Instead of my regular columns, I thought you might enjoy a six-part series that will take you through the steps to decorate your home to look like a model. In the series of columns I will be including actual budget numbers I used to decorate a model home.
First, I believe that designing on a budget doesn’t mean cheap and tacky. It is where and how you spend your decorating dollars that counts. Since 95% of us do not have unlimited decorating budgets, I’m basing this series on a fairly inexpensive, but actual model from my portfolio. Remember through the series, you can decide exactly where your budget and decorating priorities are.
As with any decorating project you need to start with a budget, so that’s where we’re going to start. We’ll look at each decorating category and what I spent; then each week go into more detail on decorating within that budget.
The model that I’m going to use is 3189 square feet with the following rooms: Living, Dining, Family, Nook, Kitchen, 4 Bedrooms, Master Retreat, Loft, 3 full Baths and a Laundry. My client had a budget of $ 15.50 per square foot or $ 49,430 and below is what I spent in each category.
FURNITURE was 45% of the budget. Furniture represents the largest pieces in your home and a category where you spend the majority of your budget. Furniture shouldn’t be bought on a whim since they are items that are not replaced for years.
DRAPERIES were 12% of the budget. Window treatments add so much to a room and frame your windows with style and color, so I don’t scrimp here. In part 3, I’ll share how to get the most from your budget with fabric, styles and added touches that make all the difference.
BEDDING was 11% of the budget. Many times I spend a little more here, but I was able to get some great store sales, so I only did custom bedding in the master.
ARTWORK was 14% of the budget. Artwork dresses your walls and conveys your theme and color scheme. In this price range all of the pieces were selected from a collection of posters that were pre-matted and framed. I find that I can purchase larger pieces with more matting and better framing then having the same piece custom framed. But it is, what you see is what you get, with no or few changes; so for some pieces custom framing is still the better option.
SILK PLANTS, trees and florals were 8% of the budget. Plants soften a room and bring nature in. Florals are still one of my favorite ways to make a home look like a model as they add an abundance of color.
WALL TREATMENTS were 4% of my budget. When I’m working within a limited budget, I look to paint to add my color. But I still like to use wall treatments to bring in a strong theme. In this price range I’ll only do two to three borders, in the kitchen and then the secondary bedrooms.
ACCESSORIES are the finishing touches and what makes a house a home. On this project I spent 5% of the budget. When working within a budget less is more, so one nice piece for $35.00 is nicer than three at $12.00.
LIGHTING was only 2% of the total. When decorating on a budget lighting becomes a truly functional item. You keep with your theme and color scheme, but you can purchase great lighting packages for a fraction of the cost of even one table lamp.
So to get started and work along with me in this series. To apply this to your home, take the square footage of the area you want to decorate, whether a single room or the whole house and multiple it by $15.50. Then apply the percentages above for each category to establish your decorating budget.
In the next 5 columns, we’ll look at each of the categories in more detail. I will also be posting all of the columns on my web site as they are published in case you miss one. Now it’s time for you to do some homework.