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I had the opportunity to interview HGTV alumni Kristan Cunningham. She provided these DIY tips & summer decorating ideas which give you the most bang for your buck.

You may recognize Kristan from HGTV’s “Designer’s Challenge”, as part of the HGTV “Design on a Dime” family or as a judge and mentor for “HGTV’s $250,000 Challenge” and “Bang For Your Buck”.  We talked about outdoor ideas including creating a “garden moment”, what one can do with a simple can of paint, and what you can do to spiff up your place if you’ve got guests arriving in 48 hours.  Here’s Kristan speaking to us below.

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What can you do in an hour to add impact outdoors?

DIY Summer Decorating Ideas :: Garden Moment

1. Add architectural details: an obelisk or arbor.

2. Paint it a “zippy” color.

3.  Add up-lights

DIY Summer Decorating Ideas :: Outdoor Fabric Montage

Another easy outdoor trick is to just decorate!  Today with so many wonderful outdoor fabrics and materials, decorate your patio just like you would an interior room.

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What can a DIY person do to get most bang for their buck? 

Paint.

DIY Summer Decorating Ideas :: Valspar Signature Paint

DIY Summer Decorating Ideas :: Taping off a Chevron patttern :: image via Fresh Home

Image via Fresh Home Ideas – check our their post on painting chevron stripes

Paint is the by far the least expensive and easiest DIY project one can do to give a room an instant makeover.  Worse case scenario, next year you change your mind – you are only out the price of a can of paint!  If you are worried about color … here is my post on How To Sample and Select a Paint Color.

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What can you do in a couple of hours?

Paint the front door!

DIY Summer Decorating Ideas :: Powder Blue Front Door under Arched Portico

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Editor’s Note: Kristan over flowed with many DIY design tips for quickie summer ideas one can complete in an hour, a day or within a couple of days.  Most of the items pictured are available at Lowe’s and be sure to sign up for a My Lowe’s account at Lowes.com so you can of all your needs, wants and purchases for all your DIY projects in one simple location.  Our thanks to Kristan for her time and to Lowe’s for providing us with this opportunity.

Feel free to add your super simple DIY tips in our comments section!

Thanks for stopping by – Lisa.

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Kristan currently serves as host, mentor and judge on the competition series “Super Saver Showdown”, where you can catch her premiering this July on OWN. ~jb