If anyone knows how to give a room panache without a lot of cash, it’s Lee Snijders. He and his design team redecorate rooms on a $1,000 budget for the HGTV show “Design on a Dime.” Here are cheap-chic tips that Snijders recommends:
– Paint one wall instead of all four to add depth to the room. Snijders suggests painting the wall where the TV stands or where the couch is.
– Select the least dominant color in a piece of artwork, a duvet cover or a rug and use that as your wall color. It allows the artwork or other items to be the focal point of the room.
– Use different shades of the same color to make a small space seem larger. For example, paint opposite walls a shade lighter or darker than the adjacent walls.
– Placing furniture away from walls makes the room feel larger.
– When painting over a dark wall, tint the primer with a color a few shades lighter than the new top-coat color. You’ll need less top coat that way.
– Flat paint in a darker color makes a small room look larger; light colors make a room feel airier, not bigger.
– Paint kitchens in food colors such as eggplant, caramel, reds and Tuscan tones to entice people to eat.
– Paint is one of the cheapest redecorating tools. Other inexpensive accents are plants, artwork or an area rug.
