The Rural Voice, 2001-09, Page 55Home Decorating
Looking at decorating on a tight budget
By Patti Robertson
Each year I participate in the co-
operative education program through
a number of the local high schools,
and as a result I've met several
interesting students and assisted them
with career decisions. Many decide
that being an interior designer is not
for them (It's not what it appears to
be!)
The students travel with me on
design consultations, drapery and
window treatment installations, and I
put their creative talents to work in
selecting fabrics and wallcoverings
and of course paint selections, plus
we discuss and debate artwork and
accessories and furniture groupings
and layouts for projects in the works!
Most valuable of all to these
young followers, I feel, are the
"hands on" projects that are often
happening in and around my own
home and studio, particularly if there
is a budget to be considered.
Uppermost in my mind is the fact that
these kids will no doubt be off to
college next and their first home
away from home, and of course then
the budgeting really begins and for
the majority of us, the budgeting
exercise continues on throughout our
lives!
Such was the case when I
undertook to redecorate one of my
daughters' bedrooms which was
definitely looking tired and in need of
freshening up! Judy Bondi was my
co-op student at the time and I knew
this would be a great project for her
to be involved with. We started by
setting a budget of $500 (this is very
tight by today's standards, but there
were several good areas within the
room and with my kids only home
approximately six times per year, it
was what I decided to start with). So
Judy and I took stock of all that was
working and what would positively
need to be replaced.
In our favour was the fact that the
rose -toned carpet was very new and
in beautiful condition, the cross -hatch
wallcovering featuring a miniature
rose and vine design in rose and
green tones was still in relatively
good shape other than a little patching
and a couple of seams that needed to
be re -glued: The furniture of antique
vintage, in French white was certainly
fine, as was the venetian blind but the
white wicker headboard was looking
dated and the bedspread and shams
had certainly seen better days,
although the bed linens in a
ministripe featuring rosebuds and
vines were new and worked perfectly
with the
wallcovering.
The window
treatment
definitely
needed to be
tossed out. As
well the
accessories
needed a
facelift, so we
had a "work
list".
After some
discussion both
Judy and I
agreed that this
room would be
immediately updated if we added a
wrought iron headboard in a
Verdigris colouration. So we started
investigating and within very short
order we discovered that the styles we
preferred were all over the $500 mark
and our budget would be blown.
Undaunted we kept looking and in
our travels we found a "bed in a bag"
combo that would be smashing in this
room. It featured a large cabbage rose
pattern in roses, mulberry and light
greens on a spruce green background.
The package included the comforter,
bedskirt, shams, plus bed linens in a
co-ordinating plaid design. (The
linens could not touch the quality of
the existing sheets, so we set those to
one side to begin.) This set cost
$89.99 plus taxes, so we had a start.
The next day I was studying the
combo in the room's setting when 1
made a major breakthrough in our
project. I quickly called Judy and,
together, we discussed my discovery.
I said "Judy, how can you tell the
headboard is wicker?" Her reply,
"well mostly because it's painted
white and shaped like a wicker
headboard".
Precisely correct, but if you truly
looked at the styling and saw past the
white you soon realized that the
curling style was very similar to that
of a wrought iron headboard. So.
what if we faux finished the existing
headboard to resemble Verdigris
wrought iron? Voila! for about $30
plus time and innovative layering we
had our headboard.
Another shopping trip and we
found a great wrought iron bedside
table for about $25. We added some
fringe to a lampshade at the cost of
$10. We incorporated the plaid bed
linens into a table skirt for the made
up vanity, and used it also as part of
the accent banding along the window
treatment which we had custom made
from a lightweight white linen at the
cost of approximately $175.
For accessories we decided to
incorporate vintage sepia -toned
photographs of family members and
by -gone days. Now that the room no
longer had to be "childproofed", we
incorporated some tine china pieces,
vases, trinket boxes, candleholders,
etc. (better these pieces are out on
display to be enjoyed, than tucked
away unseen). All of these little bits
and pieces heightened the room's
charm immeasurably.
So, the work completed, all repairs
mended, all the accessories in place,
our final tally was $545.65 — not far
above our targeted budget.
Reinventing the headboard
definitely was our "coup de grace"
along with incorporating all that was
in good order and working with the
existing colour scheme — yet
transforming it from roses with a little
green, to incorporate a much greater
quantity of green hues we got a
totally "new look". Of course using
accessories on hand and creatively
updating others to be incorporated
also went a long way with our
budgeting.
Our best stimulus was the "bed in
a bag" as it set the project on the
correct theme within the appropriate
colour scheme. So both Judy and I
learned a lot from this adventure in
budget decor. Budgeting a decor is
always a challenge, but with
planning, perseverance and quite a lot
of leg work it's usually not only
successful but also very satisfyin4g.0
Patti Robertson operates Classic
Interiors in Wingham.
SEPTEMBER 2001 51