New furniture is expensive. There are ways to add some style to your home by buying good, used furniture at garage sales and thrift stores. It’s also not as hard to do DIY furniture refinishing as you would think. Sometimes you can find—or create—some great treasures.
Ideas for Furniture Arrangement, Interior Decor, and Room Layout
First, we will address ways to arrange furniture and adjust the layout of rooms in your home to rejuvenate them, and make them feel more the way you want them to.
To Make Rooms Look Bigger, Move Furniture to the Center
There’s a way to make a bedroom or living area feel more spacious—do it the way interior design experts do. Just move the furniture into the middle of the room, creating floor space along your bedroom, living room, or family room’s walls. It’s a more modern design, and it will make a room feel larger.
Select Good Colors for your Furniture
This goes hand in hand with painting, but consider choosing a color palette for the room.
It’s a great idea to use complementary colors within the more formal rooms of your home. Yellow and blue, red and green, orange and purple are opposite on a traditional color wheel and are considered to be complementary. The method of choosing a color scheme is an effective way to present an appealing visual challenge.
Sub-Tip: Get Solid Color Furniture, Not Patterned
Avoid busy patterns on all recliners, sofas and chairs when you choose furniture for your home. If you choose a love seat with an elaborate floral print pattern, you just decided on your home decor in advance. Purchase furniture in solid colors like black, brown, blue or green, and use accessories to highlight the furniture. Patterns are easier to take in small doses such as blankets and toss pillows.
Free Up Floor Space by Mounting Televisions on Walls
An easy way to create more floor space in a room is to mount your television on the wall. Mounting a TV with a wall-mounted bracket can free up floor space from the no longer needed stand—or at the least, one can clear off space from whatever their TV was previously sitting on. This small improvement can take less than an hour, maybe 30 minutes, if the instructions are followed correctly.
Rearrange Furniture to Improve Your Home’s Feeling
For those who have never heard of feng shui, rearranging your furniture can have an impact on the “energy” of a room. This can make your home feel fresh and keep the air circulating in your home. This article can help your home find its “chi.”
Home Safety Tip: Protect Sharp Corners/Edges from Children
The sharp edges of furniture can be a hazard for younger children. Use padding around the edges of sharp furniture to keep it a kid-friendly zone and prevent any possible accidents. Corner protectors are available for this purpose at any home improvement center, or you can purchase foam tape to cushion corners. One of the things that you need to do when taking on a home improvement project is to fasten down loose wiring when working, to make sure your children are safe from a potential strangling hazard.
Use Floor Lamps to Free Up Surfaces in Your Home
A floor lamp can be a great addition to the room and free up valuable space on a nightstand or dresser. Floor lamps are a moveable option that allows you to change their location to suit your needs and leave extra space on your counter tops. Choose a fixture that accents the room or your taste.
Limit Furniture Per Room
Do not overload a room with too much furniture. An over-furnished room will feel much smaller than it really is. Although these pieces may fit your lifestyle, a potential buyer would most likely prefer to see more open living space. Fewer pieces of furniture will make the room seem bigger.
Ideas for Inexpensive Furniture
In this section, we’ll offer a few DIY affordable furniture tips. There’s a way to keep a low cost when furnishing an apartment, condo, or house. Some of these approaches might take a minimal amount of work, but they add a great touch to your home cheaply.
Save Money with Used Furniture
New couches and chairs are not cheap. Add a little extra flare to any apartment or room by shopping at local stores and thrift-markets that offer killer deals. Real treasures could be found among used items, such as furniture. Of course, some of the deals may need a little elbow grease before they are up to par, but this is a small price to pay.
Use Old Chests or Containers as Coffee Tables
Use a unique container for a coffee table instead of a regular table. An old trunk or chest look great in the center of a living room and provide storage, also. Throw your books, accessories and magazines on top in order to give definition to your coffee table. Try a tablecloth to give it color or teacups, for a nice country touch.
Use Luggage Racks as Side Tables
Your old luggage rack can be turned into an interesting side table for your living room. Just use a large piece of tempered glass or an attractively finished piece of wood to create a top. Be sure to secure it well with permanent adhesive. Place a collection of books and a favorite lamp on top to finish off the desired look.
Build Your Own Bed Frame and Headboard
If you’re a hard worker and are hoping to replace your bed set, you may want to try building bed furniture yourself. It is tough, but with effort and hard work, you can build something that is unique, customized just for you, and truly gorgeous.
Ideas for Making Furniture Look Better
In this final section, we offer a few suggestions for rejuvenating and repairing the furniture you already have in your house, condominium, or apartment.
Refinish Wood Furniture Yourself (Instead of Buying New Furniture)
Did you know it is very possible to bring your old furniture back to life just by sanding it down and refinishing it? If you choose to refinish your furniture yourself, you can often save the money you would have spent on new furniture. There are many color options to stain old furniture to give it a new look.
How to Fix Sagging Wooden Chair Seats
It is not unusual for chair caning to sag. There’s an easy way to revive the caning in your chairs. You can wet the bottom of the sagging cane with a sponge. Be sure the water isn’t too hot or too cold. Allow the water to sit on the caning for an overnight period. Do it again until you have the desired results.
Or, if you want to do DIY chair recaning from scratch, here is one pretty thorough guide.
How to Puff Up Flat Cushions
If you are using your cushions a lot, they will get flat. Rotate them and flip them to keep them from getting excessive wear and put them out in the sun on a pretty day. Doing this lets moisture evaporate from inside the fillings, and this reinstills some bounce. Remember to turn your cushions over while they are sitting in the sun. Don’t let them sit for hours, because sunlight does make colored fabric fade.
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Knowing how to manage the furniture in your living spaces creatively can save you a lot of money and make your apartment, condo, or house feel more like home.