Minor repairs add up
What are you planning to do with your weekend?
Maybe you'll spend those precious free hours sprawled in front of the TV, prowling the shopping mall or cultivating a virtual relationship in an Internet chat room.
Or you can give your home a whole new look.
Sound ambitious? Maybe. But we've gathered ideas from interior designers for changes that can make a big decorative impact for a relatively small effort. All can be accomplished in the space of a weekend — or at least a reasonable number of days, if you're less than speedy.
So get your work clothes on. We're about to get busy.
A kitchen backsplash — the space between the counter and the bottom of the cupboards — is prime decorating real estate. It's highly visible yet fairly small, so it's a great place for making big style difference with a minimal investment of time and money.Home-improvement stores often give workshops on tiling backsplashes, North Canton, Ohio, interior designer Robin Brechbuhler noted. Or you can learn how to do it from a home-improvement book from the library.Brechbuhler recently started her own backsplash, using porcelain tiles that resembled stone. The supplies cost less than $250.The design possibilities are many, interior designer Pamela Bayer noted. Tile stores sell a tempting array of tiles, but even the big-box home stores have hip choices such as slate and tumbled marble. Bayer is partial to stainless steel tiles, and you can drop in a few glass tiles for accent, she said.One word of warning: If you have to remove existing tile first, count on the project taking considerably longer. You might find yourself taking off drywall with the tiles, so you'll have to repair the substrate first.
On the topic of tile, it's not uncommon for homeowners to be stuck with bathroom tile that went out of style decades ago.If new tile's not in your budget, Bayer suggested updating the grout instead. Some home-improvement stores and tile stores sell colorants — coatings that cover existing grout almost like paint. You can match the old grout to freshen it, or you can apply an entirely new color to give the room a little punch.The grout needs to be sound for colorant to be applied. You just clean the existing tile, squeeze the colorant on or dab it on with a brush, and then scrub any excess off the tiles when it dries.
Just about everyone has boxes of family photos stashed away. Bring those treasured photos into the open and dress up a plain wall at the same time by creating a wall collage, suggested Jim Warner of J.D. Warner Interiors in Stow, Ohio.Frames can be had inexpensively, and you can choose styles that match or a variety of styles, he said. Have mats cut to fit photos and frames, or use a computer to size the photos to the openings of precut mats. Warner likes the look of photos in sepia tones or black and white, which can also be done with photo editing software.One caveat: He doesn't recommend hanging a grouping of photos on a stairway wall. The pictures might divert someone's attention and cause that person to miss a step.
Sometimes just a fresh splash of color can wake up a space or a series of adjoining rooms. Lucille Anderson of the Ohio interior design firm Works of Wonder was reminded of that recently when she bought apple green dish towels for her kitchen, a room outfitted with light cherry cabinets and decorated in navy, red, green and gold.She spent only about $20, but it changed the mood of the room and just made her feel good, she said.However, picking an accent color takes a little homework. Anderson suggested studying the colors of the rooms you want to accent to get an idea of a new color that will work with all of them. Pick something unexpected, she urged, something different from what you normally choose.To find the exact hue, she recommended going to a paint store or home center and picking up a bunch of paint chips. Bring them home and use the chips to help you narrow your options to one right color.Then go shopping and have some fun. Maybe buy some throw pillows in the color you chose, or some canisters for your kitchen. And just see how much better you feel.
Laura Petit of La Maison Accessories & Interior Design likes to freshen her rooms periodically just by mixing things up. She'll take all the accessories — artwork, finials, plants, etc. — out of several rooms and put them in the center of one room. Then she starts putting back the objects, but not in the same places.If she's really feeling ambitious, she'll move furniture, too. "I think sometimes if you move things around, that can just add some punch to some areas," she said.
Bayer and Petit both pointed out that you don't have to change your window treatments to give them a new look.Embellish simple draperies with stenciling, or sew on some fringe, beading or other trim, they suggested. You don't even have to take the curtains down to hand-sew trim in place, Bayer said.Similarly, Bayer likes to freshen the appearance of tie-on kitchen chair cushions by snipping off the ties and replacing them with a length of cording with tassels on both ends. It's a simple change that dresses up a country kitchen, she said.
Replacing lighting and plumbing fixtures can give a room an instant update, said Erin Lowe, an interior designer.In a half bath, for example, she suggests installing a new sink and faucet to take years off the decor. Or replace a stainless-steel kitchen sink with an enameled cast-iron sink in a color of your choice. White or bone are safe choices that will last through future redecorating, and they can make your counters look better, Lowe said."For just a few hundred dollars, you have a new look," she said.
