Don’t hesitate to decorate because you believe you can’t afford it. With a good plan, you can achieve the look that says, "This is me."

You look at the living room of your apartment and wish that you had the money to decorate from top to bottom in one shot. But if the truth were told, you decide that taking a loan is out of the question. You may consider taking on a second job to finance your decorating project, but after a hard day at the office you admit that a second job is not an option. So, let’s talk about decorating in stages, which is the mantra of busy people.

You don’t have to spend a whole wad of money all at once to decorate your apartment. With good planning and a firm resolve to do it in stages, you can make the process affordable and most of all deeply rewarding.

The first step is to define the look. Find a folder and fill it with pages from magazines and catalogs. While looking through your collection you may find that it appears to be unachievable. Keep in mind during these times that you are not duplicating what you see in magazines. What you will be doing is taking pieces of an idea and making it fit in with what you already have.

Money is always an issue when it comes to decorating. Examine your budget -- what you can spend right now and what you can save for. Break your plan into as many parts as it will take to achieve the desired results. To make each step work, decide how you want the finished space to look from floor plan to accessories. Then step backwards to decide how the different aspects would come together as you go along.

STAGE 1
The first step is the most dramatic. Choose your colour scheme. Paint is relatively inexpensive and easy to apply and it will immediately alter the overall feeling of the room.

• Carefully work in the new elements so that the room would still look presentable during the transition. One way to do that is to make new coordinating throw pillows out of fabric, which has the new wall colour. Things like blinds or curtains and new table or floor lamps and a couple of rustic or more polished looking baskets will tie the room together without putting a major drain on the budget.
   
• At this stage you may still be thinking about keeping certain pieces of furniture. In that case pay a visit to the furniture warehouses for individual pieces of furniture like armchairs and loveseats that could replace a damaged one and fit in perfectly with the pieces you want to keep.
   
• You may not have hung paintings in your home before for financial reasons. Now is as good a time as any to include art in your décor. Old wallpaper books have large photographs of rooms. Visit a wallpaper retailer, if they have discontinued books, beg, or buy one or two, find a couple photos that you like, take it to an art shop and have them framed. You will get a professional looking piece of art to display in your home.
   

STAGE 2
As you begin stage two you will be scouting furniture warehouses for a new sofa or couch. A good quality sofa may cost a tidy sum; so keep the number of things you do change in this stage to a minimum.

• When it comes to selecting accessories, you can always accumulate them, one by one over a longer period of time because you want to build your home not zap it into being. With the colour scheme already established you are sure that what ever you add from now on will fit into your new décor.
   

STAGE 3
The changes in the final stage may seem subtle but they really finish the job. You may want a place to do work that you bring home or to sort through your decorating file. You could buy a used desk, refinish it and proceeded to outfit it with a lamp and suitable accessories.

• Add a fabric valance or side panels to the windows. They will immediately soften the hard edges of the blinds installed earlier.
   
• Now you will want to cover the tiled floor with a rug. Make no purchases until you find the right size, colour and style for the space. If however you are unsuccessful a great alternative is to buy a piece of commercial or Berber carpet. Have someone cut and bind it for you. It will add warmth to the room, comfort underfoot and will be easier to keep clean than a cut pile or ‘fluffy’ carpet.
   
• A crowning touch to a small apartment living room will be one large or two medium-sized ottomans. You will appreciate the flexibility an ottoman provides.
   

Don’t be disappointed when your room doesn’t resemble any of the pictures you collected. Instead, your redecorated room would be a true reflection of you, which is far better.