6 quick and easy ways to update a dated room

Christina — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Post written at Little Victorian, original here: 6 quick and easy ways to update a dated room.

On the way home from our big trip, we stayed at an absolutely wonderful hotel in Seattle. It’s a beautiful historic hotel, but unfortunately, it seems the historical status of the place is keeping them from updating the decor.

As I’ve mentioned before, I can hardly walk into a room without redecorating it in my head. But this room got me thinking about how many rooms there are out there that aren’t ugly, they’re just dated. Those rooms could still keep their traditional or Victorian styles and just make some very minor, easy and inexpensive tweaks to make them fresh and current again.

Here are 6 quick projects I recommend to update a dated room (and they don’t require a big budget!):

1. Update the artwork.

Lucky for this room, scientific botanical prints are very popular right now and maps will always be a great choice. But what could be updated are the mats. The dusty rose is dating these. (And it’s not the color itself–it’s the way the color is used.) Black is a classic choice that will never be dated.

The frames could be changed out too, but in this room, I wouldn’t. I think the gold compliments the room and doesn’t stray too far from the style of the Chippendale bed.

2. Update the blanket.

Blankets are pretty inexpensive items that can make a really big change in a bedroom. Or if you knit, you could consider making a big, chunky one like this, which would also add some great texture and warmth to the room.

The key here is color, bring in a more modern or classic color that goes well with and balances out the other colors in the room.

3. Add throw pillows.

This is always a great way to bring in more modern colors and patterns. Especially if you have vintage, intricate lines in your furniture, like the bed in this room. Take that look and find some throw pillows that mimic it, but in an updated, more graphic way (see the “after” photo below). This is a key way to work with your decor and not against it. Bringing in a chevron pattern here in an attempt to update would only make your bed look more dated and out of place.

4. Tweak the lighting.

Lighting can be relatively expensive. Instead of replacing lamps, they can often just be updated. I recently learned (by trying it) that dated glass lamps can indeed be spray painted. They look classic and current at the same time, which is the whole goal. Replacing older shades with drum shades is another quick fix for lamps.

5. Update the curtains.

The Victorian style typically has lots of different small-scaled and detailed patterns going on. If you have a room like that, try swapping out printed curtains with solid-colored ones (again, in a more updated color).

6. Show off the legs.

There is nothing wrong with skirted furniture. But if a whole room is suffering from dated decor, a skirted piece can add to the problem.

The chair in this room would look so much better with the skirt taken off. (And the arm protectors too for that matter–please don’t ever use those. By the time the fabric on the arms wear down, it’s most likely time for the entire piece to be recovered or replaced anyway.)

Here is the before-and-after of the simple updates mentioned above:

(Pillows from Anthropologie.)

Any other changes you would have made to this room?

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How to spray paint a cork board

Christina — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Post written at Little Victorian, original here: How to spray paint a cork board.

PIN IT FOR LATER

Today’s question: can you spray paint cork?

Quick answer: yes.

Is there any problem spray paint doesn’t solve? Not at our house, there isn’t. Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration…it’s not going to help with the leaky toilet. But otherwise? It’s my best friend.

I picked up a cheap cork board from a yard sale for my office and painted the black frame a minty green. But the tan/brown color of the cork really wasn’t doing anything for me. The color just didn’t go with the mint, or my office. I Googled “spray painting cork” but there were so many varying opinions on whether it could or should be done, I just decided to go for it and see what happened for myself. If it failed, I was only out a couple dollars anyway.

First, I’ll give you the tutorial on how to spray paint a cork board, then I’ll give my thoughts at the end.

So this was where my cork board started (after painting the frame of course). The cork wasn’t easily removable from this frame, so I just covered the frame with painter’s tape. Here is the cork board before and after one light coat of white spray paint:

I was NOT excited about the pin holes showing everywhere, but thought it might be better after a couple more light coats. It’s important to do light coats. If you spray it on too thick at once, the paint will peel off easily.

After 2 more light coats of white and the tape removed:

Having finished the project, would I recommend painting cork?

Absolutely. Just not in white.

Unless you can manage 2 very light and VERY even coats. The contrast is way to high once a pin is pushed into it and it just looks silly. It looks like a DIY. We don’t want our projects to look like DIYs, we want them to look like things we paid a lot of money for. Am I right? White painted cork board is not going to give you that look.

So what do I recommend for spray painting cork?

A color with much less contrast to the brown, and still, just a couple light, even coats.

Like gold.

Metallic Caramel Latte by Krylon (not available at the moment, see list below!) is what I used, but any color that’s closer to the original cork board than white should be fine. Bonus points for metallic (not just because it’s pretty, but because it will reflect the light in different directions, further hiding the pin holes).

Since painting my first cork board white was a flop, I made a new one.

Starting with a pretty wood frame from the thrift store, I removed the glass and painted the frame the same mint green. Then instead of putting the glass back in, I cut a section of cork (like this) to size and then put the cardboard backing back in the frame to hold it in place.

Much better.

Spray painting the cork gold (or another color that is low-contrast) allowed for less coats, which left more of the lovely cork texture visible. The brown cork color still comes through in low spots, which helps with pin marks. I stuck it with a few pins and the marks are not visible at all.

Here are products similar to what I used to spray paint a cork board:

You can always pick up frames from a thrift store too! Those always have a lot more character.

See more crafty projects here.

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