Stylish decorating tips for your walls

Sometimes a great wall treatment is all you need to take your room from so-so to super. To get the look of the high-end wallpapers without the price tag, create it yourself.

Paint walls with a dark-coloured base coat, for example, and stencil or stamp the design in a lighter paint. You can get wallpaper stencils in small or large sheets, so you just roll the pattern and repeat. The best part? You can paint over it when you're ready for a change!

• Beadboard wainscotting lends a charming, slightly old-fashioned appeal to walls. You can buy pre-fab panels that are simple to install. Just run them halfway up the wall and top them off with trim.
• Paint one wall with chalkboard paint for a dramatic and interactive finish.
• Paint stripes either in contrasting colours or two shades of the same colour. They're easy to manage: paint a base coat of colour, then apply masking tape the width of your stripes and paint your second colour between the strips.
• Use wall decals or stickers to add drama in a child's room. They're easy to remove when outgrown.

Get all the drama of wallpaper by using fabric panels; you can easily change the patterns and colours.

1. Pick up wood frames for stretching canvas from your local craft store (they can be different or uniform sizes) and cut your fabric so it's slightly bigger than the frames.
2. Iron the fabric, position it on the frame and tack down the fabric on one long edge with a staple gun.
3. Stretch the fabric taut over the frame and staple the opposite long edge, followed by the short sides.
4. Finish the corners by folding down the fabric as if wrapping a present, then staple it down. Presto! You've got a dramatic wall treatment for very little money and effort.

Painting with stencils continues to be a way to give interior walls a one-of-a-kind design.

• You can buy prefabricated stencils at craft stores. If you can't find the stencil you want, make it yourself by tracing shapes onto poster board or stencil plastic, then cutting them out. This way you can create any image you desire.
• Limit yourself to two or three colours and opt for simple patterns if you don't have much experience using a paintbrush.
• Use a stiff, dry brush to ensure that the pattern shows up; the smoother the base coat, the easier it is to apply the pattern. But even materials such as textured or grained wallpaper can be beautified in this way.
• Use any fairly thick paint or opt for stencil paints. Either will likely work fine.

• Install decorative trims, cornices and baseboard moldings to cover up bumps and small tears in the plaster, and to hide small pipes.
• Opt for a ceiling rosette or medallion for a special flair in an older home with high ceilings. You can buy them in many different shapes and designs.