Décor Revamping: The Shoestring Shuffle

Everyone seems to be catching spring fever. That not only means staying outside longer thanks to or more cookouts and outdoor fun, it also means  freshening up the ambiance of the rooms you’ve grown with over the winter.

Since spring arrived, my clients have asked to have furniture , colors for a room or two,  and one bachelor dad asked me to help make a 'girls room' for his 13-year-old-daughter --a place for her and her friends to hang out. 

Often people crave a fresh new look but their budget won’t allow for a full-fledged redecorating.  Don’t despair.  You’d be surprised how you can rework your existing furnishings and accessories yet change the entire look and feel of a room with just a few small, but dramatic changes.

For example, in the aforementioned girls room,  I had my client move an old entertainment center and an old futon from his previous 'TV room' to an empty bedroom beside his daughter's bedroom.  We painted the room a vibrant purple (her favorite color) and ordered a new zebra futon cover on-line which looks great with the black metal futon frame.  We then added $7.99 worth of paper lanterns from Hobby Lobby in one corner of the room, threw some brightly colored accent pillows on the futon, and reclaimed an antique white dresser with a mirror attached from his dad’s barn.  At Hobby Lobby, we also found fun, black and white polka dot cork boards for her to pin photos on and, of course, the ubiquitous Justin Bieber posters, and viola...T’ween paradise! 

He painted the room himself (with a daddy’s loving touch), so the total dollars spent was under $200 for a really cool room.  And of course his 'cool' factor with his daughter and her friends moved up several notches, which is priceless.

A little more challenging and requiring a higher level of my professional design services was turning a rather fancy guest room in another client’s house into a room her pre-teen son could move into, as he’d outgrown his 'little boy' room.  Moving him to the guest room meant he could now have his own bathroom and no longer be tortured by the horrors of sharing a bathroom with his...(gulp)... teenage sister!

The biggest challenge was that my client had invested several thousands of dollars a few years prior to have the guest room beautifully decorated, including custom bedding, custom window treatments and accessories.  She didn’t want to toss all that expensive stuff, so I came up with a way to reuse almost all of it. 

I reworked the queen-size gathered bed skirt into two twin-size tailored ones, which required less fullness, so the yardage worked out well.  We reused the existing pillow shams and throw pillows on what was now twin beds instead of the queen.  Two ready-made, inexpensive and washable twin coverlets completed the bedding.

We removed the drapes and kept the cornice boards, adding dark stained 2" wood blinds under them to match the wooden beds.  I was able to reuse the custom table skirt on the round table between the two twin beds. 

I added floating shelves, purchased very reasonably at , and filled them with his books and treasures.  Previously emerald green walls were given a whole new look with 3 spools of wallpaper border hung at chair rail height with a rich purple paint underneath and a soft mocha above, which really brightened the room.

I was able to find a jungle-themed elephant border to compliment the rich paisley fabrics we’d previously used in the guest room.  And with the addition of an animal print area rug, we completed the exotic look. 

Nick and his friends think the room is so cool.  Though, honestly, I'm not sure they’ve even noticed the décor since the redecorating also included a TV and an X-Box.  However, all of his friends' moms' think it’s cool and my client is very happy.

Speaking of designer services, you don’t have to go as far as my client did on that last project I mentioned. If you are great at do-it-yourself projects, like the bachelor dad,  but just aren’t sure where to start and what to do first, by all means, hire a designer.  Ask around, get some references, and ask some questions.  There are many wonderfully talented designers in this area and you won’t have a hard time finding one.  It’s not as expensive as you may think and it’s worth every penny for the experience and creative vision.

Open your eyes and your creative mind to the possibilities of a 'shoestring shuffle' project.  Start with a small project that you know you can complete and GO FOR IT!  Have fun!