heres the deal

my last room mate was the quiet type and really didnt like people coming over to hang out, but my new one shares my mindset in that we need to have our home be entertaining and fun to be in.

we both HATE the white walls throughout the place, but for now we are just going to deck out the living room. painting is a must, but seeing tiny color swatches online doesnt help, and neither of us has much experience in decorating.

we have beige sofas with a matching tv console thing and our coffee/end tables are old ironish looking with glass tops. the room is a big rectangle with a balcony sliding glass door on one side, and on an adjacent side has an opening to the kitchen, a bit of wall where the tv is, and then another opening to the kitchen/hall.

kinda like this |~ _x_ ~ [ where the bracket is a sliding glass door and the x is a tv (the openings to the kitchen are ~). the wall opposing that and opposing the glass door are both big and flat. we cant paint the ceiling because its that cottage cheese crap and the carpet is a grey similar to worn asphalt or the bar that says thread tools/rate this thread etc that heads each page.

we wanted something like red/orange/yellow... any suggestions?


also, where do we buy decorative stuff...pier one is EXPENSIVE and ikea doesnt have that much cool stuff.


if i could redo everything it wouldnt be difficult, but the carpet and white glass door blinds have to stay, as well as the furniture we already have. in a couple of years we have to return it to white, so nothing too crazy

thanks in advance!!!!

 

im an idiot...move this please....no wonder i never saw any similar questions

 

i give up

 

Well, nice stuff is pricey. I purchased most of my stuff at levitz and Raymour & flanagan.

Treat every room as it's own and give each room some character. Go buy some books at the local bookstore that show you examples of mixed patterns. www.benjaminmoore.com allows you to order $5 samples of their paints to throw on your walls before you commit to a whole gallon.

 

Dude, Pier 1 is relatively cheap, IMO... compared to the rest. However, if you want the Pier 1 style really cheap.... Target is the place to go. I bought a ton of shit at Pier 1 a few weeks ago only to find the same exact shit at Target for half the price the next day. I swear they share a designer or something.

 

well, cheap stuff is more expensive in the long run as you end up trashing it or throwing it away.

Try to think of what you want to spend your money on; should probably include things you will want to use for years.

Try hitting flea markets, used furniture shops, estate auctions, etc. There is an incredible amount of crap at those things, but for every 1000 pieces of shit, there will be one thing that you like, and you will get it cheaply.

Ikea's stuff looks stark, primarily because their settings are jam-packed, and their stuff is consistently modern. Taken out of context, some of their stuff is really rather nice.

Paint, strong colored paint, is both exciting and risky to work with. Darker colors, in my opinioin, make space look larger, because they conceal shadow lines, and create the illusion of depth.

Try intense colors - red, yellow - on a patch first. Keep in mind that the excitement of a brash color can wear out rather quickly.

 

While I agree with what you said ... it sounds like he is in an apartment. I wouldn't remcommend a dark color because it is harder to cover when it is time to leave.

In the "luxury" apartments that we lived in before buying our house, there was a trend as to the "in" colors. The most commen is a mid-shade of brown/taupe with white moulding and warm wood accents. Since I don't see that color spectrum well, I'm afraid I can't narrow it down to a specific color ... but my wife always thought it looked nice and I think we can trust her taste.

 

youre right. the stuff only needs to last a couple of years. when i say stuff to decorate with, i mean silly little things like candles and baskets and pictures. a little elephant at pier 1 that would fit our attempted north african theme costs 75$

we have had the main furniture (from levitz) and the projection tv and the surround sound and all that for a year now, we just want to spice up the walls. everything in the living room is really expensive since my old, soon to return room mate is loaded. we have super nice sofas and end tables and stuff, but the white walls are gross and make the room cold. i want to spruce it up before my other roomy returns next year because he is not 'chic' or 'fashionable' at all, so he would only hurt the process IMO

faint colors like mint green are cool, but i think it will make a big room seem cold. i am leaning toward a chestnut/maroon color with a north african theme (so it looks kinda like a market with cloth sashes on the wall and floor cushions and stuff

 

like i said, that $75 pier1 elephant can be had at target for $8. trust me.

 

gonna head out to the oaktown hood and see what they have.


btw...you should actually make banstrong bracelets...i would buy 5 at least