Natwerk Designs

I need inexpensive creative ideas to perk up my new bland spec house.?

I am buying a spec house. It is very basic and bland. I haven't used the creative part of my brain for so long that I am having trouble coming up with ideas. I have been watching hgtv for the past few days and it all seems way over my budget. I have seen a few good ideas though. I have some pictures of the interior on my 360.yahoo.com/cky_1965 page of the kitchen, dining room, and living room. I also have a family room and billiards room to decorate once I finish sheet rocking it. I do not have furniture yet for the dining room and living room on the main level. The furniture I have for the family room is black leather. Was thinking about a black and white theme for the family room with some silver highlights. Any ideas would be greatly appriciated and links to pictures would be more appriciated. I am thinking about light pink, yellows, greens and blues for my baby girls room and blues or greens for my 9yo boys room. I have a limited budget of about 10,000 for decorating The kitchen, dining room, and living room are all open to each other so I'm guessing I should go with the same color scheme in each room but any ideas are appriciated. The pictures are on the blog

Public Comments

1. Paint is the easiest, cheapest and most dramatic fix. Watch Get Color on HGTV and pick up some booklets in the paint depts at Lowes and Home Depot.
2. Make sure you use the same floor thruout your open areas to make the transition from room to room smooth. Use nutral colorson walls & floors &counters. Add your splash of colors with items you can take with you when you move . (rugs, pictures,pillows etc.) Check out you local library for art work which can usually be rented for 2 months at a time. Great for kids rooms and they can pick out their own artwork each month or so. Garage & estate sales, also local auction house has great deals. resale shops now have high end merchandise in most styles at great prices. Enjoy!
3. For the open area you dont need to use the exact same color for all the rooms(kitchen, living, and diningroom) Use maybe different intensities of the same shade all around the house. Take into consideraton how much light that you get in to your house. I like the black and white idea but you need to have something to add a little punch or your room will seem a little dull and boring. What about a deep red or golden yellow to accent the room???( In accessories I'm talkin) For the little girls room I would do the yellow, pink and green combo. I did my little girls room purple, yellow and green each wall a different color and it looked really sharp. Hire me and I'll do your house for you!!
4. I have been a professional painter for 30 years. My work always got me more work; by word of mouth. You need to see each room as unique as the person who will be using that room. Black isn't a good color unless you use very little as a high light. Go to Lowes or Home Depot and look at the specialty paints. One idea is if your gonna use the color pink get some glaze of a different color and put on top of the pink with a roller then get a roll of plastic that will cover the entire wall ( top to bottom ) and around the whole room. Wrinkle the plastic with out a pattern and allow to set-up for 20 or 30 minutes then pull off plastic. These guys have all kinds of stuff that won't be hard to do. And paint each room in different styles and colors. It will add thousands of dollars value to your home. If you have problems I'm at macleodg7@ yahoo.com. So I know it's you writing make the subject Shady paint.
5. http://www.pier1.com Here re a few ideas that are really cheap- and will help give your hous ethat modern edge. bundles of grass on a mantle in a group of three. Get bunch of empty picture frames and make a collage on your wall out of them. take an old door and make it into a headboard- or tke pice of plywood cover it in batting buy material to cover it and staple gun it to make a headboard. make curtains our of ribbon tie each starnd until you have about 50 starnds all bunched up- great for kids rooms. wall art!- pier one has amazing stuff- check it out!
6. I would suggest for an open floor plan that you use one color on all the walls to unify the space. As far as fabrics I would look at a company that offers companion fabrics. These are fabrics that have the same exact colors only they allow you to mix and match different patterns such as plaids, stripes, and prints. You may want to pick one of the colors out of the fabric to go on the wall. Example stripe on dining room chairs, floral and checks in the living/family room area. Coordinating window treatment in kitchen. Good luck