Love the Look?
Nine ideas you can re-create for less than $100.
Use several small mirrors to big effect. Instead of hanging one large, pricey mirror, collect a number of small ones (you can even find them used) and arrange them in a pattern for maximum impact. Designer Frank Roop hung nine mirror-backed sconces in a niche off the entry.
Create contrast with cushions. Instead of reupholstering an entire couch or chair, slipcover just the cushions in a contrasting color or coordinating pattern. Roop used several fabrics for the daybed in the living room.
Trim lampshades with ribbon. A cream-colored linen shade in the master bedroom is trimmed with chocolate-colored grosgrain. Roop has all his lampshades custom-made, but you can use a glue gun to affix ribbon around the top and bottom edges of a run-of-the-mill lampshade for a custom upgrade.
Show off your collections. No matter how mundane an object may be, a grouping in the same scale or color scheme elevates them from plain to polished. In the kitchen, the homeowner displays blue and green seltzer bottles.
Use natural objects as accents. Display a gnarled hunk of driftwood or a pretty, jumbo pine cone. A huge clamshell that Roop placed on the dining room table also serves as a vase.
Mix tabletops and bases. For a side table in the sitting area off the dining room, Roop combined a lacquered base with a pattern-stamped bronze top. You can top a wooden cube, stone pillar, or other architectural orphan (or the legs from a ruined table) with a remnant slab of stone or a piece of glass. Play up the contrast.
Paint old furniture a spunky new color. Any piece of furniture can be transformed with glossy paint. The colors to try right now: chartreuse, tomato red, inky black, or white. Roop had vintage faux bamboo chairs re-lacquered in light celery green.
Frame your finds. Be it a kimono from your trip to Japan or a feather you plucked off the ground in the Everglades, framing a sentimental piece can add an exotic touch. Roop had a child's dress that the homeowner brought back from India framed; it now hangs in a bedroom.
Layer colors in your curtains. Buy pre-made, tab-top curtain panels in three different colors (or three shades of the same color), cut them lengthwise in thirds, and sew them back together for a multi-colored effect. In the living room Roop had three equally sized pieces of linen stitched together for each curtain. In the sitting room off the dining area, he used three more colors, this time in varying widths. (Don't sew? Your dry cleaner won't charge much for a few simple seams.)
