Dallas Home Theater Minimalist Design GroupRemember when I told you that I was helping one of my daughter's friends do a master bedroom makeover? I teased you with this photo of items that she purchased at the thrift store.
Along with the items in the shopping cart, she also bought a headboard and dresser. Then she purchased another inexpensive dresser off of Craigs List.
This is what the master bedroom in their basement apartment looked like when I first saw it. 
Like most young couples their furniture consisted of freebies and mismatched finds. The room wasn't a true reflection of this cute couple. They didn't feel good about it''s appearance and as a result it had become a catch-all. 
And, like most young couples, when they did purchase new furniture it was for the baby's room, not theirs. Fortunately they were at the stage where they were ready for a change, even though the change had to be done on a shoestring budget. I met with them to discuss their vision, gave them some ideas and shared some photos to give them inspiration. Then we went shopping at the thrift store to pick furniture and accessories and to the home improvement store to pick paint. We picked Behr Paint and Primer in Subtle Touch for the walls. It's a light gray with a hint of lilac. The furniture paint is Polar Bear, a soft white.
They spent several late hours, after their baby was asleep, painting walls and furniture. It was long, hard work, but I assured them that it's always good to have a deadline for a project and their hard work would be worth it.
When I next saw their room, they had it emptied out, with all of the painting done.
I started my part of the work by distressing the newly painted furniture. It's nice to have a little distressing from the beginning, that way when life gives the furniture an occasional nick or bump it will only add to the character. Then my favorite part began, moving furniture and accessorizing. Oh how I love to accessorize a room! It was so fun to pull together the thrift items along with goodies that I grabbed from other parts of their home, like a beautiful mirror that was in the living room but looked so much better in the bedroom.
This is what the room looked like after. 
It no longer looked like a dark basement room. It was now fresh and light. We even managed to give them full length curtains on the tiny window to give the feel of a bigger window.
There was no way I could hang a curtain rod with that annoying pipe. So, since they didn't need the privacy, I did the next best thing and used pretty upholstery tacks to do the job.
Do you notice how those pretty thrift store finds help to bring in a little sparkle, add the green accent color, as well as give the room a sophisticated, finished look.
They are both very talented photographers so I included several empty frames for them to fill with gorgeous black and white photographs that they've taken. One of my favorite accessories was an old camera (on top of the dresser) that they had purchased for a dollar at a flea market.
They already had the two nightstands, although they weren't really using them before. They painted them both a beautiful gray to contrast against the light gray walls and white headboard.The lamps were a thrift store find.
It was so much fun to give this sweet couple a beautiful room to retreat to at the end of the day, and to do it on a tight budget. I estimated that the total cost for furniture, paint and accessories was about $300.
I loved their reaction! They couldn't believe it was their room. They felt like they had gone from a college dorm to a honeymoon suite. They said that they used to hurry to close the door of their room when they had guests over. Now they were so excited to have guests come stay in the room. And all it took was some creative shopping, and a lot of paint and hard work.
Tony Austin Minimalist Home Theater DesignOn my last trip to visit my daughter I helped her move in and
decorate their new apartment. 
She is so happy with it, but as we sat at the kitchen table we decided that there was something lacking. The sofa in the living room is such a beautiful statement piece that when you walk into the kitchen it's almost disappointing. The light fixture was so old, ugly, and boring.
I took on the challenge of finding a cure for her kitchen blahs. I found a chandelier at the thrift store for about five dollars and I snatched it up. My daughter was thrilled and gave me carte blanche on it's makeover.
Her kitchen is a pale green and there is green in the sofa, so it only made sense (to me) to paint the chandelier a gorgeous leafy green. I was so excited that I started painting before I took a "before" picture.
If you look very closely you'll see that it was originally the shiniest, yellow-ist brass that a fixture can be.
And yes, I hung it in a tree and spray painted it in the dark.
Once dry all that was left was to install it---which proved a bit tricky. I've never actually installed a light fixture. I've always assisted in the process but this was my first time to actually do it, all by myself.
And I must say that, although it took me a while, I'm so proud to admit that I am now an accomplished chandelier installer!
The chandelier looks fabulous and really compliments the rest of the apartment.
After I installed it I noticed a broken candle holder close by that had square crystals and knowing of my daughter's love for all things sparkly, I took the holder apart, strung the crystals together and hung them on the chandelier.
I think that it's just the perfect finishing touch!
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Dining Room Furniture should be inspired by a sense of grandeur, impression, and elegance. Perfect dining room furniture intensifies the beauty of your dining room. Choosing the perfect paint color is the first step in making your dining room an enjoyable place to gather. For a different mood, consider creating a serious, luxurious space set aside specifically for great meals and conversation.
Designing and decorating living space for children can be a very fun and exciting part of home Interior design. It's easy to let your imagination go because children are very creative and imaginative on their own. That's also why it's a good idea to include children in the planning stages of your design as they can often come up with great ideas on their own that you would never think of. When designing and decorating for children, one of the advantages is that you can often choose color schemes and combinations that you do not often use in adult surroundings. In fact, you can often go much brighter and bolder with colors that you select for children. You can also arrange the room in a different way then you would normally with most adult rooms. Another great way to spice up the appearance of a child's room is to use one of the millions of available bed treatments as a central theme that fits in with the overall design of the room.
Doesn't it look sweet, filled with an heirloom china tea set that belonged to her husband's grandparents?
There are many mysteries in life--one of them is the cost of drapery. Seriously, can you believe how expensive it is? It's unfathomable to us how much one piece of fabric and four stitched sides can be so costly. But costly they are.
Aside from having a professional drapery workroom come to your house, measure and make the drapes to order, there isn't that many alternatives really. Sure, you can buy pre-made panels from Restoration Hardware or Z-Gallerie, but they usually end up looking like crap. And why? Because they never seem to fit. Either they are too long or too short or too wide etc..
We found Casa Fiora a long time ago when we were looking for an alternative to having custom-made drapes for budget reasons. We find that if you are looking for just simple styles, they are pretty good. We are writing about them now is because they now have a great tool for you to measure the draperies that you need. This, we feel, is one of the most important things you need to do. If not measured incorrectly, you can get the totally wrong size and end up throwing money away.
You can get the tool here. Again, we emphasize that this is best if you are looking for simple draperies styles. Complicated styles are best done by a professional workroom.
