Moving into a new house can sometimes cause a quandry. You can stand and stare at large… blank spaces for weeks wondering just what to do with them. These blank spaces are the walls of your new house or apartment.

Most people have a hard time figuring out what to do with their walls, because their thoughts are limited to just paint and pictures. There’s actually quite a bit more you can do to decorate your walls though, and here are a few of my favorite tips:

1. Create shadow boxes. These are especially nice to do as remembrances of loved ones who are no longer with us. If you want to create a shadow box for grandparents for instance, but you don’t have anything handed down from them that could easily be used in this decoration, try visiting around to yard sales and flea markets. Find items that fit the timeframe of your grandparent’s lives, or that remind you of them fondly. Use these items in your shadow boxes, then display them in a nice area of your home to symbolize both the love you had for them, and the legacy they left behind.

2. If you love blankets or quilts, there are some very unique ways to decorate your walls with these. Simply attach pieces of wood to your wall, drill holes in them, and put dowel rods in the holes. On these rods you can hang your quilts or blankets just like you can on a regular quilt rack, except this way they decorate your walls. Placing the items just above a sofa is a great way to keep blankets nearby when you watch movies or snuggle up next to the fire. Also, if you enjoy quilting or sewing, you may want to use a similar structure on the wall to hold bolts of fabric for your creations. The walls look lovely, and you’re also organizing your home!

3. Here are just a few other ideas: You can use old windows and some curtains to make a faux window in a room without enough windows. Your can use old picture frames to “frame” an oil painting or collage or quotations. Using small vases, you can have fresh flowers hanging on your wall. You could also make part of your wall into corkboard or a set of box frames so that you can display your children’s artwork.

So there you have multiple, easy, and inexpensive ways to uniquely decorate your walls!

© 2005, Kathy Burns-Millyard.

This article is provided courtesy of The Do It Yourself Home Decorating Network - http://www.diyhomedecorating.com - a large home decorating website featuring articles, tips, advice, and popular decor shopping. This article may be freely published on any website, as long as the author, copyright, website address and link, and this notice are left intact.

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It’s fun taking something apart and putting it back together again in a new creative way. I work in an office where we had a lot of old promotional type posters that were very expensively matted and framed. Now that we’re moving to a new office we wanted something new, but didn’t want to spend a lot of money decorating. We decided to disassemble the old frames and re-use the mats to frame new prints.

We made a visit to a local craft store and found an abundance of inexpensive artwork in all sizes, ranging in price from $1.49 to $40.00. Definitely within our budget. We picked out several beautiful floral prints and framed them with the old mats and frames. Disassembling the old prints included tearing off most of the prints that had previously been glued to the mats, but I just tore it all off and used scotch tape to tack down the new prints.

The new prints don’t have to completely fit your frames or mats, either. It was hard finding prints that were just the right size. Don’t be afraid to move the print around in a mat that’s a little too small. Often you can cover some edges of the print and not take away from the overall effect of the picture at all. Just trim edges where necessary to make the print fit (after you’ve double checked your positioning within the mat). You can also buy bigger mats to make a smaller print fit in a larger frame.

If you don’t care if all of your frames match, it’s very inexpensive to shop thrift stores and yard sales for cheap prints and re-use the mats and frames for new prints. Or go through some of your own old prints and redecorate!

Also, when looking for inexpensive prints, don’t limit yourself to poster prints. Postcards and greeting cards also look great framed. Add a mat and you’ll never be able to tell the difference.

You don’t need a lot of special tools to get started. All you really need is possibly a screwdriver for disassembling frames, a ruler to make sure your print is straight, some tape for attaching the print to the mat, and a pencil and scissors for marking and trimming prints that don’t quite fit.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to have great wall art. It just takes a little planning ahead to match print sizes to frames and match colors. Have fun, and use your imagination! A beautiful picture really brightens up a room, and you can create your own easily and inexpensively.

Originally published at Suite 101. Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom who is the author of What’s for Dinner?, an e-cookbook containing more than 250 quick easy dinner ideas. For easy do-it-yourself home decorating ideas for busy moms, visit http://www.frugal-home-decor.com

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The color that you choose greatly affects the decor and window coverings. Colors establish a mood and feel of a room, and when used properly can create different illusions. Using neutral or lighter colors such as grays and cream colors will give you an impression of spaciousness, where the darker colors can make a big room feel more intimate.

Warming colors have the ability to make a room more cheerful and give it a livelier disposition. On the other end, cool colors are a more relaxing and soothing feel. When choosing your decor color scheme, consider the effect that you are trying to achieve. Sometimes it is tricky to choose the right tints, shades or the tones in order to get your desired look. So understanding how to use the color wheel can greatly help you in choosing your decor colors.

How does the color wheel work for decorating.

Time and effort spent first choosing your perfect color scheme will repay you back every time you enter your room or open your curtains First here are some basics using the color wheel. A monochromatic color scheme will use various intensities and values of just one color. Using this color style is relaxing since it allows your eye to flow from one shade into the next. This creates the illusion of space. Implementing patterns and textures into this scheme is recommended. Having two or three colors falling next to each other using the color wheel creates an analogous color scheme. So pick your favorite color as the dominant and accent with the others.

Here are some complimentary color schemes.

Two or more ways to choose your home decorating color would be complimentary color schemes, which are made up of two colors which are exact opposite from each other on the color wheel. Their style will produce a dramatic and unusually stimulating effect. This bold effect will be softened if you use one color as the predominant with the other color as an accent color. Split-complimentary is matching one color from the wheel not to its complimentary color but to a pair of colors on either side of its complimentary color. Red would be teamed not with green but with shades of yellow and blue green. Varying the intensities of colors will have the best effect.

Daryl Plaza is the owner of: http://www.windowcoveringresource.com - a website focused on helping people to understand more about their window coverings and how important your decors designs are. We have resources and reviews on window coverings, window covering ideas and tips so you can learn more before you buy your window treatments.

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