded to have space for any decorative additions, it is probably the room where your family and friends spend the most time, congregating around the food. Doesn’t it deserve a little decorative attention? Thanks to inexpensive home stores like Ikea and Target, it is easier than ever to find items that will help you maximize storage space and create new space in your kitchen. Read on for kitchen decorating ideas that will help you organize your belongings and make your space feel more inviting.
We all know that Thanksgiving is a time for family, friends, and giving thanks. But sometimes when you live in an homogenized, bland apartment, it can be a little hard to get into the spirit. So how can you lift your spirits, make your apartment feel more homey, and get in the festive mood? Short of setting out an incredible good spread on the day itself, how can you make your surroundings tastefully and subtly show some Thanksgiving spirit?
We all want to decorate our homes to the best of our abilities, but sometimes those abilities are limited by our pocketbooks! Check out the following decorating-oriented sites for tips on keeping your decorating budget under control. Some sites have helpful do-it-yourself tips; others have affordable furniture and accessories. Read on, then rev up your apartment with these stylish savings!
Your walls are white, your carpet is beige, your kitchen tile is gray, and you chose neutrally colored furniture to give you a blank background for decorating. Now your apartment just couldn’t be more boring—but what can you do to liven it up? Color is the key, especially when you’re starting with a blank palette. Read on for some super creative and exciting ideas about how to add color—and therefore excitement—to your home.
Do you have a big balcony, but lack a plan for how to fill it? Or maybe your balcony is tiny, but you’d like to decorate it stylishly anyway. Read on for some top tips on filling up your balcony with tasteful accoutrements so you can fully enjoy your outdoor space.
The bathroom: a boring expanse of white tile that taunts you with its dull conformity to the expectations of what a “bathroom” should be. Homeowners can remodel, but renters may be more limited in their bathroom decorating decisions. But fear not—there’s a lot you can do to make your bathroom beautiful without replacing tiles or knocking down walls. Read on for some sensational suggestions for bathroom design.
Decorating the bedroom can be a tough task. Designers usually advise to make one piece of furniture the focal point of a room, and in the bedroom it can be hard to make anything but the bed become the focal point. However, there are countless ways to make your bed become more interesting, and you can also make an effort to center the room on a piece of furniture other than the bed. Read on to learn how to transition your bedroom from boring to beautiful.
Apartment dwellers may not have room for big roll top desks or fancy l-shaped workstations. How can you best make use of your tiny space if you need to do some work at home? Read on for some super ways to make a couch into a desk and a living room into an office!
Decorating any apartment room can be difficult due to size constraints, but the living room poses a special challenge. It’s traditionally supposed to house giant furniture—a ten-section couch, a big-screen TV, large lamps, overstuffed armchairs, and long empty tables. You probably don’t want to carry these types of items up four floors to your apartment, and you probably wouldn’t have space for them once they got there, anyway. This article contains snazzy ideas for dressing up your small living room without using hulking behemoths for furniture items.
