Dress it up. Want to use cardboard in your home but don't like the — pardon the expression — stale-as-cardboard appeal? Take cues from this DIY mom, who covered each cardboard letter with scraps of fabric to make a playful and colorful alphabet wall in her little girl's room.
So I cheated. This is a child's room, but I'm throwing it into the mix because those brightly patterned, crisp and graphic letters are just too pretty not to make the leap to grown-up spaces.