Designing Your Home on a Budget

by Anne Christian Buchanan and Emilie Barnes

Emilie Barnes teams up with professional designer Yoli Brogger in this updated and larger trade version of the popular Decorating Dreams on a Budget (more than 70,000 copies sold). Revealing the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0736916806
• ISBN13: 9780736916806
• Release Date: April 2006
• Publisher: Harvest House Publishers
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.41 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Will help you achieve what you want!

Emilie Barnes, author of 60 books, together with Yoli Brogger has written a comprehensive and practical guide for people who want a warm and beautiful house but don't have the money or desire to spend a lot of money to attain the "look." From discovering your own personal style and loving what you already have, through decorating rules and breaking those rules, we're brought on an exciting journey in finding our focus and making beautiful living spaces that reflect our individual needs and comfort. And it doesn't have to cost a fortune. The tips and techniques are logical but not always the things people spend a lot of time thinking about when "pulling a room together." You'll find help with tools needed for a project, information about fabric choices, learn how the addition of candles and lamps bring warmth and light to a room, great window treatments, clever inspiration for walls and many other ideas for every room in your home. Armchair Interviews says: Whether you're experienced or a novice in home decorating, Designing Your Home on a Budget will help you achieve what you want, with less hassle and less time spent on the project.

Decorating using your unique style

"Style is not what you have, but what you do with what you have." So begins Designing Your Home on a Budget, a book by Emilie Barnes and Yoli Brogger that serves up a cornucopia of ideas. "To maintain a rich look on a not-so-rich budget, we suggest shopping with the 25-75 rule in mind," the authors say. "That is, the bulk of your décor can come from very inexpensive sources and even be of poor quality - but your `cheap chic' treasures should be balanced with a few pieces of real, lasting quality. At least 25 percent of your furnishings and accessories should feature quality materials and workmanship - a beautiful walnut chair, a fine-art piece, or a lovely bed to balance your discount-store linens, junk-shop mirror, and import-store blinds." Partnering with decorator Yoli Brogger, Barnes gives freedom to use the home as an artistic canvas to express the uniqueness of the individual. "We're all unique, made up of different backgrounds, ethnic histories, and lifestyles," Brogger writes. "And we're all much more interesting than we think we are. So start expressing your uniqueness in your home and decide to love what you have." Designing Your Home on a Budget briefly provides the basics of home décor and then gives permission to break the rules. In addition to shopping retail, decorators are encouraged to seek special pieces from a variety of sources including grandma's attic, estate sales, secondhand stores, and trading with friends. Now a grandmother, Barnes was 17 when she married and set about creating a beautiful home "on no budget at all." She described, "In those days Bob and I eagerly accepted castoffs and hand-me-downs. We wracked our brains for ways to transform these mismatched basics into a cozy, welcoming home. We spray-painted an old wrought-iron garden table for our kitchen. We moved the same little potted plants from kitchen to living room to bedroom. We rooted around behind charity shops for interesting discards we could hang on the walls in place of the art we didn't own." Like an over stuffed chair, Designing Your Home on a Budget is stuffed with practical suggestions for recycling items for your individual purposes. Make ottomans and side tables from travel trunks, trays, or toy boxes. Use kitchen canisters in the utility room for dog treats, or in the study for office supplies. Hang anything on the wall from musical instruments to vintage clothing. Place patio furniture inside, and indoor pieces outside. Employ sheets for table cloths and curtains, and incorporate collections as part of the home décor. The theme in Designing Your Home on a Budget is to create an environment that is welcoming, inviting, makes comfortable, attracts attention, and stimulates conversation. Seventeen chapters include: What's My Style; How to Think (or Rethink) a Room; Kid Chic; and Decking the Walls. Inspiring quotes are sprinkled throughout, and chapters conclude with a list of Bright Ideas. Emilie Barnes is a familiar author with 60 b