apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Sometimes all we need is a little sprucing up to give our spaces a fresh breath of new life. Here are some of the favorites we found from this long list of ideas.

• #34. Paint the ceiling in one room a sky blue, just for a change. "It finishes any room when you paint the ceiling [a color]," Karpa says.

• #35. Take pages from a botanical book and mat and frame four to 12 of them. Arrange them to form a rectangle, taking the place of a large piece of art.

• #13. Replace a tired print with new art to spark conversation. Try putting a large piece in a small space (such as a powder room) for drama.

• #17. Install a dimmer switch to add romantic atmosphere to a room (or replace too-bright bulbs with lower wattages or tinted bulbs).

• #3. Bring nature inside. Gather fruit, pine cones, beach glass, moss balls or stones and pile them in bowls.

• #5. Take everything off your bookshelves or fireplace mantel and put only half back. "The biggest thing is editing," says Heidi Karpa, a Chicago interior designer who works with HGTV.

You can read the rest of the tips over here.

Photo by heimdalsgata via Flickr.