Stock Market Inspired Interior Design Tips

I know everyone’s worried about the drunken fluctuations of our hemorrhaging stock market, but deep economic fears shouldn’t stop us from having STYLE! If you’re looking to revamp your space on a tight budget, remember that money is no substitute for innovation.

Stock Market Inspired Design Tips

On a tight budget, remember to be selective. Pick the most important rooms you wish to revamp and the specific elements and themes that are most significant. Carefully analyze your current home, furnishing and decorations before making a plan. Improve upon what you have, instead of starting completely from scratch.

Buying products secondhand is a key component of budget design. In addition to local thrift locations, most people grab their unique finds online at places like eBay.

The following ideas are simple and inexpensive decorating ways to liven up a room over without breaking the bank.

* Add mirrors to create light and space.

* Repaint cabinets, instead of replacing them. Paint will clean, freshen and liven up a cabinet. Just check with a local paint supply store for advice on painting unusual surfaces.

* Cover imperfections instead of fixing them. For example, place a rug over a discolored spot on your floor or a tapestry on a rough wall.

* Take off the curtains. If you have a nice view, maximize it by removing the window coverings.

* Organize the clutter. Improve a room with neat and organized decorations. Be creative and utilize your decor as storage with baskets or cabinets.

* Create your own wall art. Stencil patterns, wallpaper borders, stick on decals, maps, chalkboards are all inexpensive items to create a rooms uniqueness.

* Replace your lampshades.

* Paint. Paint creates a dramatic change for little money and effort. Be brave and try out new colors. Paint only one wall a vibrant color or paint furniture.

Remember these three items to save money without sacrificing quality – paint, fabric and artwork. Replace cost with your own labor. DIY decorating can be enjoyable and cost effective.

Haunted House Interior Design Tips

October unleashes the truly twisted interior designer inside us all. As a kid, my block degenerated into the haunted house World Series every October 31st, as my dad squared off against the neighbors to see who could summon the most frightening haunted creations.

By the time my siblings and I reached high school, the spirit of Halloween had evolved into a serious design competition. Neighbors that were family friends 11 months out of the year became bitter rivals as the haunted house arms race began to escalate each October. Now that I’m older and have my own interior space to play with, I am ready to carry on the family haunted house tradition. I’ve decided to share a few trade secrets I’ve picked up over the years that will help Real Talk readers maximize their frightening designs. Any reader tips would be greatly appreciated!

The first thing to consider is what kind of space you have to work with. If you’re haunting your backyard, it’s obviously going to follow a different plan that an indoor haunted house, the same principle extends to haunting a school or business, you must change your goals depending on where you are decorating. I’ve known plenty of people who get supplies from their local lumber yard or party store and discover they were the wrong dimensions. Measure, measure, and measure… your measurements must be as accurate as possible. Of course, if you are an experienced interior designer, I probably don’t need to tell you that, but it’s always worth noting.

When designing your house keep a specific target audience in mind. My father may have enjoyed his own twisted glee by scaring children (believe me, we got more than a few crying kids escorted out of our backyard by angry parents), but luckily I think we can assume that he is the exception. So if your haunted house is targeted towards children, don’t go over the top with gore. No severed limbs spurting blood, no axe wielding maniacs chasing the patrons. Maybe a Frankenstein with a silly face or a plastic cauldron with dry ice inside to make it look like some kind of witches brew (but dry ice can be dangerous so don’t let kids touch it). Of course, if you do opt for crazy maniacs stalking your house patrons, make sure you advise them to take it easy on the children. Adding a real human touch to the house is a good idea, and its usually really easy to recruit friends and family to run around and scare people in your haunted house, because it’s really fun. Just make sure they don’t get carried away.

One item that is a necessity for any haunted house is the fake gravestone. This is a very simple prop; you can cut them out of Styrofoam or buy them at a party/costume store. Write whatever you want on the front (we all remember the stones from The Simpsons Halloween special with humorous engravings such as “Bambi’s Mom” “Lose Weight Now Ask Me How” “Slapstick” and “American Workmanship”). These fake gravestones are a perfect way to set the mood without spending too much money.

Another essential tool is haunted lighting. There is an infinite number of ways to set up Halloween lighting for your haunted house. Just remember that dark is scarier than light, so you have to be subtle. Use your lights to craft creepy shadows to step up the horror. There is usually a wide array of lights available at any party or costume shop, especially around Halloween time. There are lights shaped like bats, pumpkins or any other creepy element you want. Even department stores like Wal-Mart of Target will carry decorations such as these. To upgrade the fearsome atmosphere, music or ambient scary sounds are a must. Again, most stores will carry Halloween sounds during October and the right sounds in the right parts of your haunted house can really add to the spooky ambiance.

In addition to sounds and lights, a smart ghostly designer never skimps on plastic/rubber creepy crawlies. Buy kilos of fake bats and bugs and place them strategically around the haunted house to add that extra bit of fear and shock to the haunted experience. Another fun ghostly technique is placing a white sheet over a helium balloon, it will look like a ghost is hovering overhead!

Last but not least, consider your budget and be realistic. It’s easy to get excited and go overboard while designing a haunted house because the creative possibilities are endless. If you design a ridiculously scary haunted house but don’t have the money or time to execute it properly your devilish plans could fall apart before your eyes, but don’t let that restrict your ghoulish dreams, get motivated and be creative! There’s no reason you can’t make your neighbors jealous, because creativity and financial resources don’t always have go hand and hand.