Do you spend all your time wistfully watching home decorating programs and videos, drooling over elegantly decorated rooms with expensive accessories and furniture? Afterward, do you feel inadequate staring at your dated furniture and bare walls because extensive redecoration is beyond your budget? These are all signs of suffering from a ‘home inferiority complex’. However, what most people do not realize is that home redecoration does not have to cost you the world. With a bit more effort, creativity and time, you can transform your home within a modest budget and still have stellar outcomes to show for it. For this, you’ll have to focus on learning how to redecorate within a budget.
It’s extremely important to realize that you need to wipe out whatever you’ve seen on TV or in magazines. Their decorating methods are highly impractical in the sense that they will always throw out as much of the older furniture as possible and invest in the most expensive replacements, neither of which are practical options for most of us. Here we need to focus on keeping as much of the old stuff as possible while still giving them a new look for as little investment as possible. Even if you must buy some new pieces, its always prudent to buy second-hand items instead of brand new ones. The most important thumb rule is to do everything yourself, instead of hiring pros and contractors. This alone would save you hundreds to thousands of dollars on a single project.
With that said, here are 5 simplest ways to redecorate your home without burning a hole in your pocket.
1. Rearrange your furniture
Often, people fail to arrange their furniture in a way that would give their room the best possible layout. The most commonly made mistake is to always place your furniture along the walls. Instead, try sectioning your room into different zones by placing furniture even in the middle of the room, so that space is used in a much more efficient manner. Changing the arrangement of the furniture of a room itself often completely changes the feel of a room. Shifting the focal point of the room from one piece to a better piece in a better position often opens up a room while changing the way a person looks at it. While shifting around furniture, don’t hesitate to shuffle furniture from different rooms or change the way a particular piece was used before. Focus on reducing clutter and before you buy any new pieces, scour your house for an appropriate piece for that purpose. And what’s more, it costs nothing!
2. Paint it
Painting anything can completely transform a piece beyond recognition. Not only does it add a fresh crisp look but the right color also helps blend into the theme of the rest of the room. Faded or dingy walls often make any room look drab and outdated and even takes away attention from your furniture. Painting the walls is one of the cheapest ways to completely transform a room. You can try different color combinations in the form of stripes, ombre or even stencil patterns onto your walls. Further, you can create a focal point in the room by making an accent wall or make your ceilings look higher or make the room look bigger. You can even create different spaces within the same room by sectioning it off with two different colors of paint. Paint can also be used to freshen up old and dated pieces of furniture or even your floor to give them a completely new look. Basically, paint gives you extreme versatility and flexibility to change the look of anything within a very small budget. The key is to do it yourself instead of hiring someone to do it.
3. Add some greenery
Whether you have a monotonous theme or a splash of color, plants blend in and breathe life into any room. They create small corners of greenery that make the room more earthly and natural. You can add small plants on shelves or long plants in pots beside the furniture, hang creepers and climbers from the ceiling or add succulents on your coffee tables. You can also add fresh flowers in every room for a splash of color. It will rejuvenate the atmosphere of the room without any investment or effort. You can add a whole bouquet or a single bloom and yet feel the difference. Worried about not being green-fingered? Don’t worry! You can always use realistic artificial plants and flowers to reap the benefits of real plants without any maintenance.
4. Remodel second-hand furniture
Sometimes, buying a new piece, or even something that’s also practical like a console table becomes absolutely essential in order to fulfill a particular purpose. Second-hand furniture is a great way to transform your home at a very low price. You get pieces that might be appropriate for you that would have costed a lot more if they were new. You can also collect antique pieces from garage sales, thrift stores or estate auctions. If the piece isn’t in optimal condition, you can even upcycle it with paint, varnish, glass or even wallpaper.
5. Create a photo gallery
Creating a photo gallery can not only have an aesthetic value but a great way to celebrate your family and life. Allocate a particular wall for a gallery and put up different pictures, either colored or monotone, in frames of different shapes and sizes. However, keep the frames similar and place the photos in a particular design or pattern. You can create a simple abstract diamond shape or a more extensive family tree. Put up anything from family photos to kids drawings and the great part is that you can keep adding to your collection as you make more and more memories. You can even put a few frames with only abstract designs in the middle of the photos for a creative splash. The gallery can even serve as an accent wall or focal point in any room, and all this, at a minimal cost.
These were 5 easy and inexpensive DIY home decor ideas. There are numerous other options such as using mirrors, using indoor and outdoor hanging lights, using different colors and patterns of fabric, changing cupboard, drawer and bar handle, swapping bathroom and kitchen faucets, DIY abstract artwork, using good quality wires and extension cords to keep the area clean and many more. So get creative!
