hey gals! i havent posted for a while, i just moved to a new house- from philly to a small town in PA :( Ive already made up my room, heres what it's all about:

The room is white and pretty large, with burgandy carpet. I've aded irredesant glitter to hot pink tulle and made curtians, and painted my desk purple and navy harliquin (sp?) with light blue glitter on the side. I've made a canapy by thumb tcking sme silver lame layerd with with glitter tulle and pinning it on the celing. I have pots of african violets and Jones Soda bottels filled with fake flowers. the top of my closet is lined in white flowers painted metallic blue. I have a large vintage hat rack with lots of vintage hats, a vintage sunglass collection on the desk, and a large mannaquin head from a 50's beauty school.

;) sound incredibly tacky? shh, i know.

anyhow, i need crafty cheap decor tips for the rest of the house the kitchen is - white, small. living room- ugly brown tile, gold and dark wood fireplace, desk and computer, white and pink sofa- dining room- small and wood floored, guest room- white and lavander bedspread, burgandy caret (ugly, i know) front entrance- black tiles, tacky light fixture, bathroom- black tiles, white sinks, tiny.

I dont want my whole hosue to be as over the top as my room ;) but i want the fairy-ish, shabby chic theme throught. any ideas?

The first idea that pops to mind is making each room a different "aspect" of faeries....like, a room dedicated to mischivious little green faeries, or a room solely dedicated to nymphs or wood faeries (living room)...perhaps an entry way with picture of dark faeries.....

May I suggest watching Labyrinth, Legend, and the Never Ending Story for suggestions....perhaps Fantasia 2000 as well.....

Mainly, lots of flowers...lots of windchimes, waterfountains, sun catchers, and glitter...

Watch for garage sales, estate sales, swapmeets, etc for your "Shabby chic" furniture....steel wool and sandpaper are your friends....:)

thats all i can think of...i'm sure someone else will have specific ideas...
m

Sounds glamourous! Have you seen the book "The Paris Apartment" by Claudia Strasser? Romantic Decor on a Flea Market budget, it says, but I'm obviously going to the wrong flea markets!
If I lived in PA I'd probably be spending all my $ on antiques, etc.
Where abouts do you live?

great ideas girls!

well, i used to live in the west chester area, beautiful place... now i live in a very small town, a suburub of pittsburg... its called Moon? :/ yes, the antiques and mish furniture are lovely.

I really like the idea of making each room diferent! I wish so badly I could paint the walls. I wouldnt mind doing a woodsy theme in the living room to make it cosier, its so harsh in here.... i wonder if it'd be *too* too over the top if i got a bunch of tree brances and hung pictures off of them? and maybe drape them with green fabric, and line the windows with them? eeee. thanks for the great ideas!

Along the tree idea I saw a room once with big green foam core or paper mache leaves hung from the ceiling with monofilament. It looked so cool. How do you feel about hanging strands of leaves from the ceiling or doorway(like a beaded curtain only with leaves and maybe flowers)? I have x-mas lights along the tops of my cabinets with ivy stapledin front of that it looks really pretty when lit up and when not you can't see the lights! About painting. Sometimes you just have to take the plunge. Decide whether your deposit is worth it or paint it back to the original color before you leave. A lot of landlords don't care as long as you fix it.

Along jaxhoney's idea... I did a vine with leaves around the ceiling of a room one summer when I was teaching a bunch of kindergarten-aged kids (the theme for the camp was 'jungle'). It looked really neat. Just the leaves would look cool too. Mine were made out of fabric.

Do you have enough light (and enough patience) for real plants? I wanted an 'outside' feel for my room, so I have lots of ivy growing, since it needs little light, and grows like a weed. (I have other plants too, but it's the ivy that makes it look really lush.)

wow, violet, i grew up in moon! crazy!

i saw these shimmery fake leaves in an art store the other day. they come in metallic colors and are transparent. i think they'd look really cool dipped in starch and attached to a wall.

try lots of glass to reflect light. I've been glueing mosaic pebbles to cheap glassware I find at the hardware store or thrift stores. it is really whimsical and cute.