With many of us on tight budgets in this economic climate, major redecorating may seem beyond our means. Some professional designers offered tips on how we can spruce up with a few small changes and give our homes a spring makeover.

Framing or reframing favorite photos or artwork in coordinating frames can lend a gallery look to your home and be a focal point in a room. Your Chicago Illinois furniture store staff can offer ideas on making your decorating dollar stretch further as well.

If you want to accent current pieces such as a dining room set Chicago decorators can help you find the perfect table accents or echo the color of wood in your wall décor. Condensing your wall hangings mainly to one wall can provide a nice backdrop for a gorgeous piece of furniture.

If you’re feeling brave and in the do-it-yourself mode try changing out the backsplash in your kitchen. Rather than outdated tile or a bare wall, update the tile with bright colors or a mosaic look or try copper or stainless steel. In a bathroom setting leather is even an interesting choice.

While you’re in the bathroom with the tools out, consider changing the vanity or sink. This change could be a bit more expensive but can really alter the look of the room. A vessel sink which sits on top of a washstand or dresser is sharp. Even a funky new faucet will add interest to a bathroom with the blahs. Chicago Illinois furniture dealers have storage pieces and chairs designed for the bathroom. A nice option if you have the space.

If you like the look of your room, but just want a subtle change you might shop for new light fixtures or a chandelier. Lighting can be a design or focal point all its own. Think about combining styles or just going with something over-the-top with colors or textures that enhance the room. Customized shades or a wrap of material around a chandelier can achieve this effect.

In the bedroom try spicing up the headboard. If you have a wooden one drape something colorful over it like beads. If you don’t even have a headboard consider creating one from decorator panels found at discount stores, or staple some textured fabric over plywood and foam in a whimsical shape. Your imagination is the limit!

When I was in grade school I read a book called “The Velvet Room” where a girl who loved to read would sneak into an abandoned mansion near her own shack home, which came with her father’s job during the Depression. She finds a magical velvet room in the house, filled with books.

I always pictured her (or myself) curled up on the velvet-covered window seat on the plush velvet sofa, reading one book after another. Velvet does make me think of a bygone era; one more elegant and gentle than today, but velvet is also a very modern fabric. Dealers of the best furniture Chicago offers offer many choices in velvet. The colors and combinations can fit into any décor.

Today I am looking for a couch that will accommodate my entire family, guests, a black feline and, of course, some snuggle time with a good book. Chicago leather couch retailers also are offering great selections of velvet sofas. The color choices and rich texture make them irresistible to professional designers as well as those of us who reply on our personal style and the assistance of the in-store designer.

Velvet is now showing up in the most upscale rooms and works well with traditional, retro or even ultra-modern styles. When I peruse the best furniture Chicago showrooms, I notice that velvet has become much more prevalent recently.

Although I haven’t re-created the velvet room in my own home, a piece or two of velvet gives me that magical, carefree feeling of childhood. I always take note of the velvet accents when shopping Chicago leather couch showrooms. There might just be a velvet couch out there that needs the company of a good book.

Whether you’re red or blue or just plain red, white and blue, campaign furniture may be just the unique touch you need to complete a historic look or spark a conversation. Your Chicago furniture dealer, without getting too political, wants to offer you the opportunity to bring a piece of history, or at least a replica of it, into your home.

If you’re not familiar with campaign furniture, let me enlighten you a bit. It really has nothing to do with politics, except so far as war and politics go together. Campaign furniture is actually thousands of years old, possibly invented by the Romans. About three hundred years ago the English decided it would be elegant, if not practical, to use in some of their war campaigns as the British attempted to conquer the world.

Now campaign furniture is among the best furniture Chicago buyers can find with historical significance. These campaign pieces were designed for easy travel. They could fold up or be dismantled to pack into the hold of a ship or the back of a horse cart.  Tables, chairs, desks, beds – almost anything a master carpenter could dream up and assemble without nails or screws might find its way into the tent of a high-ranking officer or ambassador.

Sometimes known as “knockdown furniture”, campaign pieces were very portable and took little time to set up. You might visit a Chicago furniture dealer to add one of these pieces to your décor as a novelty, but they can be useful as well as being a showpiece.

If may be difficult to picture a fancy wooden piece in the tents of our modern warfare, but we have to remember that the British liked to do things in style and the Romans did everything on a grand scale. We can just thank them for providing us with a novel decorating idea.

Buyers of the best furniture Chicago retailers offer are fortunate to be using these pieces as décor and not small comforts as they trek far from home on dangerous missions. Of course, we can choose to furnish an entire room with campaign pieces and never have to worry about breaking them down before the enemy advances or packing them into a cart for transport.

Most of the pieces were made of stronger woods like teak of mahogany, which could survive various climates, harsh travel conditions and insects. For us, these are just beautiful woods reminiscent of a bygone era.

Some antique campaign furniture never made it to the campaign. Some was just designed for country homes which were not used year-round. One very eccentric Roman emperor even had parquet flooring constructed and laid out in his tent. Those were the days . . . .

Accent tables may not be the first thing you shop for to furnish a room, but they can certainly be the finishing touch and provide a hint of your personal style or even a touch of whimsy.

Your Chicago furniture dealer can offer you styles of accent table in a variety of styles and materials. If you prefer a classic or traditional style, wooden and detailed may fit in your décor. Those with a more modern or even a retro preference might look to metal or even acrylic in flowing shapes or transparent designs.

The fun part about the accent table it that it is what the name implies – an accent. This does not have to be a functional piece, but it might as well be. Why not perch a lamp or basket on top or fan your favorite decorating magazines across the surface? Buyers of Chicago furniture modern styles will appreciate the freedom in decorating that accent tables provide.

The accent should be on your personal style. If you are eclectic or eccentric you may want to mix in a few existing pieces or flea market finds with your purchased tables. A stack of antique hat boxes, an old steamer trunk, a brightly-painted milk can or any other fun items that can stand on their own can be pressed into service as an accent table. Chicago furniture dealers have many choices and ideas on how to best use accent tables to maximize your room space and personal style.

Retailers with Chicago furniture modern pieces also carry items made from repurposed and recycled materials which add a point of interest to a room. Many of these pieces are unique and unusual, so can become a conversation focal point in your décor.

I’m in the middle of a mini-bathroom makeover due to a leaky shower. My parents are getting ready to renovate two bathrooms. Let’s be honest: we all want more from our bathrooms today than strict functionality. We want them to be fashionable, comfortable retreats which reflect out personal style as much as the rest of our home. Although you might not think about actual furniture in the bathroom, your Chicago furniture dealer has many suitable pieces.

When you prepare for a bathroom makeover the first thing to do is pad your budget. That’s because Murphy’s Law always applies to home renovation and bathroom renovation in particular.

I lived through a major bathroom renovation in my last house and it cost about twice as much as we thought it would. But the addition of a large custom closet for my clothing, a laundry closet and a Jacuzzi tub were well worth the mess and the stress! You know where to find the best furniture Chicago has to offer. Now do yourself a favor and find out where the best deals in fixtures are as well.

A few dollars can be saved if you do your own demo work, and, of course, you can save a bundle doing the entire project yourself. But that takes some knowledge and experience. Consider the possibility that you may encounter mold or water damage when you begin the demolition. This can add to your rebuilding cost.

Ventures into plumbing and electric work are best left to professionals. If you happen to have some licensed friends who owe you a favor, by all means give them a call! Other tasks like tiling and drywall can been done by the homeowner, but for a finished look I recommend a lesson. Many home improvement stores offer free workshops on these types of renovations.

With a bathroom space, your layout may be pretty well set, so think about smaller changes you can make such as cabinet and sink styles or how best to use the wall space. Well-placed outlets and good lighting and ventilation also should be discussed at the outset. Designers of the best furniture in Chicago can give you advice on room layout.

If it’s storage space you need, look at how you can work it into wall cabinets, closets or a vanity. Your Chicago furniture dealer will have ideas and samples of furniture-style sink stands and vanities you might want to incorporate. Make a mini-mock-up of the space – or better yet, a life-sized model out of appliance boxes. A friend advised me to do this before our first renovation and I was surprised at the difference in the real space and what I had pictured in my mind.

Keep in mind that even a small bathroom space can easily cost $4,000-5,000 to renovate. You may want to do the basic necessities and add in the niceties a bit at a time as your budget allows. As with any home project, choose something you like and that fits with your lifestyle. A bathroom is not as easy to trade out as a sofa.