Part Deux - Making your house your happy place...

art Deux, if you missed part one, read the prior entry here.

Anyway so there are just a few basic things that every rooms needs to go from sad to glad. In the white rooms I featured in the previous post they were relatively simple and uncomplicated rooms. So part one really is GET RID OF THE CLUTTER. Please, for the love of Mike, throw some stuff away, give it away, sell it, whatever, but get rid of it. This is the number one killer in most houses. And it happens to the best of us, even if you aren't a pack rat, you can collect too much stuff. Really look at what you have. Do you really NEED it? Does it make you happy to look at it? So that's really the first thing. If you have a bunch of piles of stuff or boxes of stuff or surfaces drowning in stuff, it's never really going to look good. You can't paint, or decorate in any way that will make it look better than just getting rid of crap.

But now that you've de-cluttered there are just a few other basic things to focus on. And we're going to assume for purposes of this post that you aren't going to paint, either because you can't (renting), or because you are honestly are terrified to chose a color besides the white or the beige that you already have.

The number one thing that can save your room is artwork. Seriously. Look at all these inspiring images of artwork that can make your room look fab. These are all CHEAP, no expensive artwork here at all. (and can I please prevail on those of you who keep putting up the same artwork that everyone has? PLEASE I cannot bear to see another George Washington praying)
okay lots of people do have this poster, so I'm kind of contradicting myself right from the get-go. But I don't find it nearly as obnoxious as the ubiquitous George Washington. This is totally inexpensive and can be found in a million places on the internet, most notably etsy. And etsy is an awesome source for inexpensive artwork. Check it out.

ignore the somewhat expensive looking furniture here and just pay attention to the wall, do you know what that is? Those cool abstracts? It's SCRAPBOOK PAPER. Seriously. How genius and cheap is that?


Lucky for us, the estate of Andy Warhol has licensed a huge amount of his work for mass production and inexpensive poster purchasing, once you frame it, it looks great.

This is just a huge photo blown up onto a canvas. A great source for these is a place like imagekind. If you have photos that you yourself took and love, you can do this relatively inexpensively at a reputable camera shop/photo processing store where you live. Here in Phoenix Photomark/Colormark on McDowell is great. (and hey, don't forget, some of my photos are available on imagekind too...you know, just in case you want to help support a budding photography hobby)



okay know what we have here? This is fabric from Ikea. Super super cheap-o but looks really good! Covers a huge amount of space and makes a statement without breaking the bank.


Stencils, a few pieces of wood board, or little canvas and you have this look for next to nothing. How simple, but how great!

This takes a smidge more skill to do it yourself, but really, it's just a big stencil.

Another poster I love.

This is just a reproduction purchased at a museum. This is probably one of the more expensive things in this post, but really, still all considered, not that bad. Another great place to look is second-hand stores. I got a cool madonna and child by Renoir a few weeks ago at a second-hand place for a few dollars.


This is just a paper collage! How great is this idea? So simple, yet so cute.
This is just a framed old pin-up girl photo from the 1950s - again antique stores have this kind of stuff for cheap or you can rip magazine ads out of old magazines which you can buy for a few bucks from a consignment of second-hand place. I once had all old Buick advertisements in my boys rooms for a while, which was really easy and cost next to nothing. Magazine covers from a different era could be cool too. I think I would love a room with Seventeen magazine covers from the late 70s and early 80s when I read Seventeen.

See all great ideas and none of them beyond your reach. It might sound counter-intuitive, but honestly START with the artwork and build everything else around it. Don't start with ideas about color and then try to find artwork that will "match". I know that's what a lot of people do, but you'll end up with art work that's a compromise to "match" your decor, and it won't be stuff you love. Pick stuff you love first, then we'll work on pulling together the rest of it.