Designer Short-Cuts With the Biggest Impact
Experts share must-try living room ideas on a budget.
1. Pillow Hack
Cindi MacPherson, co-owner of The Interior Partners in Atlanta, offers this way to save on pillows in a chic living room. Use patterned fabric, which may be more expensive, on the front of the pillow. Then buy cheaper fabric in a solid color for the back of the pillow, which is often hidden on a couch.
2. Tile Tip
This model home’s fireplace is wrapped floor to ceiling in expensive marble. The same clean look can easily be achieved with an inexpensive plank-sized porcelain tile, says Atlanta interior designer Michael C. Morris with Monte Hewett Homes.
3. Creating Contrast
If you don’t have a large budget, you want to make sure your purchases are noticed. To do so, Atlanta interior designer Michael C. Morris suggests contrasting your floors and furniture. In a model home in metro Atlanta's Avalon community, he uses light paint and furniture to stand out against medium brown red oak floors.
4. Chalk It Up
Gabriela Eisenhart and Holly Conlan with WAKE + LOOM Design found an affordable solution for clients who did not have the budget to rip out their outdated fireplace tile from the 1980s. They chalk painted it instead, using Farmhouse Paint. "It gave it a great modern feel for very little money spent," Eisenhart says.
5. Narrow It Down
Changing the paint may seem like a no-brainer, but to save even more money while bringing new impact to a room, repaint only a feature wall or a ceiling, suggests Atlanta designer Alice Cramer.
6. Illuminate It
Although this cabinet and its accessories are a splurge item in an Atlanta condo, designer Michael Habachy says people on any budget should use low lighting, such as lamps, to illuminate treasures, cheap or expensive. “It adds ambience and doesn’t have to cost a lot,” he says.
7. Use the Windowsills
In small areas, especially with a view, designers like Michael Habachymaximize built-in spaces like windowsills to display accessories that don’t detract from the view. You may not need to buy a console table or side table as a result.
8. Reuse and Restyle
Don’t blow the budget on furniture such as a chest, console or end table of your dreams. Instead, style existing furniture with objects that have an interesting shape and texture, and take cues from the style of the room. Scale is always important, says Atlanta designer Alice Cramer. Ensure your lamp and accessories don’t overpower, but complement, the piece of furniture.
9. Paint Trick
Painting the walls, bookshelves and built-in bars the same color is an easy way to create a cohesive look and visually expand a space that is small or has odd angles. Atlanta designer Julie Montgomery painted this room gray, which created a rich color palette without feeling dark.
10. Small Doses of Color
When budget is a factor, select furniture in a netural palette and let smaller items like flowers, plants and pillows bring in color, says Atlanta interior designer Ili Hidalgo-Nilsson with Terracotta Design Build. Potted plants add a softness and organic touch. With a bit of care, they can last for a long time.
11. Fresh Look
Musical instruments don't have to be relegated to a practice space or bedroom. Atlanta-based Terracotta Design Build made the bongos part of the decor for a musician's living room. Think of ways to integrate objects associated with hobbies and favorite pastimes into your decor.
12. Smart Accessorizing
Instead of placing a group of decorative balls in a bowl—a common move in decorating—save money by buying only two or three objects instead of an entire set. Then place them on the same table, but in different areas.
13. Rustic Redo
Reuse and recycle. Athens Building Co. transformed an old cable spool it found on a farm for a bar height table in a rustic guest cottage in rural Georgia.
14. Reflect the Surroundings
Designers use mirrored tables to make rooms seem larger and to add points of interest due to their reflective qualities. Mirrored elements make such an impact that you can buy smaller pieces to save money.
15. Lower-Cost Lighting
Lamps are a necessary item, but are also an area where Atlanta designer Devon Garner believes you can save money. Her client liked a pair of unique-shaped lamps that cost $800 each and would need to be special ordered, but Garner found these new at a home discount store for less than $60 each.
16. Quick Cover-Up
Even when you have a piece of furniture in a style that may not work with the rest of the room, you don't have to buy a new piece. Instead, if the wood is similar to other furniture, designer Devon Garner uses a long table runner and decorates with accessories that draw attention to the top. The copper pieces were new, but she used a runner and sculpture that belonged to the homeowner.
17. Touch Up Your Table
Designers Lance Jackson and David Ecton with Parker Kennedy Living used the homeowner's existing coffee table, but to get this look, you can take a coffee table that you own or find a rectangle-shaped table at a yard sale or consignment shop, then repaint the outer edge in gold.
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