Most people buy sofas that are too large, and rugs that are too small for their homes. Your furniture should take up about two-thirds of the floor space leaving one-third vacant for traffic flow. Even a coffee table should be about two-thirds the width of your sofa.

You can easily and inexpensively improve any aspect of your home for a small amount of money. Don’t just sit around wishing you had the money or the know how to create a “Home to be proud of”. Every home has a heart and a hope for happiness. You can find an endless number of high quality household items that you can use to decorate, organize or repair your home by shopping at Thrift stores, Consignment shops, Flea markets or Garage sales. I personally like to start at garage sales because the price is usually right. Thrift stores, Consignment shops and Flea markets are of course reasonable but remember the price includes their commission. For example, a nice wall hanging may be priced at $10.00 at a garage sale, the same item will probably cost you $15.00 or more at a thrift, consignment or flea market purchase. The owner of this item may have paid $50.00 to $100.00 at some retail store a few years ago, so you see how this works, either way you get a good deal. All you have to do is decide which one of these avenues of shopping will best suit you, then hit the road.

Black, white and red are a classic color combination. Very nice in certain instances but possibly not practical in a huge room. I’ve never seen it done well, even with a 4th color such as sky blue added. Please consider tweaking this scheme and also consider picking the paint chips out in person at the home in question. The lighting will be different and the room size, everything.

First off, as with any other room, you can only do so much with your allotted space. Measure it out accurately and pick out the ideal place for your desk or work station. If you have a laptop, or plan on getting one, look into smaller desks. You obviously don’t need a compartment for a bulky CPU and don’t need quite the desk top space an old monitor requires. Make sure, though, you have space for a printer or scanner if you use these peripherals. If you do have a standard desk top computer with an old, bulky monitor, look into getting a new flat panel. The price of these space-savers has dropped considerably over the past couple of years to the point where it’s almost foolish not to have one.

If you’re short on space, a good corner desk is a great way to maximize the room you have to work with. There are plenty of these corner units that will work with both laptop and desk top set-ups. Plus, if you are stuck with an old, bulky monitor, these corner units are best suited to handle the extra “junk” that goes along with them. Even if you have a little more space to work with, a compact corner unit is still a great option. It might leave you enough room for a nice comfy sofa or futon you can use to “recharge your batteries” after a tough day.

If you have a lot of peripheral equipment, don’t try to cram it all into one desk unit. Many models feature add-on extensions and peninsulas to house your printer(s), scanner, additional hard drive, etc. The trick is to plan ahead and make sure you have the space for all your gear while still leaving you some work space and additional storage. Another great option is a tall narrow book case that can sit adjacent to your desk to house media, paperwork, books and office supplies. These inexpensive pieces take up almost zero space while adding invaluable storage area.