Eager to get your place into fashionable shape, but your ideas and money are falling short of your expectations?
Several Chicago-area artists, designers and entrepreneurs, accustomed to whipping up things practically on the spot-from stage sets to food-agree that the trick isn’t in the budget, but in the mind.
“Most people assume they have to go out and buy new furniture when they become tired of the things they have,” says Robert Smith, a set designer at Next Theatre in Evanston and a teacherof scene and lighting design at Northeastern Illinois University. “A lot can be done with the furniture you already have. Just sit back and dream about the place you’re in and the place you want to be.”
Smith says living in the same place with the same things can be boring, but the humdrum look of a room can disappear by bringing “in color, light and different textures.”
One of the first projects for Smith, who lives in a coach house on the North Side, was the window in his living area.
He turned a plain, 4-by-8-foot window into an attractive focal point by taking attention away from an unflattering view of the street-level parking lot across the street.
Smith made a shoji screen-style covering from muslin fabric for the window; this sun-filtering window treatment masks the view of the lot.
“You can also drape the muslin fabric to cover a wall or use it as a window dressing,” says Smith, who does his fabric shopping at Chicago Dropcloth & Tarpaulin Co. Inc., 3719 W. Lawrence Ave. Muslin sells here for from $4.20 a yard (9-foot width) to $85 a yard (33-foot width).
“It’s not a traditional fabric store, but it’s wonderful and cheap. You’ll get ideas just being there,” Smith says.
Smith says muslin is easy to handle and to work with. Paint and dyes are easily absorbed by the fabric. “It can be twisted, shaped and fastened into place (with nails or tacks) without much trouble,” he says. He also has used muslin to cover sofas and chairs.
Those who want to focus on only one roomusually choose the bedroom, says interior designer Gwendolyn Thomas, owner of GAT Interiors.
If it’s not possible to get new bedroom furniture, the next best thing, and often better, she says, is to get new bed linen. Fine bedding and linens can be expensive, but they’re still less expensive than new furniture.
“You can never have too many pillows,” says Thomas. “You can stack and plump them on the bed and dress the pillows in matching shams or pillowcases. You can also mix prints and patterns as long as they are in the same color family. It’s important for the bed to have a full, complete look and not feel empty. The pillows and the color make the bed more inviting.”
For a touch of romance and warmth, Thomas recommends adding scented candles in varying sizes and placing colored bottles on a windowsill.
“Candles in different shapes and colors and colored bottles placed in a window give a point of interest in the bedroom during the day with the natural light that comes in,” says Thomas, known for the magical transformations she’s made in middle-class bungalows as well as upper-income glass towers of local celebrities. “In the evening, the candles add warmth and color.”
If you don’t have a headboard or have tired of the headboard you have, Thomas says fabric or a favorite sheet can be draped behind the bed on the wall. Mosquito netting is another inexpensive way to achieve the canopy look.
But not everyone has mosquito netting around the house. It can be purchased for $60 at Pier 1 Imports Inc. stores.
Setting a mood
Changing the lighting is another inexpensive way to make a room over.
Smith offered these ideas:
– Turn the lights down low or up high. Put in a dimmer switch to control and set the mood. Wall dimmers cost anywhere from $5 to $15.
– Place several can lamps behind the sofa or on a high shelf for indirect lighting to create a different mood. When these lamps are put behind plants, they form images on the wall and can be an inexpensive addition. Can lamps are about $15 at The Great Ace hardware stores.
– Use theatrical gels or color filters over light bulbs in lamps or in wall or ceiling lamps to brightly color a wall at night or subtly color it for day. Color filters, commonly known as gels, are safe for everyday bulb use and can be purchased at Chicago Spotlight, 4595 N. Elston Ave., 312-777-8824, for about $5.
“There’s so much you can do with lights to change the room and the mood, without going out to buy a new lamp,” says Smith, whose set design for “Destiny of Me” at Next Theatre doubled as the interior of a hospital room and a home.
Let’s make a deal
Those still eager to change the furniture in their home, Smith says, should think about making a trade.
“Resale shops will trade what you have for what they have,” he says. According to Smith, resale shops willing to “talk about it” include Betty’s Resale Shop, 3439 N. Lincoln Ave.
But Smith says not to look for “even-Steven” trades.
“Be expected to pay between $5 and $20 or so,” he says. “It’s seldom an even trade is done even if your furniture is in better condition than the one you’re trading it for. The advantage you’ll have is that you’ll be trading one style for another to get a different look in your room. It’s common for those in the theater to trade one piece of furniture for another.”
Que sera, sera
Kevin Rigdon, resident designer for Steppenwolf Theatre, says rearranging furniture is an option, but he also lives by the philosophy of letting the chips-or books, paintings, whatever-fall where they may.
“I don’t put anything where it’s supposed to be. Wherever I put it down, that’s where it stays. There are paintings placed on the floor, not on the wall. Books get stacked, not in bookshelves,” says Rigdon, who is lighting designer for Steppenwolf’s current production, “A Clockwork Orange,” and production designer for the theater’s upcoming “Playland,” which opens in November.
“It’s much more interesting to have books stacked in a corner or in and around a chair against a wall. It’s decorative and almost sculptural,” he says.
But if you’re up for a project, Rigdon recommends taking to the floor.
“Everyone knows you can change the color of the walls with paint, but the floor can be painted just as easily,” says Rigdon, who lives in an 1870s single-family home on the North Side.
Prepare your tile or wood floor surfaces by cleaning them and stripping away the wax. Paint the surface in the color of your choice and seal with polyurethane.
Rigdon and Smith say buying improperly mixed paint is another way to save money and get the look you want.
“It’s an old theater trick that works,” says Smith. “You walk into a paint store and ask about the mistake paints, the paints that were improperly mixed, meaning the colors were not what the customer wanted. There are shelves of these paints, which generally cost $1 to $3 a gallon.
If the colors aren’t what you wanted, then go with a basic white and choose one or more of the 10 universal tint colors to mix a paint color you want. “It’s like a recipe,” Smith says. “Add so much of this and so much of that.”
Aaron Thomas, a salesman at Thybony Paint & Wallcoverings, 5440 N. Clark St., says floor-rated paints are recommended because they have a built-in primer that will prevent scuffing and marring, but other paints can also be used, provided that a coat of polyurethane seals it.
Thybony periodically offers seminars on creative painting, he says. “People are more adventurous than they used to be with paint and are willing to experiment on different surfaces,” he says.
Adventurous consumers can surprise themselves with some of the design experimentation they do.
“Stencil and checkerboard designs are some of the things that can be done,” says Rigdon, whose painted wood floors in his home are spruce with a red tint.
If you’re feeling intimidated, set designers recommend “New Paint Magic,” by Jocasta Innes (Pantheon Books Publishing Co., $24), “Decorating with Paint,” also by Innes (Harmony Books, $20) and “Recipes for Surfaces,” by Mindy Drucker (Simon and Schuster Inc., $20).
Moving things around
And then there are some changes that don’t have to cost one cent.
“Substitute what’s in one room for another,” says Patrick Lavery, owner of Secret Garden floral shop, 915 W. Belmont Ave. “A picture that is hanging in one room can make the move to another. A floor lamp in the dining room can go to the bedroom.”
Placing large clear or neutral-colored bowls of mixed fruits and vegetables on tables, bookcases, cabinets and countertops is another trick to change a room’s look, Lavery says.
“I know a lot of people want to go out and buy a plant, but unless a plant is large enough, it doesn’t really add anything to the room to make you take notice,” he says. For the best effect, try large floor plants-such as peace lilies, dieffenbachia, palms, ficus, corn and rubber trees-in wicker baskets or decorative pots.
The right ingredients
Decorating a room with smiling faces enjoying a good meal is another way to liven it up, says Pamela Scariano, who owns the Soul Kitchen restaurant, 2152 W. Chicago Ave., with Scot Gray.
Scariano says you can cook up a creative cooking space by paying attention to the walls in your kitchen. She suggests going through your photo album and pulling out photos of you and friends and family at a favorite dining spot to mount and hang on your kitchen wall.
She also recommends putting favorite restaurant menus behind glass frames with clips. One kitchen wall in Scariano’s home is filled with menus from 12 restaurants.
Mirrors work wonders, too. They can be strategically placed on the wall and framed just as you would frame a photo or painting. You can even create your own “frame” by painting a squiggly design around the mirrors right on your wall.
When Scariano is not in the kitchen at her home or managing the restaurant, she tries to take some time out on one of her two love seats, which she covered with two king-size sheets.
“The sofas and I needed a change,” says Scariano. “I took two king sheets and splattered them with fabric paint. It changed the neutral sofas into something with color.” Scariano now has two sofas that have shades of cranberry and muted forest green.
“I think you’re more creative and adventurous when you don’t have the money to spend,” says Scariano. “An inventive spirit becomes a necessity.”
