Quick and Easy Updates

Fresh from the fashion runway, aqua blue, cocoa, and tangerine provide a tasty color palette for this dining room. Start bold with shades of blue on the walls, vinyl floorcloth, and window shade. Layer on cocoa in lengths of toile clipped to rods for no-sew curtains. Add punch with bold ribbon wrapped around the table, a chandelier spray-painted silver and topped with painted shades, and tangerine accessories.

 

A sweet piece, such as this flowered dessert plate, can inspire an entire color scheme and guide the direction of a makeover. This floral pattern, fashion-forward in a fresh color, triggered the search for other updated classics, such as the toile pattern that appears in the curtain fabric.

A cheap trick: Pay a little more for dessert plates in a dynamite pattern and mix them with budget-smart dinnerware.

 

Add personality to a plain piece of furniture with this easy project. Wrap ribbon around the apron of a table and hold in place with double-sided tape. It's so simple, you'll be embarrassed to accept the rave reviews -- but go ahead anyway.

 

A ready-made seat cushion marks the spot with newly covered buttons and a ribbon X. Follow the simple directions on a covered button kit, stitch through the cushions to attach the buttons, and tie 1/8-inch-wide ribbons around their shanks.

 

Support the room's theme with a fun collection of updated classics, such as the plastic platter with a stylized bird design. Collections offer the perfect avenue for adding the season's favorite hues -- here, tangerine and aqua -- to a basic palette. Want to change your color preferences? Just refresh the cabinet's contents.

 

Add details that make your collection shine. That's the trick behind covering the back of this cabinet with wrapping paper in a subtle pattern and color. To make this a temporary treatment, spray the back of the paper with removable adhesive or attach fabric using clear plastic tacks.

For a shabby-cheap collection, splurge on one great find and shop the Internet and discount stores for no-name companion pieces in coordinating colors or patterns.