Presentation, from Christy Ferer's Book "Decorating on a Dime"

Framed Photos: This is an easy project that personalizes a space and can also hide a damaged wall. 

Miniature Furniture: An oversized doll's chair or a child's chair can hold an object or a picture frame and be positioned as display. 

Good Enough to Frame: Anything that is dramatically framed can earn the status of art object - from stamps to children's art to lost of broken jewelry.

Pearls: Pearls can transform an everyday object into a treasure.

Just One Color: Use those wonderful odds and ends in your attic. Christy Ferer suggests any flaws in your found objects are disguised by the spray paint. Different shapes and sizes should play off one another on the wall and table. 

Sandblased Furniture Tips

Sanblasted Furniture 
Pieces of painted furniture
Distilled white vinegar

Your local auto body shop will put the piece in its sandblast booth and add beautiful years to your furniture. Christy Ferer says to heighten the aging process, blot vinegar on any metal features or hinges. The longer you allow the vinegar to sit (at least 24 hours), the more pocked and antique looking the metal will become.

Frame Canopy
Take the measurements of the bed to the lumberyard, where you will find a selection of polymer molding. Christy Ferer and the Vidicom team suggests asking the yard to cut your chosen molding into four pieces and miter the edges. Stay tuned for more tips from Christy Ferer's book, Decorating on a Dime.

Some More Space Rules to Break

"Very large rooms are cold. Use furniture, pattern, and accessories to warm them up."

To many, lots of space is the ultimate luxury. Christy Ferer says flaunt it. Revel in the openness by keeping it clean and uncluttered. Resist the compulsion to fill up a large space. Fashion designer Bill Blass uses supersize mirrors, furniture, and accessories to emphasize the large proportions of his rooms.

"A too-tall ceiling should be visually towered by painting it a dark color."

She says to many people, there's no such thing as a too-tall ceiling. They see lofty ceilings as pure drama and glamour. But if you feel overwhelmed or somehow dwarfed by the height, bring the ceiling into scale with the rest of the room by using tall furniture or indoor trees. Hang art slightly above eye level, paint celing beams decoratively, or use wainscoting to pull the ceiling down.

I consciously crafted a plane near the top of my double-height ceiling to position a sculpture, purposely emphasizing the height as a design element.

Space Rules to Break

"Keep furniture small in a small room"

Filling a small room with furniture emphasizes the small size of a room. Think big. Play with space and visually expand it. Use oversize furniture. Big couches. Hefty tables and sculptures. Large paintings and lamps. In the diminutive bedroom jewelry, Andreas Zadora created for his daughter, an oversize doll house fills the center of the room, giving the illusion of a much bigger space.

"Keep accessories small in a small space."

She says one great piece is always better than a lot of mediocre ones. Don't think of this as a poverty of riches but as the luxury of less. Calvin Klein says, "Pairing down is actually more difficult than adding embellishment-embellishment can hide flaws. With fewer elements, what's not essential is immediately discernible and interrupts the rhythm and mood of the environment." In fashion, doing less exposes and emphasizes the bare essentials-from the seams to the zippers In home design, editing puts the focus on details such as the piping on a chair is finished or the way objects are placed.

More Furniture Rules to Break

Vidicom's CEO, Christy Ferer, says  "Upholster within the character of the furniture." Be contrary. The Contrast of fancy and plain makes the form and beauty of antique furniture come alive! Think of using gingham and muslin, blue denim, white canvas , simple calico, even a cut-up woolen blanket or old linen tablecloths on antique furniture. Gerald Schmorn, a designer for Christian Lacroix housewares, used a colorful Pucci print on his couch.

Furniture Rules to Break

Christy Ferer, Vidicom CEO, says to "Think in sets." Safety in pairs is boring. Aim for asymmetry. End tables don't have to match. Use an oval table on one side and a square one on the other. Or don't use tables at all. And you don't have to face sofas and love seats in sets. Go with a love seat and two chairs or a chaise lounge Or use four or five very cushy, comfortable armchairs arranged in a circle.