When decorating my home, or consulting with clients on decorating their homes, I try to always utilize what is already available and on hand.  I personally do not have a decorating budget per-se',  so I have to think outside of the box and be extra creative.
     I know that the term "home staging" in the decorating world is most often used in reference to furnishing and preparing your home to sell.  I look at it a little bit differently.  Your home is the place where a lot of life plays out, and it is the backdrop for the main characters in your life story.  You want your home to reflect your personality and style, and be comfortable for you and your family.  How this ends up looking is different in every single home.  I like to think of "staging" as furnishing your home to live in it, and "re-staging" your home as rethinking and preparing your home to flourish in it!
     So, lets say that your home just doesn't quite feel finished to you, or it needs to be updated, or it just isn't to your taste, etc.  Fixing these issues isn't going to require a huge commitment of money necessarily on your part.  It will require some elbow grease and some creativity, but you can do it!  I believe in you!  So, where do you even start?  At the beginning!

1.  Look at the "bones" of the rooms you need to conquer, and the "bones" of the furnishings you have to work with.  Once again, I am going to use some pictures from my house, because a. they are available, and b.  I feel much better about picking apart my own home then somebody else's!
     This is how the master bedroom of our house looked when we moved in.  YUCK!  I had to see beyond the hideous carpet, the ugly pink paint color, and the disgusting curtains and look at the "bones."

Potential in the "bones"-
A.  You can't see it in this picture because it is all painted the same color....pink, BUT...there is very nice crown molding, baseboards, 6 panel doors, and window frames in this bedroom.  Yeah...they painted it all the same color, unbelievable!
B.  Another plus to this room is that the walls were in really great shape.  They are the typical lath-and-plaster that you find in old houses, but no cracks or holes in them.
C.  Two very cute windows in the room that are not the typical size or shape.  It adds a uniqueness to the room.
D.  Interesting ceiling angles where the dormers are in the roof line.

My "hate list"- (This is the obvious, very fixable stuff I can't stand about this room.)
A.  Gaglicious Carpeting
B.  Pale, pathetic, paint choice
C.  Horrible, ridiculous, nauseating curtains.
D.  Awkward shelf on the wall to hold a t.v.
E.  The furnishings.

     Maybe some of this seems really basic and obvious, but some people just can't see past what is right in front of them, hence the specifics!


Now it's your turn!  Look at the "bones" of your room.  What do you love about the room?  What do you hate about your room?

2.  When you strip the room down to the bare bones, you are left with the basic shell of it.  What do you envision for the flooring?  The trim work?  The wall color?  That's your next step!  
     We re-carpeted the room with a very neutral berber carpet.  The wood work was all painted white, which makes the room have a nostalgic feel characteristic of the era in which the house was built.  We chose to add bead-board and chair rail to the room for visual interest, and once again to add character to the room.  Finally, we painted the walls a versatile tranquil blue.
     While all of these things are a vast improvement from the putrid pink disaster it was, it is still far from looking finished.  This is where the "re-staging" aspect comes in.  First let me point out the flaws with what is going on in this picture!
A.  Notice the two different heights, and wood tones of the bedside stands.  I got them both at garage sales, and well, that's what I had so that's what I used!  They both are well constructed, and in good shape though, so the "bones" of them had potential!
B.  I have a nautical bedspread on the bed, with a north-woods lodge style headboard.  Those aren't even in the same decorating family, and it looks schizophrenic!  Once again though, it's what I had on hand when we moved in!
C.  The lamps are dull.  Black, wrought iron lamp-stands, with blah dirty white lampshades.  That just says snooze to me!
So, what do you do with this when you have no budget to work with?  Work with what you have!  "Re-stage!"


     I am not a flowery type girl, and I didn't want my bedroom to feel overly feminine.  After all, I do share it with my husband, and I want him to like the room too!  Just like I wouldn't enjoy a camouflage or NFL themed room, he wouldn't enjoy flowers!  After two years of looking for exactly what I had envisioned for a bedspread, I FINALLY found it!  And...at Walmart of all places!  I found this beautiful cherry wood head board and foot board at.....drumroll please........freecycle.com!  That's right, it was completely free!  (Shout out to Deb for gifting us with this beautiful piece of furniture!)  The dark furniture is perfect for this room because it provides a visual focal point.  Plus with the ornateness of the bed, as well as the dark contrast with the walls, it contributes a dramatic flare while still keeping things simple.
     Next in the "re-staging" process I tackled the side tables.  My husband cut the legs off of the taller table, so that there was balance.  I painted both tables the same rich chocolate color to fix the problem of the different wood colors.  This was a simple task that cost $10 total.
     Next problem...the lamps.  I found these wonderful, chocolate brown, velvet lampshades at IKEA.  The round shape to them also adds some drama and visual interest.  I spray painted the dull, black, wrought iron lamp stands a tan color, and then top coated them with a very light coat of brown Rust-oleum Multicolor Textured spray paint.  Total cost for lamp re-stage = $22
     The window shades are a light tan, velvet, room-darkening, IKEA find as well.  I went with tan because I didn't want the window shade to be the focal point like it would be if I used brown.