Budget Saving Tips

Posted by Lauren Henry in Therapies on 11 5th, 2009 | no responses

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So how do you accomplish everything we’ve discussed on a limited budget? It’s not as hard as you might think – Here are some very basic tips:

Decide what the most important change should be (paint color, replacing furniture, buying a new bed). Make changes in order of priority. It’s not always necessary to do everything at once.
Use search engines! Find discount stores, estate sales, flea markets and all types of swap meets, second hand stores and internet savvy to enhance the overall selection process.
Research major shopping websites for simpler pieces of furniture. Call them (yes, there are still brick and mortar stores, and some even have well-informed salespeople or managers.) Inquire as to when seasonal “on display” furniture items go on sale. In all home furnishing store, there are often discontinued floor items that they will sell at extremely discounted prices.
If you need a new throw rug for your wood or cement floor, but don’t want to spend the money, believe it or not, you can generate a chic, expensive looking design with paper, pencil, scissors and some paint! Simply enlarge the pattern to the size you desire on a photocopier (just use a sturdy paper) cut out the pattern and viola’, instant stencil! Then tape it on the area of the floor you want for your design. Get a paintbrush that fits the design and paint your selected color or stain over the stencil. Wait a couple of hours and then remove the stencil. It really does work! Just make sure that the floor material won’t repel your paint /stain selection. This process tends to work best on wood and cement flooring.
If you want new curtains or window treatments but want to avoid the extra cost, try the do-it-yourself method. Shop at fabric stores for bolts of material or purchase some nice flat bed sheets. Get an inexpensive curtain rod from a home improvement store and you’re on your way. Cut the material to size, wrap it around the curtain rod in any way you want allowing it to hang straight down or use thin strips of any favorite material as sashes to tie or knot your curtains to the side.
If you want something resembling a decorative valance, use the aforementioned stenciling process again. It works on walls too! Just remember to focus on what your child’s needs are. It’s easy to get caught up trying to be creative and elaborate. The phrase “less is more” couldn’t be more appropriate then when designing your child’s personal atmosphere.
Try taking a swatch of patterned fabric or even gift wrap, (yes, attractive wrapping paper) and cut it into a stylized shape. Matte it and frame it just as you would a picture, and you have an interesting designer accent for any room. This is particularly useful for providing imagery your child would favor, but would be inappropriate to incorporate on a large scale.

These may seem like very simplistic suggestions, however, they are all low cost, artistic, innovative, one-of-a-kind, “green” ideas you can use within the design of your child’s room as well as your home. Now, hopefully, you’ve begun to understand how to address many of your concerns without feeling overwhelmed or intimidated.

Conclusions

Now that we’ve discussed how to evaluate your child’s needs, understand the purpose of the room you want to re-design, anticipate the effects of various colors, and consider spatial organization, my hope is that you feel you have been armed with some fundamental tools that will motivate you to jump on the “do-it-yourself” bandwagon with excitement and a renewed sense of confidence and control!

These guidelines should help you take back some control and become inspired. You can employ your personal imagination, inspiration and newly acquired knowledge of your child’s needs to make a positive change to their environment, and subsequently make a significant impact on the quality of their life. When these methods are used to their greatest effect, you may observe a noticeable change in the way your child behaves and interacts with you, the rest of your family, and the world around them.

Experiment, observe, learn, and enjoy the process of improving your children’s space and any other part of your home.

Just remember, no matter what you choose to do, always begin With a Brush of Love!

Please share the knowledge. Sharing is caring! = )