Simple Ways to Makeover Your Home

You can make your dwelling instant-chic by following tips from experts and friends.

If your cabinets aren't fancy, then make them bright, recommends Glamour Magazine. You can also use a dark paint, hang art, paint a dresser a colorful color, hang drapes and shelves high, fix up the bed, use plates as art, and skip the entertainment center and go for something creative.

If you have a big wall you can hang a large canvas to be dramatic, cluster floor lamps, center a brightly-colored dresser with a lamp, art, jewelry box, perfume bottle, and a small vase of flowers. Then next to it have three pictures over your mantel which sports three figurines and is finished off with a small chair and pillow in front of a rug.

For the bedroom use a Japanese screen as a background for the wall and have a seating area at the foot of the bed.

Use an old TV stand with doors to put desk lamps, flowers, and a couple of fancy plates on top, then load the interior to keep sheets or blankets.

Tennis star Venus Williams is also a decorator in her spare time and in the September 2005 Cosmopolitan (cosmomag.com), she recommends personalizing your décor, injecting character into each piece, picking a focal point, playing with texture, softening lighting, and maximizing your space. Williams pairs bright red chairs with beige sofas, a large white lantern light, art over one of the couches, then ending the decoration with metal tables filles with books, magazines and a couple of knick-knacks on top of a comfy rug.

Universal Lighting has elegant chrome and glass wall lights to help you out if you want to replace central ceiling lights.

If you're into stenciling you could match a curtain design to make the floor have character, recommends decorator Monte Friedman. Use cool blue to soothe your sleepy soul on the bedroom walls.