Use our ingenious ideas to dress your nest for very little cash. We show you how.

Designer Julie Fergus’s home is practical made perfect thanks to her clever tricks anyone can copy.

An Oregon style-maker stitches, staples and sprays her way to home improvement.

Prizewinning reader Terry Moore achieves DIY style at prices you have to read to believe!
Be sure to check out her $14 whole-room makeover!

Is it just a fish story, or could an old trailer be totally transformed with pickings from the forest?

A stay-at-home mom turns her love for refurbishing into a cottage industry.

Everything’s coming up roses in a Texas guest cottage where shabby goes chic.

Meet the real material girl and learn how vintage fabric can be a decorator’s low-cost dream.

Fill your garden with instant color, spiff up shady spots or pick a salad for dinner—
anything is possible when your plants are potted.

Trust Worthy
New tenants bring a fresh perspective to the historic house and garden of writer Virginia Woolf.

ONLINE FINDS
Garden accessories make inexpensive decorating solutions indoors and out. We found 16 items for only $131!

Collecting
Silver plate, today’s hottest collectible flatware, is at home on formal and casual tables alike.

Shopping
From colorful lanterns to mod placemats to handy hampers, paper products are playing for keeps.

Curb Appeal
Find the fence that works for you.

Entertaining
Recipes starring corn.

Project
A salsa-themed table-topper from quilter Debbie Mumm.

Pen Pals
Find like-minded correspondents.

OUR COUNTRY PUZZLER - Solve it!

Ingenuity
How less-than-perfect can be right on the money.

Plus: Win! Win! Win!
We’ve handpicked five of our favorite things for you to win, including a fabulous portable gazebo. They’re only a postcard away!

ON OUR COVER

For the fastest fix around, look to vibrant paint and fabrics to completely remake any room.

Photo:
© Eric Roth for Susan Sargent