DECORATING ON A BUDGET – A HOW TO INTERVIEW OF DECONOME

Ideas for decorating your home while respecting your budget, this is the motto of Deconome.

I discovered Deconome thanks to Instagram about two years ago. It’s an account created by Stéphanie Guéritaud, a French woman, like me, who is based in Montreal, just like me. While doing my interview with Stéphanie, I discovered that we had more in common than I thought, other than our nationality and zip code.

On her blog, which you can discover HERE (in French only), Stéphanie shares lots of ideas on how to decorate your home for cheap. She knows all the good addresses, both in Montreal and in France.

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Decorating may seem superficial to some people. If you take a look at the Airbnb website, you’ll see what I’m talking about. I sometimes feel ashamed for the owners when I look at the pictures, don’t you? The bed is undone, the mess in the bedroom or living room. It just doesn’t make me want to sleep there.

But you don’t have to spend thousands and hundreds of dollars to have a beautiful home. Sometimes it’s possible to make do with what you have by simply giving it a little “facelift”.

Who is Deconome?

Stéphanie is a French, originally from Marseille. She studied Political Science in Aix-En-Provence and then at the Sorbonne in Intercultural Relations, including a one-year exchange at McGill University in Montreal. In fact, it was during her year in Montreal that she met her future husband, a Québecois.

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Having difficulties finding a job at the end of her studies, she decides to travel around the world for 6 months with her best friend.

Finally, in 2002, she moves to Montreal and works as a press attaché for a music company. But what does being a journalist have to do with decorating?

From writing to decorating

In 2008, Stéphanie started as a stylist researcher for Je Décore magazine. That’s when she got into decorating. It wasn’t just because of her work, but also because she and her husband bought a house.

We all know how bitter the cost of home ownership can be. After the welcome tax, the notary fees, the movers, the purchase of household appliances, there’s not much left in the wallet.

Moreover, as new owners, Stephanie and her husband were faced with renovating on a tight budget, not having a big salary at the time.

She soon realized that there were many gaps in decorating in Quebec compared to France. She had to learn everything.

As if the stress of being a new homeowner and renovations wasn’t enough, Stéphanie at the time also had health problems. Following an ectopic pregnancy, not without consequences, she became depressed.

From this desire to learn, to discover, and also to change her mind was born her blog Déconome. Stephanie has succeeded in the challenge of deepening her knowledge in her field in order to know more about it and then apply it at home and share it with us. Her blog, she does it out of passion.

Since the creation of her blog, she has had two children, has finished renovating her house, and has just bought a piece of land. She has her work cut out for her with the construction of a cabin from scratch on her new land.

Decorating for beginners

Thanks to the Internet, it is much easier to find ideas for decorating your home, and on a budget. When Stephanie started looking for inspiration for her home, she turned to sites such as Design Sponge, L’An Vert du Décor, and Pinterest.

Did you move the furniture again?

Sometimes decorating can be as simple as changing the furniture around in your home. My children are used to it.

Either you move it around or you move it to another room to give it a whole new look. It’s easy, and on top of that, it allows you to clean corners that are not used to seeing the end of your broom or vacuum cleaner.

Stop throwing away your glass containers

Glass containers can be very useful at home for all kinds of projects.

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If you decide to try DIY recipes such as the beeswax wraps which I talk about HERE or buy products in bulk, they will be very useful. Plus, it makes your food storage much more attractive and organized.

You can also use the jars as a vase and paint them or to put your pens in.

Making do with what you have

If you are on a budget, you can start decorating with what you already have.

• Personally, I like tablecloths and I have several of them. So, every week, I change it according to my mood. It’s the same with the placemats.

Having a beautiful table invites us to want to spend more time together during our daily family meals. Since the beginning of the Pandemic, our table works very well also as a desk. It even feels like we are working in a coffee shop.

• Transparent storage boxes can also be practical to organize toys, light bulbs, winter hats. All this to give a “clean” and neat look to your home. My son considers that putting his things under his bed is his way of cleaning up his room.

• Before you start decorating your home, make an inventory of what you have. Sort it out, one room at a time. I suggest you read the book “the life-changing magic of tidying up“ by Marie Kondo. It gives you lots of tips and ideas on how to sort and organize your belongings. The way she folds the laundry was mind-opening and is much more practical.

You’ll see, it’s amazing what you can accumulate over time. Maybe a bowl will no longer have its place in your kitchen but can be reused to put your jewelry in your room or a candle.

It’s only by having made a first sorting of what you have that you will then be able to consider decorating your home. But for every decorating item you bring into your home, another one has to come out. It’s one way to avoid cluttering up with unnecessary things.

Tips for decorating on a budget

If you don’t like DIY projects, you won’t have the choice but to hunt for good deals and try to like it, Stephanie told me.

Sites like Marketplace, Kijiji (Canada), Le Bon Coin (France), and Varagesale can be good places if you are decorating on a budget and from the comfort of your own home.

To find cheap decorating pieces, you have to look through the classified ads or wait for the sales in the stores. It all depends on what you have the most of, time or money?

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Another solution is to barter between friends. I’ve already done it with clothes, but never for home decor. Of course, what you bring must be in good condition. Maybe you don’t need your colander anymore because you bought a bigger one. Perhaps yours will make someone else happy.

If you like to go to flea markets or just like to stroll around, I recommend the one held in Hudson, Quebec from May to the end of September. It’s called Finnegan’s Market. Not only is there something for everyone and you can even eat there, but the area is very enchanting. You can even walk there with your dog.

Hudson reminds me of the Main Line near Philadelphia. There are beautiful houses, it is hilly, green and full of fir trees at the same time and close to a river. It’s little known, but you can even come and pick your apples in September on an organic orchard, close to the flea market.

Easy ideas for DIY decorating

Déconome is full of decorating ideas that you can do by yourself.

I especially like her idea of frames that I hadn’t even thought of. Between traveling and having children, I love being able to frame souvenir photos or even drawings from my children. As much as Ikea is great, I love their frames, but damn, it’s expensive when you have so many to buy.

For a different and contrasting style, Stéphanie suggests going to Renaissance (Canada) or the Salvation Army (France-US). There, you will surely find frames that you can upgrade to put your photos or artwork in without breaking the bank.

The illustration is easily replaced, you can repaint them all or play with the colors present.

Article from La Presse on Déconome (29-08-2020)

Another idea to give a little more life to your kitchen for example is to cover your old white fridge with an image adhesive. I found mine at Omer DeSerres, which represented the Five Roses flour factory in Montreal.

Unfortunately, when I sold my apartment the buyers fell in love with my fridge because of the image. I was very disappointed not to find the same image again at Omer when we moved into our new apartment. So I bought a stainless steel one instead.

You can put adhesives on your closet doors, paint them or even remove them to give a more airy style to your kitchen. Given that redoing your kitchen will cost around 10 000$ or more, it’s a good solution to redecorate it without too much effort and especially without emptying your piggy bank.

How to bring your walls to life

I like my walls to have life. White bores me, but I couldn’t have all my walls in color either.

There are many ways you can brighten up your walls, but it depends on whether you are a tenant or a homeowner.

Frames

I told you about the frames above. It’s a very simple way to give a little joy to your wall and for cheap. As a tenant, it is a simple way to decorate your home.

If you like photos, you can have them printed on different types of media. Stephanie did it through Cheerz, I used Mixtiles that you can stick directly on the wall and move around as you wish. Of course, it’s not the same budget as buying a frame in a thrift store and having your photo printed at Jean Coutu. However, the final result is pleasant and at least it won’t break.

Otherwise, buy adhesive tapes of different colors and frame your pictures with these tapes. You can find some at Omer DeSerres.

As for Stéphanie, she talks HERE about a wall decoration you can make with sheets of paper and using repositionable glue. It’s so beautiful!

Paint

What is the simple way to bring a wall to life without being Picasso? With paint of course.

If the idea of painting an entire wall scares you, there are other ways to do it, and they are cheap.

At the beginning of the Pandemic, when my husband was no longer working, I gave him the task of repainting our hallway, just to keep him busy. As we had quite a bit of paint left after redoing our kitchen, we used the same paint.

Using old paint pots

Then the idea came to me that since I had a lot of paint pots collecting dust in a basement closet, I could make a mural with them in our bedroom.

It’s so simple to do. Just take as many different colors as you have on hand and one or more brushes, depending on your level of patience, and leave room for your imagination. Me, I simply made strokes of different colors.

I love the result, but I should have done it on a white wall instead of a light gray one so that the colors would stand out more. My father-in-law thinks it looks like a shower curtain. To each his own opinion.

However, if you feel like doing the same thing, don’t drink rosé at the same time, it could go sideways!

No paint? No problem.

Take paint samples that are easily found at Rona or Home Depot and stick them on the wall to make a mural according to your desire. You can use an adhesive spray like this one that will not damage your wall.

Shapes and forms

I must admit that in the past, painting circles on the wall gave me a lot of problems. That’s why now I keep it simple with linear shapes. It’s amazing what you can do with a bit of tape.

Here’s an example of what it looks like in my office. I really wanted to give character to my wall.

It was only later that I came up with the idea of adding a clear layer of paint on which I could then write. It’s very practical, it cleans rather well, but on the other hand, dark colors are to be avoided.

I had already tested the magnetic paint and the one on which you can write with chalk. All of them are easy to apply on the wall and don’t cost much when you don’t have a large surface to cover.

As you can see, there are plenty of ways to bring your home to life without getting into debt. It all depends on your level of motivation, patience and budget.

Thanks to Stéphanie from Déconome for giving me her time and sharing her good ideas for decorating within a budget.