Hey Amy!

Yesterday I spent the morning with a dear friend helping her ‘redecorate’ parts of her home.  After shedding 180 lbs of uselessness, it was time to make the home hers.  I walked into a lovely space that was warm and inviting but seemed empty in some areas.  She spoke of wanting to change this and replace that but after spending 20 minutes there, I knew we could make big changes in the living room without spending a lot of money.

She needed color more than anything in the room so off we went to a warehouse style store with a lot of seconds.  Everything was cheap and gorgeous.  We fell in love with a pre-made silk flower arrangement that was $80.00.  Ouch.  I suggested we see if we could do it on our own.  She had a flower vase under her sink at home (How many of us keep all those floral arrangement vases thinking we will reuse?  I think they reproduce at night.) that was a similar shape to the one we loved.  After meticulously picking out the flowers and some rocks, we were heading home for less than $30.  See our lovely creation?

The pop of color helped a lot but we needed to move some things around.  I starting digging out her shelving units and found she had some gorgeous things but they were dark against a dark wood and became invisible.  She was not able to enjoy any of them!  We emptied her shelves first and I surveyed all that she had.  In that moment I convinced her that she didn’t need to spend a dime as she had everything right here.  We rearranged every shelf in the room (9 in all) and purged a lot of the clutter.  It opened up wonderfully and you could actually feast your eyes on her lovely pieces of art, family pictures, and family treasures.

I then took a hard look around the room focusing on areas that were too cramped and others that had too much symmetry and seemed boxy.  We rearranged her mantel, got rid of a few items and did groupings with others.  After moving one small piece of furniture and setting two colorful bottles strategically, she had a brand new room!  The various groupings, color injection, purging and rearranging changed the entire vibe of the room.

The point to this experience is if you are wanting a new look for your home and don’t have the money to redecorate, move some things around.  Put some items away.  Dig out some of those things in the back of the closet that you forgot you have. Move the pictures in the back of the table to the front.  Move some from one room to another.  Look around!  Dig it out!  You will be surprised what an impact small changes in the home can make.

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