Full blown kitchen remodels can cost thousands of dollars, and you may feel you are going to be stuck with an ugly kitchen for years. But simple changes can make a powerful impact and go a long way towards bringing new life to a run-down look, while remaining budget friendly.

While colors can date a room, they can also make it look very contemporary. One color combination that has gained tremendously popularity is brown and turquoise. While the color palette may sound modern and bold, it can also be muted and organic depending on how you accent the space. So, consider a bathroom with brown and turquoise floor tile and all of the possibilities that it offers.

Extra large great rooms with soaring cathedral ceilings are popular features in modern homes and while they provide a feeling of spacious, limitless drama, they can present decorating challenges.

Even though a utility room may be more about function than style, a few thoughtful changes and a bit of re-organizing can make the room feel larger while being more useful and easier to maintain.

What better place to display your love of music than a media room? The focus is already on music, movies and electronic equipment.

Since your media room is all about entertainment, decorating with a movie theme seems like a natural extension of the function of the room. There are so many directions that you can take with this theme that it is wise to spend a little time first deciding on what direction you want to go: A few possibilities include classic and vintage flicks or Hollywood glam.

Of course windows go a long way towards bringing light into a room, but when your natural light is limited you can brighten up a room in so many other ways as well. Wall color and accent colors can add to the illusion of a lighter, brighter space, and well-placed lighting fixtures can really increase the brightness factor in any room.

While the technical components, such as the flat screen TV and audio system, are important choices when designing a media room, it is also important that the room be inviting and comfortable.

Modern families are frequently so busy that not only does the family not gather around the dinner table for their evening meal, they do not gather around any table at all. Grabbing meals on the go has made the formal dining room almost redundant.

Probably all of your really good friends and neighbors always knock on the back door, but when strangers approach your house they go to the front door. So your front door is really where you make your first impression on anyone new visiting your house. Take a stroll up your front walkway to your front door. You may be surprised what you find.

A utility room can be more than a no-frills space that houses the hot water heater, furnace and everyday supplies.

While a breezeway may be physically small, it does not have to feel cramped and cluttered. A few organizational and decorative changes can make this hardworking space look and feel bigger.