If you are like me, decisions are difficult. I leave most of my important life decisions up to flipping a coin, much to the chagrin of my college guidance counselor. Wow, I really bet I’m winning my reader’s trust with this one. I created this Magic 8 Ball to help you decide what color to paint your room, just give it a shake & see what happens. It told me to use purple, so I need to go grab some paint. I wish I would’ve had this in college. Takes all the guess work out of decorating.
In art class in high school, elementary school, any art class I have been to, the teacher has always done the same thing. They turn on a piece of music & tell us to paint what we feel. I usually feel “Umm why do we always do this, whatever I feel I can’t draw.” It’s the same with decorating. You will hear a lot of, find a fabric that inspires you & base the room off that. How can you tell what inspires you. Take my new absolutely free personality test “What’s your decorating inspiration?”. My result was that I am inspired by my home, which is spot on, as it should be because I made the quiz. How accurate is the quiz? Leave a comment & let me know.
The next room I am going to decorate in my dream house for under $1000 is the bedroom. Each room is going to have a theme of a different country. I’m going to use the same neutral tones throughout the house so it doesn’t look like a restaurant. For the master bedroom I’m going with a French theme, Paris specifically. There’s many styles of French decorating, French Country, French Provincial, basically anything a little fussy. However, I want my French bedroom to be very restful & calm. I am going to paint the walls a very light blue, almost white & have everything else be white, with just a touch of black.
Accessories: Then I’m going to . The entire idea for my dream house was inspired because I simply wanted a lamp that looked like the Eiffel tower. These sell for several hundred dollars but hopefully I’ll be able to pick up two of these for around $50. I’m going to eliminate all other artwork & accessories so these lamps stand out. If window treatments are absolutely necessary I will use white airy sheer curtains that I already have.
Mirrors: I originally wanted mirrored nightstands but they were way over budget. I was going to make them myself, but then I decided on silver leaf. You can get DIY instructions here for how to silver leaf. These instructions are for glass, but hopefully it will work the same on wood. This won’t be as expensive as trying to affix mirrors to nightstands & won’t get as many fingerprints. Plus I can use some old nightstands I picked up at a garage sale for free. This will add a vintage feeling to the room.
Bedding: I already have a fluffy white down alternative comforter that I can’t live without, so it has to stay. I will however splurge on some high thread count sheets, mine right now are like 14 thread count or something very sad like that. Enter coupon code SHOP5 through 12/31/2006 to save $5 off a purchase of $50 or more.
Furniture: I don’t want a bulky dresser or armoire in my light & airy bedroom, so I am going to move the dresser I have now into my walk-in closet. (The house will have a walk-in closet otherwise I’m not moving). The focal point of the room will be the bed. This iron finish bed is $421 & reminds me of the wrought iron gates that are always in pictures of Paris. I’ll also add this chaise lounge for $409 which will be great for reading. Enter coupon code SHOP25 through 12/31/2006 to save $25 off a purchase of $250 or more.
Final Touches: It just wouldn’t feel like Paris without a chandelier. I wouldn’t know because I’ve never been but I imagine that there would be chandeliers. I’ll probably paint this chandelier white & take the shades off, but its less than $50 so it could use some work. I like that it is a miniature chandelier so it won’t overpower the room.
I will save the $50 I have left to go towards the purchase of a white flokati rug someday. This will add some warmth & whismy to the room. So what do you think of my Paris inspired bedroom for under $1000? Leave a comment & let me know.
When I was little I thought we took the 8 hour car trip several times a year in the mini-van to go to the cool Holiday Inn with the indoor playground & where we got to eat nachos. Not to see Grandma, not because of dad’s work trips, not for vacation or quality family time, for the nachos & indoor ball pit. So on these adventures, my mom had her hands full keeping me & my 4 brothers behaving & not breaking the air conditioning vents in the van. She came up with the idea of taking us to the dollar store, which was a magical place. We each got to pick several toys & books & these went in a shoe box. For every 1-2 hours that we behaved we got a prize. If we started acting up we were reminded of the prize box. Plus it was something new to keep us busy & stop asking “Are we there yet?” Looking back I guess we were greedy kids, but it got everybody out alive. The prize box was one of my favorite parts of the trips. I still miss those nachos though. Works for me!
