6 EASY WAYS TO ADD COLOR…WITHOUT PAINTING

Spring has sprung! That means you may have spring fever, cabin fever, or I-just-wanna-change fever. If you’re a regular reader of my blogs, you know my advice to cure almost any disorder is to paint it away. Nothing like a change of color to change your mood! This time I’m going to throw you a curve ball and provide five, easy ideas to add color and change the mood of a room without painting it.

1. Accent Furniture: A fun, affordable option. Hit your local thrift stores and look for a piece that’s a little unusual or rough around the edges. Take it home, give it a little TLC, maybe throw on a quick coat of chalk paint and put it in your room. You’d be surprised how one good accent piece can change the way a whole room looks and feels. It’s often easier to be bolder with a color choice when it’s limited to one piece, so consider thinking outside the box when choosing the color for your new piece.

2. Wall Accents: If you think you caught me, you’re wrong. Technically, this isn’t painting a room, it’s painting in a room, which is much easier to do. Here’s a great idea for execution: stop at a thrift store and pick out some cool picture frames of different shapes and sizes. Decide what colors you would like to bring into your room and paint your frames those colors—or it could be different shades of the same color. You could distress them for extra interest by quickly sanding the edges after you’ve painted them, and they’ve dried. Lay the finished frames on the floor (this saves a ton or effort) until you find the pattern that would look great on your wall. Hang them up and you’ll have interesting wall accents for a few bucks and a few hours of fun.

3. Accessories: Hit your discount stores and search for some new toss pillows, candles, or a new vase or throw. Either replace what you have with your new choices or mix and match. Either way, your space will take on a whole new look with these few, small changes.

4. Soft Window Treatments: By “soft” I mean fabric. These could include drapes, scarves, valances, or even fabric lamp shades. You may be surprised at how much color this can add to a space and really freshen up your whole look, and how inexpensive it can be, too.

5. Area Rug: Placing a colorful area rug on your floor will do much the same as adding colorful window treatments. It’s a great way to freshen up a room without much effort. As time goes by, you can pull colors from your rug and choose accessories to help distribute the new look throughout your space.

6. Artwork: This can be anything from a beautiful painting to a tapestry or something as simple as a photo collage. Pick your accent wall and go searching for something that contains the new colors you want to introduce. Again, over time, you can pull colors from the art and emphasize it further through accessories.

These ideas take little time and offer a big impact. Of course, if you decide to make an even bigger change you could…paint your room! Sorry, I can’t help myself.

Now, what will you do next to love where you live?