Using what you have, Part 1

It is Flair and Dare's philosophy to help you incorporate what you already have without having to make purchases. That does not mean that you may not have to pick up a few things, such as a plant, or a pillow, or perhaps you need a lot of things. Generally, if this is the case with your home, you can make your place look wonderful without spending a lot of money; you can learn balance and color and where to buy things on the cheap.
One of my first consulting jobs was for a home that had an ugly blue wall to wall carpet. The house had the typical L shaped living room/dining room combination and when you walked in it was the first thing you saw, that and the atrocious blue carpet.
The lady of the house complained that she and her husband could not afford to replace the blue carpeting and she hoped I could help them work around it. I have to say that the woman had a genuine complaint because her rattan furniture had large green palm leaves on it, as if from the tropics, though not nearly as elegant.
In addition the room had no style at all and the furniture arrangements made no sense. The piano and the sofa and love seat were on the wrong walls; her accessories were poorly chosen, as well as, like the furniture, placed helter-skelter.
Her dining room china cabinet, which you could see from the entry was packed, more like over stuffed with 'treasures' from her mother that she could not bear to part with. The cabinet looked like a junk store window that had not been cleaned out in years.
The lighting in the living room was dim at best, and the lamps that did not do the job were boring and old fashioned. Lighting is a very important aspect for a room.
We all know what it is like to walk into a house that has never been thought out as far as decorating is concerned. Nevertheless, we accept our friends as they are, and usually when someone lives in a cluttered home, they are oblivious to it, or at least they do little about it because they say they don't care, but it may be more like they don't try or want to know how to have lovely surroundings.