With only a little imagination, you may add many cheap touches into your faculty apartment that enhance beauty and comfort while creating an inviting atmosphere. Make the most of resale stores and secondhand stores, and keep your eye out for odd or classic fabrics which you can use for decorating, like vibrant cloths, interesting lamps and seasonal decorations. Find intelligent uses for everyday market items which may be adapted to supply intriguing answers to common needs without costing you a penny.

Fabrics

Extended pieces of cloth –like Indian saris, scarves and ribbons–are an affordable way to attract motion and dimension into a college apartment. Saris were used by drape or hang them from the ceiling in a corner of the room to soften the edges. Make small curtains from scarves to hang over modular shelves and behind work stations to conceal unsightly electronic wires and components which pile up. Ribbons fluttering in front of vents or windows include a room and a sense of movement. Pick a ribbon colour that matches your decor and wrap pieces around lamp bases, table legs and bedposts to tie a room together.

Lighting

Strings of cheap Christmas lights–notably the small white bulb type–can be fashioned to mini-chandeliers to brighten up dark areas. For shelf lighting that is beautiful, coil light strings into a small fishbowl which has colored marbles or transparent quartz crystals at the bottom. Drape strings of lights over bathroom door frames and loop them together banisters for nighttime lights. Drab white fabric lampshades and paper lanterns can be sprayed or dipped in a solution of black tea to make a sepia tone which softens a room’s atmosphere. Paper lampshades may be painted with acrylic colors to match your decor. Hang small prisms on transparent fishing line in the arms of lampshades to send rainbows of colour dancing throughout the room.

Plants

Green plants not only liven up a room, they freshen the indoor atmosphere and include rich scents into your apartment. A visit to the nursery is not necessary, either, since you can grow your own. Puncture a sweet potato using a ring of toothpicks around the middle, place it half submerged into a beautiful clear glass of water, and then place in the windowsill. The sweet potato will send out vines with heart shaped leaves which you can train to frame your own kitchen window. Clean empty egg shells, fill them with dirt and set in a transparent plastic egg carton. Plant seeds from your favourite herbs to make a sweet-smelling mini-terrarium for your kitchen or bathroom windows, since herbs love moist surroundings.

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