For many of us, part of starting a new year is making a list of personal resolutions to improve or add something to our lives. One of my favorites that doesn’t include throwing away all the cookies in the pantry is redecorating.

  Unlike exercising or being nice to grouchy people, spiffing up our living space takes more than willpower – it takes money.

  Magazines and websites feature thousands of ideas to update and “evoke the essence of the aesthetic,” but some are quite deceptive in how much they’ll set you back. One of the most mentioned do-it-yourself spruce ups is replacing the pillows on the couch.

  The  last time I shopped, one new throw pillow from the local craft shop was $19.95. That’s right – almost twenty dollars for some sequins, pom poms and stuffing. By the time I finished updating the five pillows on my couch, that simple spiff-it-up tip would set me back over $100.

  That’s why I’m always a sucker for magazine articles about people who update their houses with recycled items. These articles promise readers pie-in-the-sky results if they can “reclaim elements” they’re already using.

  “Shabby chic” is the name decorators gave to a trend that’s nothing more than taking old stuff, making it look even older and then claiming you meant to put that chipped and dinged up coffee table front and center.

  The frosting on that old cupcake, though, is finding ingenious ways to incorporate natural items like branches, pine cones and rocks into your decorating palette.

  One article advocated using geodes for a natural look on an entry table. I love geodes as nothing’s prettier than blue and purple geode crystals, but I priced geodes at a rock shop – they’re $250 for one the size of a softball.

  I decorated our mantle with branches from a yaupon tree one year, but when the bugs decided to vacate the bark and take up residency in our living room and the red from the berries permanently stained the paint, I went back to artificial greenery.  

  One theory is universal – a bold splash of color is what every room needs. Orange pillows on the couch are perfect, one article stated, but there’s no way my Aggie boys would ever allow me to have anything orange in the living room.

  Another decorator used sand to cover the top of an entry table to give a house a nautical feel. With two grandchildren under the age of 6, that sand would be everywhere except on the top of that table.

  To top it off, the decorator stood two canoe paddles against the wall to add to the nautical feel. Our grandchildren would think we’d put two battering rams in the house – not a great idea for anyone with imaginative children.

  Outfitting a home office generates over half the decorating articles. The start of a new year is when many of us try and get organized in the spot where we pay our bills or the kids do their homework.

  I thought I’d try and update my office area as well, perhaps finding something a bit fancier for my pens, pencils and scissors than old, chipped coffee mugs.

  But then I priced home office knick-knacks — $12.95 was more than I wanted to spend for one cup holder, and I wasn’t willing to fork over $10 for a special container to hold paper clips when a lopsided clay bowl my son made at Boy Scout camp works just dandy.

  Sitting back in my office chair that’s about 10 years old, I realized I really am a down-home, green decorator. My decor won’t make the shiny pages of “Better Homes and Gardens” magazine, but it suits my re-purposed aesthetic just fine.

This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.