Change the Paint, Change the Look

• Old white chair with new shiny black paint and new cushion covers
  
  Paint is a do-it-yourself decorator's best friend. Use it on your walls and ceilings to emphasize the architectural details of your home, to make rooms look larger or cozier and to give them an entirely new personality. Learn to do a faux finish project to change your walls to faux stucco, marble or even a suede look.
  
  Here is a home decor project that will make you feel like you have new furniture. Whether it's a thrift store find you paint and give an antique finish or older furniture of your own, be bold and dramatic. Try a new sophisticated look for a piece of furniture. Paint it all glossy chocolate brown or crisp black. Then re-cover the cushions in a dramatic, high-contrast print. The lines of the pieces will suddenly stand out, and you won't believe it's the same piece of furniture.
  
  

Change the Accessories, Change the Feel

• Groups of framed art or mirrors can create a new focal point in a room. At the end of a dining room, for example, do a wall of mirrors. Hang a melange of different sizes of mirrors in ornate gold frames for a formal look. Or hang three long rectangle mirrors framed in bright red side by side for a contemporary look. Hang together unframed mirrors in every possible size to add excitement to any room.
  
  Another refreshing look is to hang identically framed and sized photos side by side all along one wall. Or hang just enough of them to extend the width of the couch or buffet table. A creative home decor project for a child's room is to find a simple painting or photo of a head and shoulders and then make it three dimension. Glue actual fabric over the clothing in the photo. Place different fabric on the background of the painting. Go over features or objects in the painting with three-dimensional paint or fabric. Then frame it. Suddenly, you have a new, whimsical piece of art.
  
  Don't be afraid to frame and hang your own or your children's art. Create shadow boxes with toys and mementos.
  
  

Fall in Love with One Thing, and Spread It Around

• Typically, do-it-yourself decorators can't or don't go out and buy whole rooms full of new furniture. They do a project at a time. Go ahead, if you can, and buy that slipper bench upholstered in red, black and gold print. Then add red and gold accent pillows to the couch, and maybe even black lampshades on a couple lamps. If your "hero" piece is pastel, then pick up those colors in pillows, throws, candlesticks and objets d'art. One big splash of color and many little coordinated details rejuvenate your interior. Often, one piece of furniture or art you really love can be the springboard for a entirely new color theme in a room.
  
  

Change the Window Treatment, Change the View

• Do-it-yourself window treatment
  
  Here is a good afternoon home decor project. Buy one continuous length of fabric about 24 feet long for one 8-foot-high window that's about five feet across. Buy decorative hardware or tiebacks and install like upside down hooks, as much as a foot above the window frame. Swoop your fabric across the window with a dip in the middle, held at each corner by the tiebacks. Now your window is all dressed up, and you did it yourself.