Just because you are on a shoestring budget doesn't mean you have to be hamstrung when it comes to style. Your job is to shoot higher than making your apartment habitable - you want to make it comfortable, attractive and a place to which you want to come home.

You'll be able to achieve a lot of bang for the buck with a staple of first-time renters and home buyers - the ordinary bed sheet.

As a textile resource, the bed sheet is a relative bargain. It can be cut, trimmed, disguised and reborn for all kinds of uses - decorative pillows, cafe curtains, placemats, vanity skirts, tablecloths, shower curtains, and they can even be painted as a dramatic backdrop for a living area or bedroom. Flat sheets can be found on sale almost any time of the year, and in a wide assortment of colors and patterns.

For most of these color-enhancing and practical products you don't even need to know how to sew. Fabric glue, scissors, some trim goods and patience are all you need to brighten a sofa or a tabletop with color. Straight pins will secure your fabric as you work with it, and prevent you from gaping seams or crooked edges.

In "The New Apartment Book" by Michele Michael, Clarkson/Potter Publishers, New York, the author uses a white wall-sized sheet as a canvas to paint a colorful, bold-stroked Statue of Liberty in the season's new ocean blue, daffodil yellow and olive green tones. The effect is contemporary and breezy, cleverly substituting the painting for a more expensive and less expressive headboard against the bed. Crisp stacked pillows again visually pinch hit for the absent headboard.

You can take the idea one step further with your own painted backdrop and carry the idea through to hand-painted pillows. Practice a broad brushstroke of your favorite painter's work, or a photograph. Use something you adore as inspiration - a time of year, a favorite hobby. If you aren't artistic but can follow a pattern, invest in stencils. You can use them to paint borders around your ceiling or on the backsplash of your kitchen and repeat the pattern in your tabletop cloths, napkins, or mats. Carry through the theme to color coordinated oven mitts and dishtowels.

If you can fold fabric into a forty five degree angle, you can add a contrasting fabric to miter corners on placemats and shower curtains. Again, fabric glue can come to your rescue if a sewing machine isn't handy. For a shower curtain, you don't need to make ring holes. You can find fabric ring clips at most fabric stores, hardware stores and department stores that clip on. Just make sure your clips are sturdy enough to support both a plastic liner and your fabric overlay. Add pizzazz by gluing fabric trim with loops or tassels across the top, or by scalloping the bottom so it suggests waves on the water.

Without a large investment, you can brighten and adorn your apartment by having some fun with sheets. And when you are tired of the look, throw them out and start over!

Real Times Apartment News

Published: March 23, 1999

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

Blanche Evans is the award-winning senior editor of Realty Times, the Internet's leading independent real estate news service. She is featured daily on the Realty Times Video Network in the "Realty Viewpoint" segment. Blanche has been named one of the "25 Most Influential People In Real Estate" by REALTOR Magazine, and has been twice recognized as a "notable." In 2005, she was named "Top Reporter Covering the NAR" by Delahaye-Bacon's. Blanche is a renowned author of five real estate books. Her newest, Bubbles, Booms and Busts: Make Money In Any Real Estate Market, McGraw-Hill, was rave-reviewed by The New York Times. She was also selected from hundreds of real estate experts to contribute to Donald Trump's book, Trump: The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received: 100 Top Experts Share Their Strategies, Rutledge Hill Press, and is featured on page 68. Order Now Review - Honors In 2006, Blanche was selected among scores of candidates to author two consumer real estate guidebooks for the National Association of Realtors: The NAR Guide to Home Buying, and The NAR Guide to Home Selling, Wiley & Sons. She is currently planning two new books for the NAR and its members.       Known for her keen insight into real estate industry issues and for her ability to make complex subjects easy to understand, Blanche is a sought-after keynote and continuing education speaker. Real estate organizations from MLSs, to brokerages, to franchisors, to associations hire her to provide up-to-the-minute analysis of real estate industry news and advice on how to improve revenues. Her passionate delivery, peppered with stinging wit, is a huge hit with audiences and fans. Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors, Blanche Evans, Richard Courtney, president 2007, GRAR "The GNAR membership meeting last week featured Blanche Evans as the keynote speaker. Her comments and insights resonated extremely well with those in attendance and we have had many requests for copies of her PowerPoint Presentation. She was a terrific part of the membership meeting and convention program!" - Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors Coverage from WSMV, Nashville - 8-14-2007 That Interview Guy - Get Inside The Head Of Today's Generation 2007 AE Institute Session - To purchase 2006 AE Institute Session - Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 HouseValues Mastermind call - Parts 1 2 Blanche's fireside chat with Jeremy Conaway, HAR - Click here. To contact Blanche, email her at . For more articles by Blanche, click here.