Creating Focal Points in Your Atlanta Apartment

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Decorating an Atlanta apartment on a budget can be difficult, but not impossible.  Creating a focal point in a room can be done easily with just a couple hundred dollars.  There are a few things you need to keep your eyes peeled for.  These items can become focal points of the rooms in your apartment and make it put well put-together, even if the décor is sparse. 

If you have the basic furniture items like a sofa, TV console and coffee table for your living room, you really need an area rug and throw pillows to pull it together.  Rugs can often be very expensive, especially contemporary ones from places like West Elm.  First, you need to scour the internet.  Craigslist and Ebay are great places to look for used area rugs, and they are often deeply discounted.  If there are stains, consider renting a carpet cleaner before you nix the rug altogether, especially if it is the deal of a lifetime.  In addition to a rug, throw pillows of a similar color palette are perfect for making a room look chic.  Small pillow covers from Etsy usually run $12-20, so you can recover the pillows that your sofa came with.  You can even make your own, if you feel so inclined.  Stuffing and fabric at craft stores are a thrifty solution to bare or monochromatic living areas.  If your carpet and walls are similar, I would recommend bright and bold prints on your rug and throw pillows to add some spark.

Your bedroom is also an easy place to add some interest.  There are many wonderful things you can do with a can of paint.  You can paint an accent wall to coordinate with your bedding.  If your bed is on the floor or a basic bed frame, it would be easy to paint a headboard on the wall as well.  If you are not allowed to paint, you can make a headboard out of just about anything.  You could hang a huge piece of art (that you could paint yourself with some creativity and a blank canvas), or hang records two or three rows of three or four records to form a headboard.  Also, a focal point in the bedroom is usually the window(s).  Making or buying an inexpensive window treatment (even if it is just a valance) is an easy way to integrate color, especially if you cannot paint.

If your bathroom is small, it is best to keep it simple.  Get a great shower curtain and coordinating towels from an inexpensive place like Bed Bath and Beyond or Target.  A matching bath rug and a hand towel will pull it all together very quickly.