Decorating on a budget

Money is tight now-a-days for most of people, but that doesn’t mean that you should avoid home improvements. Modern furniture and decorations can be expensive. People tend to think that a modern looking decor is simply out of their price range. Luckily, there are several projects you can do yourself to help give your home a little more style on a budget.

Rather than buy new furniture, consider doing some renovations on your existing pieces. In the bedroom for example, you could spruce up the décor in your room by adding some style to your existing headboard. Find a fabric color or pattern that you like and use it to create a padded headboard. All you need is some fabric, some stuffing, and a staple gun. Attach the fabric to the headboard; add the stuffing material for some added padding, and then staple it closed. Creating your own padded headboard instead of buying one from a furniture store can save you hundreds of dollars.

Here is a neat tutorial from Charissa that will teach you how to make your own tufted headboard.

(above) Ultra modern look achieved by just attaching 2 large closet doors together with metal brackets. Feels kinda like a chic boutique hotel, doesn't it?(via)

What to do about those drabby walls at home? Adding wall art to the home is a good way to cover up those bland walls, but it can really drain your budget. Splurging on expensive modern pieces may not be the best way to decorate on a budget. Rather, wall flats are a great way to cover up those walls while simultaneously providing a modern, futuristic look. Wall flats produce deliberate,modern patterns to complete that simple, yet contemporary look to your room. Not only that, but it is an easy, fun project with very rewarding results. These modern wall flats I found at All Modern are a great way to add some texture and breathe life into an old wall.

(above) Inhabit - Braille Wall Flats available at All Modern. Designed to expand in any direction with an automatic pattern repeat, the Braille Wall Flats - Set of Ten can be used to cover an existing wall, help disguise a not-so-smooth wall or add a modern pattern to any room setting

(above) Inhabit - Seesaw Wall Flats available at All Modern

Unique center pieces and sculptures don’t need to be purchased at an art auction. You’d be surprised by the number of great looking pieces you can find and flea markets and garage sales, such as these cool looking orange reconditioned phones. What was one persons junk could easily become a decorative accent piece for your home. Do a little leg work and you can probably find some interesting pieces at a fraction of what it may be worth!

Design is...

"Design is 70% dealing with people, 3% the idea, 2% selling the idea, 2% the brief, 2% being pig headed, 1% printing, 3% eye for detail, .6% invoices, 2% coffee, .7% tracking, .1% warm glow, .6% panic, 1% 4am, .6% staring, .2% checking, 1% letting go, .8% keeping hold, .7% estimates, .3% checking, .4% proofs, .1% colour, .9% understanding, .4% marketing, 1% checking, .8% beach ball, .5% mice, .3% keynotes, .4% persuasion, .2% bragging, .5% smiling, 2% knowing when to stop.

Duane King (via viafrank)

Perfect shade of turquoise

Gorgeous pictures of Chinatown (LA) taken by A Field Journal here. I just love the turquoise shade of the sky and the yellow lanterns.

Rachel Papo

Gorgeous pictures taken of a ballet company in St Petersburg by Rachel Papo. More here. (via oh joy)

Coloured Can Goods

These can goods designed by Avigail Bahat, a student at Shenkar school of design in Tel aviv are definitely appealing to the eye. Not too sure if I would dare eat the contents though. (via The Dieline).

60's inspired wedding

I love these wedding table designs by Courtney of Flush Designs The dash of pink to black gives the entire deco such a soft sophisticated feel that is both modern and romantic. The design of the table is 60's inspired by mid century Paris.

(Above) Balloons with escort cards tied with pink ric rac ribbon would guide guest's to their table.

To bring in more of the mid 60's Parisienne cafe inspiration, Courtney used espresso cups as little vases to hold flowers.

By keeping in the theme with the 60's feel while keeping to the budget, Courtney also used old records, a vintage camera, and candy cigarettes to complete the look. How clever!

More gorgeous designs can be seen on Courtney's blog. (via oncewed)

Clothes Pin Trash Holder

What a brilliant design by Hommin to keep your trash! I love how simple, light and collapsable this design is.

Recycle your wooden crate

I simply love this bike box that ciclismodesign made from an old wine crate. These boxes can be custom made to fit your bike and will be available here soon!

And who would have thought that a simple wooden wine crate could be turned into something as so divine as these pet beds and feeders? Available here (via Poetic Home).

Cardboard

It is amazing how creative one can get with just cardbox. Here are a few examples of how you can turn a piece of corrugated cardbox into something quite unexpected. Cardboard blankets by Diane Steverlynck
James Roberts' cardboard hangers available here.

A business card on a piece of cardboard.(via allgraphicdesign).

BioTube Bench by Julian Lwin. (via Inhabitat)

Installation made from honeycombed cardboard panels and rolled up fabric by CJ Lim/Studio 8 Architects at the subway entrance in London. (via Dezeen)

Cardboard office by French artist Paul Coudamy. (via Dezeen)

Another cardboard office by Dutch designer Joost van Bleiswijk. (via Dezeen)

Heavenly Hats

I have been kinda into hats eversince I saw Changeling and fell in love with every single hat (and outfit) that Angelina Jolie wore. Love the hats by Heavenly Hats too, not that I could pull a felt hat like this off in the sweltering heat in Singapore.

Eraser USB memory stick

This eraser USB memory stick is designed by studioroom906. It's form is defined by the user and usage over time. How neat!

Laissezfaire selected by "Blogs of Note"

Gee....I wasn't quite expecting this and am still over the moon to be selected as an "interesting and noteworthy blog" by who else but the blogger team themselves at Blogs of Note on March 13! I am deeply honoured to be selected out of the millions of blogger-powered blogs out there to be featured by blogger!

Thank you so much blogger team and thank you to all the visitors that came by to visit! Hope you will come again for more inspiration! xoxo

Leather Paper Bag

Someone please get me this leather paper bag!! (via Ohjoy)

Animal A-Z Poster

I am so loving this super adorable animal poster by Ink + Wit.

Boxed water

I can't decide whether I like the packaging or the idea of this more.

Evolved individuals

Evolved individuals know that people who are not intuitive can be dangerous to work with, since they are guided solely by the current appearance of things that are in reality, changing. Evolved individuals seek out others who have intuition and vision - a form of intelligence that comes from cultivating the instincts, observing the direction of change, apprehending the evolution of ideas.”
— Lao Tzu

via Swissmiss

Make a complete set of dining chairs

What a wonderful idea to paint a bunch of different chairs to make them look like they are from the same set! (via Howaboutorange)

Taipei Performing Arts Center Proposal by NL Architects

This design was proposed by NL Architects in a design competition for the Taipei Performing Arts Center to host a variety of large-scale performances.

There is something really amazing about the aesthetics of this project that I love yet can't quite put my finger to it. Perhaps it is the fact that I like large void spaces. I just love how the structure is actually a simple white cube with its inner volume subtracted, like a mouse eating in a cube of cheese with square teeth.

In the end, Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) won the competition as other pragmatic concerns, such as the poor acoustics in such a huge structure, took over.

I would love to be inside this space. Looking up, peering down to the performances held within.
via designboom

The real crisis? We stopped being wise

Something inspirational I heard recently and would like to share with everyone. I totally agree with Barry Schwartz that while some rules are important, we could do with less in many instances as they often fail us and ensures mediocrity.

"A wise person is MADE not BORN. Wisdom depends on experience....you need permission to be allowed to improvise, to try new things, occasionally to fail and to learn from your failures..."

" Rules...spare you from thinking....Moral skill is chipped away by an over reliance on rules that deprives us of the opportunity to improvise and learn..."

Part-time position available

Pupsik Studio is currently looking for responsible and people-oriented individuals to join them part-time starting 1 April 2009. Hours: 5-7 days a week, min 6 hours a day. Basic pay + commission on sales.

If you enjoy selling beautiful baby products like you see here and love meeting people in a large retail environment, please drop them an email at hello@pupsikstudio.com. Do share a little more about yourself. e.g. your age, what you currently do and why you would like to be considered for this position. Students currently waiting for results and are available over the next few months can also apply.

All suitable candidates will be contacted by email. Open to Singapore residents only.

Do help forward this to someone whom you think may be suitable and interested in this position. Thanks!

Le Colonel

Gorgeous accessories by french fashion designer Julia who just started her own Label called "Le Colonel". Mad about military embroidery, plaid and lace, Julia mixes modernity, glamour and feminity with designs inspired from the'20s. I just love her sense of style and the way she chooses to showcase her creations. Do check out her website for more.

James Merrell

I love these ephemeral images taken by James Merrell. And I am officially and totally into shacks after seeing these images below. Who needs a holiday if you have a room like this?

Winner of the Vinyl Silhouettes Giveaway!

I roped in my two year old to help randomly choose a winner for the decal giveaway sponsored by vinylsilhouttes. View video above to find out who the lucky person is. Thanks to all who took part and congratulations to our winner!

GIVEAWAY - Personalised Vinyl Silhouettes

For some reason, I can never get enough of decals. I guess my affection for it stems from my childhood obsession with stickers and pretty much everything that sticks. While there are quite a few decal design companies out there, I have not come across anything like Vinyl Silhouettes.

Vinyl Silhouettes is a new decal company that allows you to turn a personal photograph into a wall decal! With a growing popularity in silhouttes, these decals allow you to personalise and customise the look of your room in minutes.

You can choose to do a profile of your kiddo to immortalise his/her head, or go for a full body profile.

More lovely ideas on what you can do can be found here.

Vinyl Silhouettes will be giving a lucky reader of this blog the opportunity to do a custom head profile decal of one of your loved ones: child, pet etc. It can be any color and any size up to 30" tall! To enter, simply email me at ztansl@gmail.com with the subject heading "Vinyl Silhouettes" and tell me what you would like to turn into a decal. I will pick a winner at random on Friday, Feb 20th.

Thanks Vinyl Silhouettes for sponsoring this giveaway!