I'm a 22yo bachelor-ette college student, and I live with my younger sister and two cats. My project this summer will be to redecorate our house on a small budget. My grandmother and my mother keep offering me "advice", but it's all too expensive and/or opposite of my tastes (doilies, gag)...

BEDROOM : it's a smaller room, about 10x9ft, with a lot of furniture in it. My plan is to repaint, switch out some furniture, and introduce better storage/organizers. Budget = $150

How can I take advantage of vertical space and add "height" to the bedroom?
The previous owners painted the room this really hideous, dark, pink-like color; I'm planning on a neutral+blue color scheme: can you please send me pics for inspiration?


I will update with pics as I go along, but more detailed updates will be at my blog for the sake of brevity : http://omgtoast217.blogspot.com/

Blago, I really hate to say this but we are all volunteers here with full time jobs and give our time to answering questions. I can offer a bit of advice after I ingest most of your information but, truthfully, only someone coming in to see your space can offer advice on colour, mobility of space and taking great advantage of what you have.

I don't know if you have this in the states, but up here in Canada we have decorating stores that offer a service of assisting with space problems and colours if you tell them what it is you want to do. I do believe you have Home Depot type stores and they are quite happy to help.

You have asked us a question that actually goes beyond our scope, like 'can you please send me pics of inspiration'.. We are not interior decorators my dear, sorry.

Tick

tickle, you seem very confused because I did not ask for a professional interior decorator to answer my question. I was looking for the average person I might run into on the street, as you describe yourself to be. I also provided a URL to a personal blog that has images and more details to answer my question. In case the link did not post correctly on your end, here it is again: BLOG (omgtoast.blogspot.com) ((I would like to add a belated "crude language" warning: after I changed my design settings, the content warning page hasn't popped up again, and I'm afraid I have to tweak some more.))

If you feel unqualified to offer advice you are not required to. The best fact I have ever known is that pretending you know the answer to something you know little about often does more harm than good-- in which case the best response is a truthful "I don't know."

In light of tickle's question about my request for pictures; I'm just asking for a simple URL to an image that can be used as inspiration. I'm not sure how that falls "beyond our scope", unless Google Images works differently in Canada. I might have taken for granted that most people think very literally, and don't understand conceptual thinking. "Source imagery" would probably be best described as using a CD cover, a style of art, or a landscape (for example) as inspiration for a design. Here are a couple of images that I used as inspiration when I designed my nephews's nursery; this is not a literal "interior decoration".

Pooh (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.gbtc.com/housepc.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.gbtc.com/housepc.htm&usg=__Ffky1ppqYECLn-aADULkXB2QzMo=&h=266&w=300&sz=31&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=5FqboSK0m4bHyM:&tbnh=122&tbnw=131&ei=ZXWzTejVMqbk0gHCsq2FCQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhouse%2Bat%2Bpooh%2Bcorner%26hl%3Den% 26sa%3DG%26biw%3D1024%26bih%3D677%26tbm%3Disch&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=455&vpy=78&dur=700&hovh=211&hovw=238&tx=175&ty=117&page=1&ndsp=23&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0)

Party (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2009/10/02/alg_winnie_and_friends.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Michael%2BBrown/photos&usg=__6w2WPZXcM2CeJuT_0N3ByKwVICY=&h=300&w=485&sz=107&hl=en&start=23&zoom=1&tbnid=rkUk5VLE5D49WM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=201&ei=0HWzTZnAPITUgQem5-HFCw&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhouse%2Bat%2Bpooh%2Bcorner%26hl%3Den% 26sa%3DG%26biw%3D1024%26bih%3D677%26site%3Dsearch% 26tbm%3Disch0%2C689&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=614&vpy=180&dur=344&hovh=146&hovw=237&tx=117&ty=85&page=2&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:23&biw=1024&bih=677)

No not confused, why would you get that out of my reply, nor do I feel unqualified to assist you with your decorating. 'Pretending to know the answer', you are not asking for a rocket science equation, so I don't have to 'pretend to know the answer'. You are making this far more difficult then it should be.

Where did I describe myself to be an 'average person you might find on the street'.

One thing I am not going to do is go through Google, and yes, Google works the same in Canada to find you a URL which you seem quite capable of doing yourself.

As for decorating skills, I find mine quite adequate; which usually includes my stained glass art. One of which is in my avatar to the left of the post.

tick

I'm terribly sorry to have offended you. I misunderstood what you meant when you said that the site was made up of "volunteers here with full time jobs and give our time to answering questions" and also when you said that my question was "beyond our scope". I had assumed that you meant that you were one of the average folks here inexperienced in artistic matters, but clearly I was mistaken. I'm very excited to have you here! In any case, what you've suggested so far sounds fantastic, tickle. Your avatar is quite lovely. As an artistic person, one who has "adequate" home decorating skills, do you have any recommendations? Do you often put your artwork on your walls? Do you have walls to decorate?

Thank you so much!

As an artistic person, one who has "adequate" home decorating skills, do you have any recommendations? Do you often put your artwork on your walls? Do you have walls to decorate?

Thank you so much!

My artwork goes in windows, usually my clients put my stained glass in their windows. Yes my walls are already decorated. And, no I don't have any recommendations other then tastes in colour and style are very personal. However, if one has the money to pay for it, decorating can be a no brainer. Those of us who don't have a lot of money fly by the seat of our pants, but should have a pretty good idea of what they like in colour and style and go for it. At least their statement is their own and they have to live with it.

Tick

I feel a need to say (rather bluntly) that I have no interest in visiting anyone's blog or in contributing pics of my house here, especially since I have no rooms that small. This site to my mind is a Q and A site, that in some cases merits a picture attachment of something like a plumbing part, not a decorating magazine.

A 9 x 10 room is very small. I like the blue color but with white trim to keep the room from looking smaller. I'd be simple to the extreme, summer cottage style, twin bed with thin quilt or chenille spread, side table, small dresser, straight back chair. Miniature art.
Storage units will just make the room smaller too. At most, a cedar chest at the foot of the bed.

A 9 x 10 room is very small. I like the blue color but with white trim to keep the room from looking smaller. I'd be simple to the extreme, summer cottage style, twin bed with thin quilt or chenille spread, side table, small dresser, straight back chair. Miniature art.
Storage units will just make the room smaller too. At most, a cedar chest at the foot of the bed.

Yes, I do agree with idea, joy. In small rooms I like seascapes on the wall. It gives an airy feel, depth. I have painted a hardwood floor white in a small room, with decals around the edge. That works for me, too. With the floor painted and some very nice rag rugs around, would compliment your idea.

Tick

Joypulv, that sounds cute. I really like your ideas. But no thank you, I would not like to see pictures of your house.