frugal
Frugal Home Design – “There’s an App For That”
So, you’re sitting in your favorite easy chair and the home decorating bug bites you. It’s time to stop procrastinating and paint that room or hang that picture.
But, as soon as the bug bites, you begin to feel its sting, because now you have to leave that cushy comfy easy chair and hit the hardware store to get the supplies you need.
Well this is your lucky day because – “There is an App for That”!
Say you want to paint the room, but you are unsure of the color. If you have a cell phone that supports Internet applications then snuggle back in and find your color through that fabulous phone!
Yes, there is an amazing App that will take you from general colors to the specific color hues, so you end up with just the right color combination for that home decorating paint project.
To get started of course you must first download the App (it’s only $1.99) and then start by creating a file for the room you want to paint. Next, you touch the screen and begin browsing through every color under the sun as they scrolls by based on the selected and related coordinated pallet collections.
Touch the colors you like and drag them to a work area to manipulate them to see how they look together. Once the choice has been made, the App will identify color names and the manufactures (from the top 6 in the industry) and you’re done.
No more hours wasted starring at the color swatch sampler wall at the home improvement store.
So, what if your home decorating inspiration is a simple wall shelf or art hanging project, but once again, you are short a ruler, level or plumb bob to get the shelf level and the display plumb. No worries because “There’s an App For That”!
This little App is super cool (also $1.99). It contains 5 handy home decorating tools: plumb bob, bubble level, steel protractor, ruler and a surface level. Inaccurate, eyeball measurements is a thing of the past. These tools are now as close as your phone and they are so fun you’ll want to dig up everything and anything to hang, just to play with this addictive little toy.
The ball moves, the plumb bobs and when you get it “just right” it will beep with smug satisfaction. These measuring tools look and feel amazingly real. It leaves you feeling like you are not using your phone at all – You gotta try it.
So, where can find these “must have” home decorating Apps? – []…
Bright Ideas For Lamps and Lamp Shades For Frugal Home Decorating
It’s not the light of the lamp that brings out the best in illumination, it’s the lamp and lampshade. Here are some simple frugal home design lamp ideas to give that old lighting standard a new look. Let’s start with the shade: Did you know you can paint most any fabric and paper shade with either a commercial spray paint or a home made spray paint application? The home made formula consists of 1 part paint (latex or craft) to 10 parts water. Measure the parts based on the size of a standard plastic spray bottle. All you need to do is choose your color and apply it in one or all of these decorative applications.
– Tape off diagonal lines or stripes with painter’s tape. -Create some basic stencils creating your own designs or browsing your local craft store. -Instead of spraying on paint, apply the paint with a sea sponge to give it an entirely different look.
Be sure your shade is dusted before you get started so the paint will adhere solidly. All paint aside, another way to give that shade a fresh designer look is to apply dark paper silhouettes to the inside of a lighter shade. Create a seasonal lamp shade accent by changing the shape as appropriate. For example, place stars or Christmas tree silhouettes during the Holiday season. Rabbits or egg shapes will look just right for Easter. Simple floral leaves, stems, and any shape you might need can be downloaded from free click art web sites.
Be sure you don’t allow the loosely tacked silhouette which is taped to the inside of the lamp shade be too close to the light bulb. Now let’s take a look at the base of your lamp. Here is where creativity is unlimited. It’s simple to create a lamp base out of almost any sturdy 3 dimensional shape:
Yard Sale Vases
Large Soup Mugs
Bowls turned upside down
Terra Cotta pots
Books That have been glued together in a horizontal stack
Wooden boxes with your decoupaged touch
Teapots
Antique Bottles
Anything!
Most of your home made bases will need a hole drilled at the bottom or on the side to run the cord down and through. Unless you have an old lamp shoved in storage somewhere that you can take apart and reinstall to your new lamp, you will need to purchase an inexpensive store lamp kit. This kit provides all the hardware and electrical parts you need to put your lamp together.
The other tried and true frugal home design option to resurrecting a lamp is to paint the base. Here again the choice of application is really up to you. Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing:
Guild
Decoupage
Etch
Stencil
Add colors that accent wall art
The most important point to remember when planning to paint your lamp, is to buy paint that is suited specifically for the the type of object; glass paint for glass, metal for metal, …