When it comes to decorating your home, the choices are many.

From flea markets to furniture stores, from Costco to custom manufacturers, sources abound for furniture and accessories that can add function and style to rooms.

But with so many price points to choose from, how do we know where to spend and where to splurge?

Many turn to Lauri Ward for guidance.

Ward is the mother of interior redesign, the concept of decorating by rearranging and reusing things you already own. She's president of Use What You Have Interiors, a design firm in New York and Florida, and the founder with her husband of the Interior Redecorators Network (www.interiorredecorators.com), an organization of decorators who are trained and certified in her methods. She's also written four books on interior redesign, including "Use What You Have Decorating and Downsizing Your Home With Style."

As the nature of her work implies, Ward doesn't advocate spending with abandon. Many times, you can find what you need just by "shopping" your own home, she said. It just requires developing an ability to look at your possessions with new eyes and see their potential.

But sometimes, she said, paying more for good-quality pieces is a smart investment that saves money in the long run.

"If you get good basics and classic pieces ... they will just always hold on," she said.

Ward said she would put money into a good-quality seating in clean-lined, classic styles and solid colors no exaggerated rolled arms, no plaids or prints that won't stand the test of time. You can always update sofas and chairs with inexpensive throw pillows that can be replaced or recovered whenever your tastes change.

Ward believes armless chairs are smart for the living and dining rooms, especially in smaller spaces. At the dinner table, armless dining chairs let you fit two people at each end of the table on holiday dinners, she noted. In the living room, armless upholstered chairs take up less space than bigger chairs with arms, and you can get into them from three sides, not just one.

See the original post:
Decorator offers tips on where to splurge, scrimp

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April 18, 2014 at 11:47 pm by Mr HomeBuilder
Category: Interior Decorator