New Tips And Triks For You

For this edition of House & Home, our picks are ideas and products to help you add some style to any room in your house.

Decorating on a budget

Whether you are moving into a new home or redecorating to give a room in your house a fresh look, there are hundreds of websites with great suggestions and ways to decorate while not spending a lot of money. Here are just a few:

HGTV.com - This website has many resources for designing on a budget as well as DIY projects. BHG.com - The Better Homes and Gardens website includes cheap decorating ideas, furniture makeovers, and a special section for 20 weekend projects under $20. diynetwork.com - Sometimes the most cost effective way to decorate is by repurposing items you already have. This website is the perfect resource for step-by-step instructions for many projects ranging from window treatments to easy-to-build headboards.

Apps put great design at your fingertips

If you are in the process of revamping or remodeling a room in your home, there are lots of mobile resources to help you out. If you want to try out a couch without making a commitment try the new Furnish app to browse items from Ikea, Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn and Herman Miller. The app lets you superimpose the furniture over photos of your living space to "virtually" try them out. If you like what you see, you can buy the item directly from the retailer.

Another very similar option? Download the Home Depot mobile app to superimpose chairs, light fixtures and more onto photos of your room. You can save the photos and share them through email, Facebook and Twitter. Both apps are free and available for iOS and Android.

The Washington Post

Furniture, room decor to grow with your child

Sophistication, flexibility, quality. You might associate those words with high-end home design and furniture, but they also describe what today's parents want for their children's rooms. Plastic furniture in primary colors is no more, as parents shift to an "older clientele," says Brian Green, a partner at Great Beginnings, the largest children's furniture store in the nation. They want "gender-neutral design and furniture that will grow with the child so they're buying better-quality items to start."

Gerri Panebianco, a co-owner of California children's design firm Little Crown Interiors, agrees that "theme rooms are on the decline." Even when parents do cater the decorations to a specific gender, she says, there's still "a great sense of freedom with colors - it's not always pink for a girl or blue for a boy." This strategy can save money in the long run, as artwork, rugs and paint can be easily changed out to match phases of a child's life.

But the best part of this trend might be that a space flexible in design allows for a lot of fun with whimsical, colorful accessories that please little tots and teenagers - and their parents, too. Here are some finds that will grow with your child:

Decorating a child's room is also about creating a safe and inspiring place for little ones to learn and play. What better accessory, then, than a tent? Such Great Heights' Smokey Black Grand Hearts Wonder Tent offers room for reading adventures and daydreaming ($279, etsy.com). Bonus: Buy the conversion kit to turn it into a clothes rack later. To put your walls to a practical purpose, track your child's growth with Simple Shapes' Growth Chart Numbers ($65, simpleshapes.com). By Lindsey M. Roberts, Special to The Washington Post