How to decorate and furnish your home: 91 great

You can't wait to get started on your home decorating project, but taking a few minutes beforehand can save you time, money, and aggravation down the road. Looking to freshen up your home decor or decorate for the season? read this book to get dozens of great home decorating ideas, easy to implement furnishing  tips, and inspirations. Whether you want to beautify the bathroom or liven up the living room, you'll find here designer decorating tips to help you renovate any room in your home. Here's just a small sample of the tips included: A mural-pattern wallpaper makes a small room appear larger. No shelf space in your office? Hang slatted boxes for storage of scissors, envelopes, even a cassette recorder. Drape a shade-loving ivy in the topmost box. If you have an Indian print bedspread that you don't use, hang it full-width across a window. Open it diagonally across half the window and secure it with a tieback. For a quick, easy, and inexpensive way to recover a chair, drape a twin-size sheet over the chair, and tie or pin the corners to fit. Use mix-and-match wallpapers to simplify the problem of papering adjoining rooms without visual clashes. A pretty or unusual blanket can substitute for a table cloth. Mexican serapes and Indian bedspreads make colorful, inexpensive table cloths-great for picnics) too. Fasten bright and colorful paper shopping bags to the wall for storage of art supplies and other lightweight items. To make a high ceiling seem lower paper it with a bold pattern. To make a low ceiling seem higher) paper it with a small print or a texture. To brighten up the office) put pencils and pens in a flowerpot and use a music stand for a magazine rack. You'll never have trouble tightening screws and bolts if you remember that) for most) right is tight and left is loose. A basketful of pinecones in front of the fireplace gives a room a feeling of friendliness. In the fall, buy gourds at the supermarket. Use them for a month or so in an arrangement, then put them somewhere warm and dry for a while. The gourds become very light as they dry) and the colors mute beautifully with age. Add a miniature hammock to a corner in a child's room to make a place for all his or her stuffed animals. Keep your decorative baskets looking healthy by placing them away from dry heat. A nonworking fireplace, primed and freshened with paint, makes a comfortable niche for a sewing machine table or an aquarium. A stairway landing is the perfect place for an armoire. Line it with attractive fabric and fill it with linens, coats, or out-of-season clothes. Display flowers in unusual vases-a crystal ice bucket, a fluted champagne glass, a bright coffee mug or jug. Flowers, in fact, look good in almost any container. Turn your bathroom into a miniature gallery with pictures you don't have space for elsewhere-so long as they aren't works that can be damaged by the humidity that collects in a bathroom. If you don't want to buy furniture, you can rent it at surprisingly reasonable rates. Furniture for rent includes everything from sofas and carpets to lamps and works of art. A silver goblet is perfect for holding candies or cigarettes on a coffee table. To keep drying flowers dust-free, cover them with plastic bags punched with air holes. When the flowers have dried, spray them with hair spray.