At Home With Merle
Spending Less
Many homeowners ask how they can spend less to accomplish a room makeover. At House of Oak & Sofas we offer five great ways to freshen up without buying new furniture.
- Paint — We don’t sell paint, but we help many customers pick just the right color to give a room that fresh new look!
- Window treatments — from shades to full blown drapes, fabric will soften the feel of the room and add interesting color and pattern.
- Reupholster — covering one or two pieces of furniture can be a great way to add some fresh “pop” to your room.
- Accessories — simply replacing the tired old discount store picture that has hung above your sofa over the past 10 years with a fresh, new color and feel can be a great way to add new life to your home.
- Rugs — the finishing touch in many rooms. Think of it as the scarf or tie that complements an almost perfect outfit.
Paint
One of the quickest ways to change the feel of a room is to add a coat of paint. Currently many homeowners are discovering the power of color in their homes and any paint store can show you stunning examples of the difference a color makeover can accomplish. Better yet, some stores now sell sample size paint bottles where you can actually paint a section of the wall (we often do tests on poster board to eliminate the problem of covering over the test spot) and then view it over a 24-hour period to see how the color resonates with you and your family. Don’t forget to study your color choice in the different lighting choices that affect the room such as daylight, morning light, evening light, and artificial lighting. Remember too that the increased popularity of fluorescent lighting might affect the room. Whereas the early versions of fluorescent lighting for the home produced cool blue tones, manufacturers are now producing bulbs that have the desired warm yellow tones that make our homes feel cozy. Finally, don’t be afraid to use two colors in the same room. Using two tones of the same color family can be a great way to add life to the room. Be creative with your contrast color. One of the more exciting uses of paint I discovered in the past year was a little girl’s room where the pink walls were accented with large white polka dots along the bottom three feet of the wall. This coordinated perfectly with the custom bedding our store had fabricated for the room.
As I mentioned above, we don’t sell paint in our store: we do help other stores sell a lot of paint.
Window Treatments
Like all areas of fashion, window treatment styles and colors are constantly evolving. A customer who has one failed blind will soon find out that the blinds of twenty years ago are seldom available for replacement purposes. Of course, blinds that have served the homeowner for that long a time, are often difficult to clean and no longer add a fresh appearance to the room.
The trend in window treatments today is minimalist. From solar, to roman and fabric, all types of shades are popular since they cover a minimum area of the window while at the same time adding aesthetic appeal. Solar shades are popular since they shade the room and offer a view at the same time. Roman shades give a chance to add fabric pattern to the room. Often a homeowner can get stuck with too many solid tones in a room. Solid patterns on walls, floors and sofas do add the efficiency of making it simple to pick a new piece of furniture, but too many solid tones can become boring. A window shade or drapery can add just the right touch of pattern and color to excite the occupants. Imagine a room decorated in solid tones of ice blue and brown (a popular color combination) and then throwing an area rug into the room that has a bold pattern of white and brown, or brown and ice blue. Maybe a stylized flower on a solid background or a geometric pattern mixing the two colors -- either option would add a new vitality to the room. At House of Oak & Sofas we can guide and inspire you with a variety of choices for your windows. From inexpensive solar shades to full scale automated window treatments, we offer a wide selection. Our most recent addition to our window treatment lineup is a complete line of ready-made drape panels with a starting price of $50. Stop in any take a look today and see how simple it is to bring new zest into your home.
Reupholster Anything
Whether it is a simple matter of upholstering the seats of your dining room chairs, a footstool, the 15-year-old sofa or a headboard, the workroom at House of Oak & Sofas keeps busy helping our customers freshen their homes. Our design center has 50,000 fabric choices in their collection, and we offer special discounts when customers need more than 6 yards of one fabric. We can do pricing over the internet or phone as long as we have a picture of the piece and rough dimensions. Once the order is placed, fabric is ordered and then the piece of furniture is either picked up or the customer brings to the store. One of the most exciting new pieces of upholstery we sold in the past month was an upholstered king headboard from the Candice Olson collection. Once delivered, the bold blue, black and gray designs on white background motivated the customer to repaint the wall behind the headboard. I often make that recommendation in a master bedroom. The contrast paint on the bed wall will focus the eye. That simple solution will give the room a more organized appearance.
Accessories
There’s nothing new about the fact that a few exciting accessories can change the overall feel of a room just like the perfect piece of jewelry or a new hat can change the feel of an old outfit. While lamps or throws can have a functional affect as well, wall art often adds the most impact in a room. Remember if you have many small accessories, whether pictures or collectibles, that grouping them together will make them more interesting. If you have a collection of twelve family photographs, they will look much better grouped together on one wall or one console top rather than being spread throughout the room. There is a trend now to have fewer accessories with each one being larger and making a more powerful statement. A family heirloom piece of furniture can often serve as an accessory while it almost beckons the visitor to ask if the piece has special meaning for the homeowner. Accessories are one of the best places to use bold accent colors. Imagine using a deep turquoise colored vase as opposed to a shiny chocolate brown bowl as an accessory in the ice blue and brown room we described above, and you will start to sense how the accent pieces will influence your décor.
Rugs
Finally, we come to my favorite way to influence the décor of your room. Buy a new area rug. Whether it is due to the tactile influence, as in a soft rug under the kitchen table, the focusing quality that a 5x8 rug adds when placed in front of your sofa, or the softness that a long shag or yarn rug can add to an otherwise hard-edged bathroom, area rugs are the homeowner’s best decorating friend. The latest trend is toward more solid colors with fat, chunky yarns. Great for leathers or any solid patterned sofa, these “in-your-face” fabrics say “look at me” at the same time as they serve the touch and viewing senses. Don’t forget that area rugs add organization to otherwise open spaces. Imagine a wood or carpet floored great room that serves as family, dining and playroom with large expanses of flooring in one color. Now imagine a carefully chosen rug under the dining table, a second in front of the sofa, and finally another where the children’s toys accumulate. The area rugs become islands that mark the different spaces and give the eye a place to rest and breathe when observing the overall feel of the room. Bring your photographs, room sizes and associated fabrics, if possible, and we will be happy to help you choose rugs from the thousands we have available.
Conclusion
There you go. I think these are the five best ways to improve your home without buying new furniture. Of course, all these tips apply equally when you do buy new furniture also. We look forward to seeing you next time at House of Oak & Sofas and always appreciate comments and suggestions about “At Home with Merle” articles. Send us a picture of your most recent home improvement!
Keep sending me questions about your decorating problems — direct them to merle@houseofoak.com.
