PHOTOS BY DAN IEL LIPPITT

How to put your personal mark on your
new digs without going broke.

ROBIN SCHWARTZ KREGER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

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Top: Terri Rosen hung Indonesian bed rolls above the couch —
a travel memory and splash of color all at the same time.

Center : It's not which books you have — it's how you
stack them, as seen in Adrienne Lenhoff's apartment.

Bottom: Touches of childhood in Terri Rosen's apartment.

o you finally moved out of Mom and
Dad's house and into your own pad.
The freedom to come and go and do
as you please is refreshing, but
your place is cramped, bare and plain.
There are ways to decorate on a limit-
ed budget. Before pulling out your cred-
it card and doing some damage you can't
fix, think first about style.
Most home decorators agree that qual-
ity is more important than quantity.
Mary Anne Young, author of The Corn-
plete Idiot's Guide to Decorating, says
most young people tend to buy cheap
items. "Start out with a few pieces that
are of good quality," she suggests.
When she lived in Washington, D.C.,
Jennifer Zalenko, 26, furnished her
apartment for $250.
"We looked at advertisements in local
papers for furniture, got couches for free
through a newspaper ad [that said] 'free
sofabed for the first person who comes to
take it' We got a king-size sheet in a neu-
tral, dark color at [a department store]
on sale and covered the couch."
Ms. Zalenko now lives in Royal Oak,
where her apartment is decorated with
a few items she picked up while travel-
ing and a few items she created herself.
"My rug is from Morocco. When I'm
traveling I find deals, things that are sort
of neat and artsy, lots of things from art
fairs," she says.
According to Ms. Zalenko, the little
things are what spruce up a room, "like
candlesticks or dried flowers."
As far as furniture essentials, she sug-
gests buying a "nice kitchen table with
comfortable chairs" or an inexpensive
bookshelf. "If you have wood floors, hav-
ing a nice rug, colorful, really warms up
a room."
She has shopped at garage sales, flea
markets (Royal Oak has a great one every
weekend), Home Depot, Pottery Barn and
discount stores. TJMaxx, Marshall's and
Sam's Club often have unique, affordable
housewares — towel rack, rugs, pillows
or serving pieces in last year's design.
"You could find old furniture at garage
sales or that people are throwing away,"
and with a little stripping and painting,
make it your own. "I bought antique
chairs for $5, stripped them, bought paint
at Home Depot — you can make a fun
project out of it," Ms. Zalenko says.
Many young people spend most of their
time in one all-purpose room. Ms. Young
suggests buying two items — a comfort-
able sofa and a great rug. "If you have
nothing else, at least you have a place to
sits" she says.
Check out unfinished furniture, too —
you can stain or paint it, and as your
tastes change, paint it again. Or try a
halogen lamp — it lights up the entire
room and costs around $20.

Bare Walls
With no money for paintings or framed
posters, you probably have plenty of pho-
tographs lying around collecting dust.
Find some favorites to hang up. Enlarge
a couple. Group them together, by theme
or by frame. Photos can even liven up
bathrooms.
Ms. Zalenko once found a $15 tapes-
try at the beach. The tie-dyed design cov-
ered an entire wall of her apartment.

Paint
A quick color change is a cheap and
easy way to wake up walls and furniture.
If you are artistically-inclined, Home De-
pot carries the latest line of Ralph Lau-
ren paints. One Ralph Lauren hue even
includes instructions on how to make
your wall look like a pair of old jeans. And
Pottery Barn is a place to find products
for unique painting such as speckling or
marbleizing.

Decorating With Sheets
Use flat bed sheets to cover worn fur-
niture, suggests Leslie Lindsey, author
of Weekend Decorating. Sew two togeth-
er to make a duvet for your bed or table-
cloth for the dining room (even if it's just
a metal folding table).
This End Up, a national chain, makes
custom draperies and pillows at reason-
able prices. You can take home swatch-
es of fabric to make sure the colors work.
Using the same fabric for window
treatments and pillows really helps bring
a room together. For a cheaper alterna-
tive, go to a fabric store and sew your own
pillows, using the same fabric to cover an
inexpensive wooden table (you can buy
one at Bed Bath & Beyond for less than
$10; Kmart for less than $5).

Returns Not Allowed
So you want to furnish your place with
eclectic, original pieces at reasonable
prices. Have you checked out yard sales
and auctions?
A couple I know wakes up at dawn
every weekend to scout out yard sales.
One of their best finds — an antique
record player — sits prominently on a
shelf in the living room. As the saying
goes, "One man's junk is another's trea-
sure."

Kitchen
The cooking-and-eating center can be
brightened up easily and cheaply with
towels and rugs in bright colors (good Se-
lections at Pier One, Pottery Barn). If you
have an interesting collection (teapots,
bottles, etc.), display them on a shelf on
the wall. If you like to cook, hang a pot
rack.
Keep a bowl of fresh fruit on a
counter, grow herbs or stencil your
walls, Ms. Young suggests. In her bright
yellow kitchen, a bird cage hangs over
the table.
If you read decorating magazines, you
will see an enormous number of plants.
And if you are on a limited budget,
plants add a lot to a room. Buy one or
two large ones and instead of putting
them in a plastic container, use a bas-
ket, which warms a room.
Whatever you do, don't buy all of your
furniture and accessories from one place,
Ms. Young says. "I'm a big fan of things
that have meaning," she says. "When you
surround yourself with things you love
... it makes you smile."
According to Georgene Lockwood, au-
thor of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Or-
ganizing Your Life, avoid overindulging
in trendy items.
'Ifs more relaxing to be in an environment
that has less stuff," Ms. Lockwood says. Keep
the unique or beautiful items, and minimize
clutter, she adds. ❑