A couple of cans of paint, some new wall decor and maybe some creative shifting of furniture and accessories may be all you need to fulfill a New Year’s resolution.
Or maybe this is the time to give yourself the kitchen of your dreams that you’ve always deserved.
Designers say the early months of the year–and spring, of course–are prime project times. Today is as good a day as any to, if not actually start a project, figure out what you might want to do in the weeks ahead.
That’s what interior designer Summer Baltzer does.
“Every new year, I take stock of all the furniture I have. I look at the things that mean the most to me and that I want to keep. Everything else I put in the garage and donate,” says Baltzer, co-host of “Design on a Dime” on Home and Garden Television.
“Then I go through each of my rooms and just kind of figure out, ‘Do I want to paint it?’ ” she says.
Baltzer is an advocate of the change-through-paint formula. Getting rid of unwanted or unused furniture–decoration through subtraction–is another quick and cheap home improvement. Or try rearranging the furniture you already have.
“Reorganize your accessories, switching them from room to room to create a brand-new look when you walk in,” she says. “Yesterday, I brought in a plant, and all of a sudden the room looked different. Adding some greenery to a room can add a lot of life and vitality to a space.”
Budget, Florida designer Patricia Hart McMillan says, is an all-important consideration for someone evaluating their house for a New Year’s project.
So is mood. Like Baltzer, McMillan believes a change of color can do wonders toward altering the mood of a room, whether through paint, wallpaper or both. Or maybe it’s a piece of furniture that needs a makeover.
“You may come home, walk into a room and just say, ‘I’m tired of this. I want the whole thing changed,’ ” says McMillan, who co-wrote “Home Decorating for Dummies” with her daughter, Katharine Kaye McMillan. “Often after I look at something, I think it’s not really necessary to throw everything out. My whole approach is to save whatever works and add what’s essential.”
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and Kris Karnopp (kkarnopp@tribune.com)
