Frugal Decorating Tips

You will soon see my favorite color is Blue. I find that color calming and relaxing. Blue also reminds me of water and I spent a decade in Florida. I decorate to bring the outside, inside to make a cozy, inviting room to live in. You can adapt my blue color decorating ideas to whatever color you love.

Most of the time, I live on a budget. That doesn't mean we have to live with white on white rooms unless that is a rule in your apartment not to be broken. There are ways around that also and you will soon see.

Decorating does not have to be expensive and I will give you the tips I use to do decorating on a budget.

The first tip is yard sales. I found a gallon of Country Blue paint for fifty cents at a yard sale and knowing it would not even paint one of my rooms , I decided to use it to paint all of my rooms. Read more to see how I did it.

The photo here is my front hallway. I only painted the door and around the door frame, I also painted the wall end separating the hallway from the dining room blue.

I painted the front wall facing outside the kitchen blue to tie it in with the hallway. Since the kitchen is a Gally Kitchen I decided to paint the whole thing blue except for the ceiling. I should have painted the ceiling blue because in a small space when you do the whole room, including the ceiling, in a bold color it makes a small space appear bigger.

This is another painting trick I learned. I was on a professional painting crew for two years.

TIP: A secret painting tip of painters, is to wet the painting roller with water first before you start to paint. Then roll it down the shower wall to knock the most of the water out of the roller. Starting with a damp paint roller will stop spattering and paint dripping down your arms when painting ceilings. Now you know why painters get very little paint on them provided they are good painters of course.

When you walk past the blue wall in front of ther kitchen into the livingroom your eye is caught by the beautiful blue wall at the front of the room. I decided to paint the wall all the way across the door tricking your eye to see the room bigger than it is.

My roommate made the curtains from drapes bought at the church sale from the church that is situated in front of my apartment building. Church sales are awesome to go to late because they almost give the stuff away so they don't have to bundle it up to go to the thrift stores. The whole bag of drapes we purchased was five dollars and she came up with the idea to sew the swags and loop them on a curtain rod that was here when we moved in. I was lucky to have such a talented decorator and seamstress as a roommate.(God rest her soul Marylou is no longer with us.)

The drapes have blue in them and it is inhanced more by painting the wall blue. The roll down bamboo curtain is also blue and is a great way to shade the sun out but you can still see the view through it. The drapes also tie in with the sofa and loveseat that match them. Another great thing to do is to put your blue yardsale finds around. I feature a lot of blue glass wine bottles and blue jays to add to the blue theme.

By painting only one wall blue and dressing it up , it becomes the focal part of the room and tricks the eye into believing the room is all blue.

TIP: Painting your lampshades with the same blue color is cheaper than buying blue lamp shades to add to your blue theme. The more blue accessories you put in the rooms, the more your eye will assume the rooms are blue.

When my neighbors talk about my apartment they say Suzzy's place is all done in blue. Meanwhile only one wall in each room is all that is painted blue except for the kitchen.

You can make a dramatic decorating change to your bathroom simply by putting in a bold blue seascape shower curtain. This is the focal point of the bathroom and makes the bathroom appear blue. I love this shower curtain it reminds me of my Florida days.

I wanted a nautical blue theme for my bedroom and painting the wall behind the bed was a good start. The iron bed I have had for many years and so I painted it white, sort of like the huge ropes on a ship, with the knobs and centre pieces are painted blue. You can see I painted the lampshade blue to tie in with the rest of the room. I have many pictures of waves and water throughout my home to remind me of the wonderful Florida beach days I had.

I know you are curious as to if the gallon of painted made it through all these walls. Yes it did including another window wall in my dining room that I didn't show you here.

Happy painting my friends. Decorating in blue has made a house my home.