Coffee Table Decorating:

Ideas to freshen up your home.

Get rid of the clutter – it’s amazing what a difference it makes to a room to merely edit out excess junk and even furnishings.

Paint is one of the most economical ways to transform a room and one of the easiest home projects to tackle yourself. Try one of the new washable flat paints for a truly elegant look.

Replace all of your lampshades.

Have your sofa, tables, chairs and rugs professionally cleaned; often that’s all they need to look bright again. While you’re at it, have the windows washed.

Sometimes all that’s wrong with a sofa is the fabric. Buy fabric from a discount fabric outlet and have a new slipcover made. If you’re good with a sewing machine and a tape measure, you can even make it yourself; there are several books on the market that contain instructions on cutting and sewing slipcovers, such as The Reader’s Digest Complete Book of Home Decorating. You can also buy ready-made slipcovers that require only tucking and tying. A large quilt or duvet cover sometimes makes a good slipcover; tie a length of decorative cord or ribbon around the base of the sofa to keep the fabric in place. Or drape a smaller-size cover artfully on the diagonal, over the back and seats.

Create a family photo gallery: have the local photo store reprint a selection of your favourite family photos in black and white and frame them in inexpensive, identical frames with white mats. Frame cards, swatches of fabric, or squares of wallpaper in small, identical frames. A stylist’s trick is to hang them in groups of three or five.

Choose a decorating scheme that complements your home, one that you can afford and that you can develop as you go along. New ideas in decor seem to be nostalgic in nature, heralding back to other eras, from the Victorian period to the Gilded Age/Progressive Era and the Shaker period. The popularity of the movie, Titanic, has brought attention to the opulence and beauty of the era. These styles are a plus for you because furniture from these periods are typically smaller in scale and often easily available at good prices from flea markets, antique malls, re-sale shops, garage sales and estate sales.
 

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