Here are some tips that apply to many of the homes we have visited.
You may find some useful in your own home!

1. If you’re planning to paint the exterior of your house, use a different colour for your front door. The garage should blend into the house, and your front door should stand out. Don’t repeat your front door colour anywhere else on the house.

2. Can’t figure out how to arrange your furniture? Consider angling some of the pieces, in effect “ignoring” where the walls are. Angling furniture can actually make a room appear larger! Or, if everything is pushed back against the walls, pull it all in, creating tighter groupings of furniture.

3. Change the cabinet knobs and pulls in your kitchen, laundry room, and bathrooms for a quick, inexpensive change that makes a big impact.

4. Go dimmer crazy in your home. You can’t have too many dimmers, and they give you much greater flexibility when lighting a space. Nothing jars the senses like too-bright lighting!

5. Having trouble removing the gooey price stickers from the mirrors or artwork you just brought home? Try nail polish remover. Works like a charm.
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6. For a cheap way to add oomph to puny baseboards, install a ½ round trim piece an inch or two above the existing baseboard, to achieve an overall height of at least 4”. Then, paint the existing baseboard, the ½ round, and the bit of wall in between, all in your trim colour, and voila, instant beefed-up baseboards!

7. Replace the matching throw pillows that came with your sofa with new ones in stronger colours and patterns. This is an inexpensive way to add zip to a room.

8. In a child’s room, hang wallpaper borders just above the baseboards (instead of at ceiling height) so your child can enjoy it.

9. Let your kids choose their own paint colour for their room. They have no fear of colour like adults do. If their choice makes you too nervous, make the kids happy by painting just the wall where the door to the room is. This way, you won’t have to look at the colour every time you walk by the room, and the kids still get to enjoy it.

10. Frame your kids’ artwork and display it in your home. It’s an inexpensive alternative to gallery art, and the effect may surprise you. And, it’s a great ego boost for your kids to see their artwork somewhere other than on the fridge door.
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11. When deciding on new window treatments, consider your house from the outside. Pink drapes in the living room, blue blinds in Junior’s bedroom upstairs and wood mini blinds in the upstairs guest room can look disjointed and odd from the street. Try to stick with a similar style and colour for any windows that can be seen from the same angle. If you want different colour draperies in each room, have them all lined in white or cream colour fabric for continuity.

12. Don’t have a green thumb? Invest in silk or even freeze dried plants. Some of the ones available today are more beautiful than the real thing. Also, they never droop or lean towards the sun, and they never need watering!

13. Take a picture of the room you’re thinking of changing. Sometimes, looking at a photo of a room you live in every day helps you see the room with different eyes, and it can become easier to decide what needs changing.

14. If you have a mirror over your fireplace, take a look at what is being reflected. If it’s the ceiling, try hanging the mirror so the top angles away from the wall.

15. Thinking of adding a large armoire to a room, or perhaps an island in your kitchen? Try stacking a couple of large boxes in the spot where you want to put the armoire, and see if you like how it “feels.”
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16. Move the pictures and artwork around in your home for a fresh look. You may be pleasantly surprised by the big impact such a small change can make!

17. Painting the room a dark colour? Spend a couple of extra dollars on your primer, and ask them to tint it to your wall colour. This can save you a coat of paint later on, and will also add more depth to the finish colour.

18. What are the biggest things you can do to impact the look of a room? Colour and lighting! Colour can be paint, pillows, or a throw, and lighting can be lamps, potlights or candles, but these two things can make a huge impact on a space.

19. When selecting paint colour or fabrics, take home a colour chip or fabric swatch to view it in the light of your home. Sometimes what looks great in the store may look off when you get home!

20. Feeling a little overwhelmed at where to begin? Book an appointment with Wow! Great Place, and we’ll help you see your space in a whole new way!
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