My sister was visiting and noticed the smart, little ceramic roaster I had just pulled from the oven.
"Where did you buy that?" she asked admiringly, no doubt expecting to hear I'd snapped it up at an expensive kitchenware store.
"Either Giant Tiger or the Dollar Store, I can't remember," I replied, not aware I would have earned kudos from Ottawa designer Ulya Jensen for designing on a dime.
There's room for inexpensive design in every home. With that in mind, here are some tricks:
* Use the Internet: Designer Leeann Lacroix checks online classifieds for bargains. "Many listings have a photo attached. You save time and money by not having to go all over town to find what you want," she says.
Jensen has also taken to shopping online, but in a different way. She signed up for an online bulletin from Crate & Barrel for notice of sales, and she says she's getting some real bargains.
* Branch out: Explore new stores, auctions, flea markets and seasonal markets.
"A lot of designers -- for example Alfred Sung, Lynda Reeves and Debbie Travis -- have teamed up with more affordable department stores and have their products in those stores. It's good quality and it's nice stuff. Why pay more? It's still got that designer touch," Jensen says.
There are plenty of other places -- from dollar stores on up -- that sell lovely and serviceable things, including my roasting pan.
And many stores have "scratch-and-dent" sections with discount goods that can't be sold for some reason.
* Paint: Everyone agrees that painting is the simplest way to give your home a new look. Lacroix likes choosing colours outside your comfort zone. "Paint is fairly inexpensive, so don't hesitate to experiment."
You don't even have to paint a whole room. You can create a feature wall by painting one wall a different colour. Jensen also suggests painting a border around your artwork.
* Reuse, recycle, repurpose: It doesn't cost a penny to rearrange furniture or move accessories you already have from one room to another.
You can take things one step further by refurbishing what you have. "Be eco-friendly," Lacroix says. "Paint, new hardware and elbow grease can transform any piece of furniture."
* Use colour for punch: If your room is neutral, you can punch it up by adding a few inexpensive, very colourful accessories, says Tamara Robbins Griffiths, a designer with IKEA Canada in Burlington, Ont.
* Use artwork: Griffiths suggests enlarging your own photos and mounting them on the wall to create a display.
You can create dynamic groupings, she says, adding groupings work best when there's a unifying thread. For example, that could mean the photos all have something in common (they're all the same size), or if the photos are mix-and-match, buy frames made of the same material.
Jensen, meanwhile, often contacts artists directly via the Internet. Many will ship paintings.
* Tricks with lighting: Uplights, spotlights, new lights, indirect lights -- lighting can create a lot of ambience, Griffiths says. So add a lamp, or change the lighting in a room. For added effect, get a light with a dimmer.
* Give those windows a treat: "People sometimes overlook windows," says Griffiths, adding that a bit of time and effort spent dressing up windows can pay off -- especially if you use curtains to trick the eye into thinking windows are taller or wider than they really are. A curtain rod, some fabric, and there you go, for about as little as $40.
-- Canwest News Service
