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Small Changes
Casa Quickie: Wallpaper a Nook
One small change you can make that will cost only the cost of a roll of wallpaper (if that) is simply to wallpaper a nook, rather than an entire room or even a whole accent wall in your home. Christiana Coop of Ferm Living shared images on her blog of a San Francisco apartment styled by Eden & Eden's Rachel Eden. Rachel chose to wallpaper one wall in a small nook of the otherwise predominantly white-walled apartment with Ferm Old News Wallpaper ($94) behind an industrial, stainless steel cabinet.
Cool Idea: A Damask Makeover
Melissa from Sugar City Journal recently made a small change to her staircase that carries a huge visual impact. She scanned a damask fabric into the computer, then digitally enhanced it in PhotoShop. After printing the pattern on paper, she glued the sheets together, laminated them, and then used Modgepodge to glue them to her stairs.
Before and After: From Awkward Corners to Splendid Shelves
DIYer Paul Smith spent several weekends constructing shelves for the odd, recessed space on either side of his fireplace. He cut wood to size, drilled, glued, clamped, and painted, and came up with something amazing. Here's what it looked like about halfway through the project.
Casa Quickie: A Low-Budge Rug
If you're dismayed by the prices of accent rugs these days, or just looking for an inexpensive solution to pull a room together while you look for the perfect one, I have the answer to your problem-o. Stop by a cheap home furnishing store (Ikea, Bed Bath & Beyond, a local outlet) and pick up two or three small cotton rugs, which you can find for $2 to $10. Then, tape or stitch them together to create a larger accent rug, which would normally cost you upwards of $100.
How-To: Make Changes That Don't Cost a Thing
I've offered you some inspirational small changes that involve switching out hardware or painting an accent wall, but you don't have to spend money to see some big results! Take a look at my list of ways you can improve your home without spending a dime.
- Start a collection.
Su Casa: Show Me Your Casa! Show Me Your Garden!
Do you have some small changes to show off? Or maybe they're big changes, like Jessamae22's first (very successful!) season as a gardener.
Show off all of your home updates in my group on TeamSugar called Su Casa, where readers can share snapshots and stories related to home decorating, crafts, organizing, and gardening.
Cool Idea: Fabric Panels Frame a Bed
Natalie of Technology Drive hung fabric panels adjacent to her bedside table "to enclose the bed area so it didn't feel like it was floating between the living room door and the open closet/hall." This small change successfully delineated bed, giving it a cozy, canopy-bed-like feeling, but is actually a really simple project. It's also a really attractive update; the cherry-blossom pattern of her fabric panel brings an interesting visual element to an otherwise simple room.
Su Casa: A Coveted Closet Renovation
What girl doesn't long for a big walk-in closet? Well, Haze decided to make that longing a reality when she and her husband remodeled the child's room, located directly off of their master bedroom, and turned it into a walk-in closet. This is definitely much more than a small change, and I admire Haze's hard work and impressive results!
Casa Quickie: Switch Out Your Hardware
Since it's Small Changes month, I'm a huge proponent of any simple fix-ups that make a huge visual impact on a room. One of these is switching out your hardware, be it finials on your curtain rods and lamps, knobs or handles on your cabinets and drawers, shower curtain loops, switchplates, coat rack hooks, or the numbers on the front of your house. Particularly if you're renting, and have little flexibility in terms of adding color to your walls or updating old appliances, reassessing your hardware situation can really help you personalize your home.
Cool Idea: Ever-Open Laundry Bag
I spotted this neat trick on Martha Stewart and was once again impressed with all the clever things you can do with an embroidery hoop! Here, Martha has transformed a traditional, hanging, drawstring laundry bag into an ever-open one by tightening a large embroidery hoop at least 14" in diameter around it. This keeps the bag open so you don't have to wrangle with it, but still allows you to hang it, keeping it off of the floor and at eye level.
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