Canvas can be bought at any arts and crafts store or in Multi packs at TT Art Supply for a great price.
Paper, Textiles & Paint
Room Makeovers on a Budget
Baby's Room
If your not sure if it's a boy or a girl, decorate with greens and yellows. If your already know or are doing a makeover the sky's the limit! Scrapbook paper comes in so many pastel colors and desings it will be very easy to match to any sheets or blankets.
Girls Room
Girls love pink. Pink, orange and green go very well together and create a stunning look.
Young Children's Room
Small children thrive with color. Primary colors go well with both girls and boys at the preschool/Kindergarten age. Because paper comes in so many varieties, you can use their favorite characters and playful rugs to create a theme they will love.
If you prefer inanimate objects, there are plenty of designs to choose from.
A Den or an Office
You probably don't want to redo the desk and furniture, but you can accessorize this room to match any decor using paper and pillows
Whatever you do with a Den or Office, make it FEEL adventurous and inspiring. You can also add black and white pictures that you print off the Internet and mount them on canvas or frame them. If you don't want to use live images, find land and city scapes.
Boys Room
After Finding Nemo, any boy will love fish in his room. You can play with many different blues to create an underwater theme.
Master Bedroom and Guest rooms
Whether you want a romantic escape or a bold one, you will find it easy to create a new look using the inexpensive techniques of paper, sheets, pillows and paint if needed. Create a collage on the wall with different papers using seperate canvases or one large one.
Bathrooms
Make small canvassed wall hangings or a trim or boarder on the wall of a bathroom to liven it up and make it refreshing. Accessorize with matching shower curtains, shells and other natural elements like plants and baskets. Bamboo is a wonderful material for the moist environment of a bathroom. Bamboo is widely used in tropical country's for it's ability to withstand high humidity.
Scrapbook paper is more sturdy and will hold better than regular paper in the steam. There is paper made from all kinds of fibers and even cloths. You may want to consider these for the bathroom. If not you can coat it with varnish or lacquer and even Elmer's glue to seal it.
Pre-Teen & Teen Rooms
Teens like bold colors and designs. They also want to live in their rooms, so they must be functional and provide good storage if you want them to keep it organized. Decoration is as important as storage space for a teen. You can do a flower, circles and stripe theme for a girl and a sports theme for a boy. Paint old furniture. I don't think you can understate the importance of a garbage bin for a teen. A stainless steal bin is great because it doesn't absorb odor like plastic. Be simple but creative!
To decorate any room in the house on a budget takes just a little imagination and a bit of creativity.
It's so easy anyone can do it. In fact I have done it in my girls room, using mounted paper (as explained here) and fabric to sew a matching sheet that is left uncovered with a folded blanket at the foot of the bed. I found this the easiest way for my girls to keep their beds organized. I also made matching pillows. All for less than $100. Paintings alone would have cost me over $50 each! The samples here show how a room is pulled together beautifuly using these simple techniques! We loaded each room with specific, practical tips made to last.
Scrapbook Paper
Scrapbook paper has a new use! You can mount it on Canvas board or even cover one wall or create a trim or boarder with it!
Scrapbook paper comes in so many styles, designs and colors that you can find any combination of designs and colors to compliment sheet sets and blankets.
The best thing is if you rent, you can tear it down easily or take it with you if you mount it on boards like Canvas. At between .25cents - .75cents a sheet you can't go wrong.
To mount - buy 12 x12 inch canvas and paper. Affix to canvas or foam-core board using spray adhesive. It will look like real paintings. Although optional, you can coat the mounted paper with varnish or lacquer for a lasting and shiny finish. Create collages using different papers for the most stunning look!
Sheets or Fabric
Use sheets or if you sew you can use fabric to coordinate the colors in a room and make simply sewn curtains for a budget room that will look like a designer came and did it!
Scrapbook paper comes in a huge variety of designs. Paper from Scraps that Smile
Click to enlarge picture to see a sample of mounted paper on a wall.
The great thing about this project is that for those of us who do not want to use living images, we have a vast number of choices available in paper to create lovely rooms that don't compromise those beliefs.
You can coat the mounted paper with varnish, lacquer and even Elmer's glue for a lasting and shiny finish.
