Get a statement piece of furniture. Look in auctions, or antique shops for big, glass-fronted cupboards. They aren’t popular so are reasonably priced – and they’re perfect to paint. Go for a pretty French look.

Buy fresh flowers. These can be expensive, so display them carefully. Put one stem each in several bottles or vases and place them in a line. Or buy pretty junk-china cups or teapots and plant them up with bulbs.

Paint a wall. Choose one that is more dominant – behind the bed, say – and paint it a contrasting colour. A cheap, quick way to modernise a room.

1. Your furniture is looking tired and worn
2. Your furniture looks as though it never left the 1960’s
3. You have more padding than your furniture
4. Your furniture is cheaper to have re-upholstered than replaced
5. You want to be more creative with your furniture and decor

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When you walk into a room or interior space, you’ll feel more comfortable if your eye can rest on a main feature. That main feature is called the “focal point” of the room.

If your room has a beautiful picture window looking out to a lovely garden, that’s it. If you have a fireplace, large or small, that will be the focal point in that room.

Sometimes a room has no distinguishing feature built in and you have to create one. Some ideas of focal points that you can add to a room are; large cabinet, oriental or patterned rug, dramatic mirror, fabric panel.

Have you ever thought that something as simple as arranging your furniture in a different way could help save you money. Well here it is, like most households in the UK, people often arrange their living room around their TV’s. The obvious affect of this is the TV is most probably always on.

Just by simply re-arranging your furniture so that the focal point will encourage conversation, such as positioning sofas and chairs around a table or facing each other rather than pointing at the TV.

Not only will his save you money in the long term by not always having the TV on but it can also create a healthier family environment.

Curtains are a great way to hide flaws in your home and can bring symmetry to most rooms. These are some really simple tips and tricks interior designers and staging consultants use to make a room look far better just by using curtains.

• If a room consists of several windows at differing sizes, first take the measurements and dress the largest window. Then hang all the other curtains in the room at the same height making sure that all the hems are also at the same height off the floor.
• If you want to create the illusion of wider windows extend the curtains poles and width beyond the window frame.
• Alternatively, if you want to make the window look shorter, use a longer pelmet when dressing the window.

It’s great to read blog posts about other peoples experiences of ways to save money, especially considering the current climate. Have a read of some of Lizzie’s cost cutting “Re-use, revamp and re-cycle” ideas.

Read the Blog Post here…