How to: Pull together a room on a budget

With the economic times as they are, pushing your dime as far as it will go is as important as ever. So what can you do to make sure that you get the most for your money, and ensure that you will be 100% happy with the final product once all is said and done?

1. Do your research.
Have a clear idea in your mind about the overall look that you are working toward. There are so many resources that you can pour through to find an overall look that apeals to you. We're not talking color specific here, or even what shape of sofa you like the best. Just focus on how you feel when you look at one picture or another, and try to pin down what feeling you like/dislike about each one. We're looking for good generalities here, like "this room feels open, and I like that" or "this room is so bright, I don't think I like so many bright colors all together." Once you have put a little thought into the general style that appeals to you, start looking at specifics.

2. Look at specifics.
Now we want to look at that couch and that lamp. Try to decide what you like/dislike about each piece. You can really go one of two ways, once you have decided on a style that you like. You can stay very true to the particular style, or you can stray from it to find something more blended. Whatever you choose, you want to make sure that what you put into your room blends well with the other things you choose. Looking at the specifics of each piece can help you make sure you are blending things well. For example, if you like the clean lines on one particular sofa, your overall style preference may be a simple, organized style. On the other hand, if you like the clean lines of that same sofa, you may like it because if provides balance to a more piecy and cluttery style. Decide where you fall and plan to go from there.

3. Things you already own.
Start looking at individual pieces that you already own that will fit into this new vision you have for your style. Chances are that if you bought it, and have kept it around, you either love it or don't quite know what to do with it. If you don't know what to do with it, it may not be something that will work for you (I find I do this with clothes often... anyone else??). Single out pieces that can be used as is, pieces that need or could use refinishing, and pieces that no longer work for you. Look for things you could move from and to different rooms in the house.

4. Start refinishing and repurposing.
The internet has a million plus resorces for repurposing things you already own for different uses. Think outside the box by looking at shapes of things rather than the origional purposes. Packing in as much storage as possible never hurts either. For instance, we currently store our home printer underneath our TV stand because we found that the bookshelf worked better for DVDs in our current apartment, and the printer stays out of sight unless if is in use. Don't be afraid to sand things down and repaint, or put them in a place you never could have pictured them before (just make sure it still fits in with your overall style decisions we talked about before).

5. Don't feel pressured to buy into a current style you hate.
A lot of furniture and interior decor is pricy, and quite frankly a lot of it isn't very good. In the end, you have to (literally) live with your decisions, and it doesn't make sense to spend money on things you hate. If you can live with the couch you have, but spend some money on a new something for the way the livens the space up enough for you, then do that. Don't feel like you have to purchase everything all at once. Buy only things you love at a price you love. This is your style and your decision.

6. Enjoy it!
If you put the effort in to selecting pieces you love, don't forget to sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labors!

Polka Dot Pair

Polka Dot Pair is a blog designed to help educate and inspire everyone who will ever purchase furniture. Through postings that include tips, tricks, education, and information, Polka Dot Pair will be the number one source of information about furniture.

The blog is written by furniture professionals, Kristopher and BriAnna Jenkins, a husband and wife team. This combination of impeccable design (BriAnna—B.S. HFL with Interiors emphasis) and structural quality (Kristopher—B.S. International Business) will create an atmosphere of great design taste and assurance of rigidity where people will naturally gravitate to ensure successful purchases and limit cognitive dissonance or buyers remorse.

The underlying reason why BriAnna and I are doing this blog is to live the life that we dream about. We would both like to have time together to travel, be with family, and have our own home that we can share with both family and friends. We want to show the world that you can do exactly what you love to do and make a very decent living doing that thing. As far as we are concerned, life is very short and we want to live everyday as if it were our last, doing those things that we love to do with the people we love.