For example, you can add presence to skimpy crown molding by adding a narrow strip of molding to the wall several inches below it. Caulk any gaps between molding and wall, then paint the moldings and the wall between them the same color. Or duplicate the appearance of a paneled wainscot by installing a chair rail about 30 to 36 inches from the floor and then creating rectangles on the lower part of the wall using narrow molding. Caulk and paint everything from the chair rail down a single color. Similarly, you can mimic the look of a paneled interior door by nailing or gluing molding in rectangles onto a plain door.
Photos add personality to a room, but custom framing can get expensive.
A cheap way to create a wall of photos or a unified tabletop display is to gather inexpensive frames from places such as thrift or discount stores, then spray-paint them all a single color or a couple of complementary hues. Framing good-quality photocopies of your pictures lets you enlarge or shrink the images to suit and preserves the originals. Matting the photos gives them more visual presence, and choosing a single color of mat ties the arrangement together. You can even buy ready-cut mats and adjust the photocopies to fit. An alternative is to arrange the photocopies under a glass table top, perhaps in a collage with letters, ticket stubs or other mementos.