ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 31, 1996 TAG: 9604050011
SECTION: BETTER HOMES PAGE: BH-30 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: JOANNE ANDERSON
With a little budget and some imagination, you can dress up a room, change a color scheme or create a new mood or visual point with a couple of the 104 ideas here.
Consider the four main components of a room: the ceiling, floor, walls and windows. You add furniture, lighting and accessories.
While the kitchen is the most expensive room in the house, most of the decorating money is often spent for the living room, often more for appearances than function and enjoyment.
Put your money into rooms you use often and make them comfortable and useful. After all, you live in the house. Others only visit for a short time.
There are many approaches to renovation, and the two most popular seem to be "plan ahead" and "plunge ahead."
In the plan-ahead mode you evaluate the room, sketch the space, plan what you want, move things around a little, put up some wallpaper or color samples, shop around and generally plot your purchases and their placement before doing anything to the space.
The plunge-ahead option starts out with serious action - tearing down wallpaper, ripping up carpeting, peeling up countertops. There's some sense of satisfaction in moving so fast, and it forces the issue because you can't live with the disarray.
Think about maintenance of a room when you're considering making major changes in a room. If you're hanging plant hooks, pictures or a pot rack, be sure to use appropriate hardware for safely anchoring everything. When you paint or stain, protect everything and have good ventilation. Read instructions FIRST, along with assembling all tools and materials.
CEILING
Paint clouds or stars
Stencil something
Add all white three-dimensional borders
Put a wallpaper border around it
Hang a plant or mobile or lamp on a chain
Replace ceiling light covers with a brass trimmed globe
Install a ceiling fan
Put up track lighting
Attach fake beams
Install a skylight
Attach ceiling moldings and paint accent color
WALLS
Paint one or all walls a new color
Wallpaper one wall
Put up a wallpaper border at top or around middle
Create family photo section
Add a mirror or a section of mirrors
Install soft wall lights for accent
Wire artist's lamp above a painting
Hang a quilt
Put up a basket flat on one side and put ivy plant inside
Paint a brick fireplace
Re-paint, strip or add a mantle
Scrape and re-grout tile
Pick out new switchplates and coverplates for outlets
Paint or install new railing on stairways
Hang a clock
Stencil a scene, paint a mural
Make and hang a plate rack or shadowbox
Re-frame pictures, make grouping of odd number things
Put up sconces and new candles
Add bookcase strips and new shelves or paint old ones
Mount little shelf
Paint panelling
New towel racks, rings
Hang dried flower wreath or swag
Paint the trim or just the door
Convert a closet to study nook or computer corner
Put up hooks on backs of doors
Install fancy hooks for dried flowers or collectibles
FLOORS
Tear up carpet
Put down carpet
Re-arrange rugs, buy new area rugs
Change mood with hooked rugs or southwest design rugs
Buy huge area rug remnant
Stencil squares
Clean, sand, oil floors
Install linoleum squares
Paint a few tiles
Turn rugs on angles
WINDOWS
Make new curtains, valance, or ribbon tiebacks
Buy fancy window shades
Scrape paint and old grout on both sides and clean the glass
Install new brass latches, lifts and hinges
Move air-conditioner unit below window
Install shelf inside for plants
Put window box outside with flowers, herbs or houseplants
Replace old screens
Stencil or put wallpaper border around a window
FURNITURE
Replace knobs and hardware
Paint wood dresser different colors
Refinish a rocker
Mix upholstery and wood pieces
Paint appliances
Decoupage a small table top
Have bathtub and sink resurfaced
Turn furniture on angles
Make furniture symmetrical for sense of order
Buy piece of glass or re-finish nice piece of wood for table top and put it on sewing machine pedestal, lobster trap or large ceramic piece
Put photographs and ticket stubs on desk or table top and cover with glass
Add slipcovers to upholstered pieces
Buy chair cushions for wood chairs
Install new faucets and handles
LIGHTING
Install dimmer switches for overhead lighting
Put three-way lamps at reading areas
Plug in a fancy night light nMake new lampshades
Spray paint a lamp
Put a fluorescent light under cabinets
Buy a grow light and start a wee garden spot
Polish chandeliers
Wire lamps to wall switches
ACCESSORIES
Put functional things in place: calendar, clock, desk accessories
Groupings should be odd in number
Buy an interesting telephone
Add round decorator table and cloth
Make lots of throw pillows
Replace a fireplace screen and tools
Add a footstool
Put up a new shower curtain
Scatter small boxes on accent tables
Show off old books with nice bindings
Put plants in baskets, brass or ceramic pots
Add a tree for height and drama
Place moss on top of plants for softer look
Press and frame leaves and flowers
Mat and frame a nice patterned piece of paper
Use vases of silk or fresh flowers in couple places
Hang decorative plates
Group candlesticks of varying heights with couple different colors of candles
Display tea cup collection
Oil and hang old tools
Put fishing rods over doorways
Hang old linens from ladder rungs
Buy new door knobs
LENGTH: Long : 262 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: JOANNE ANDERSON. Stenciling dressed up Lisa White'sby CNBkitchen in her home in the Prices Fork area of Montgomery County.