Wouldn’t it be lovely if we had as much money as necessary to decorate our homes any way we’d like? Unfortunately, for most of us, we have to scrimp and save for the furniture that we really want in order to make our homes feel comfortable and inviting.
While you’re waiting to win the lottery or for a designer friend to find you some cast of bargains there are a few things you can do on your own – inexpensively – to make your home beautiful.
1. Use a few splashes of bold color in your decor. Now I don’t mean go nuts and paint your whole room red and only have red furnishings. No … I’m suggesting that if you’re current decor is basically earth tones, perhaps white or beige carpeting and white or cream walls and beige or light brown colored furniture then a splash of bright bold color would brighten that room right up. It’s as easy as simple painting one accent wall a bright color, or adding a large colorful painting or print to the room. You could even buy a colorful throw rug or area rug to the room. It will make a difference.
2. You can make or buy textured or colorful throw pillows for the room that you are decorating. Pillows of different shapes, sizes, colors and textures can add to a rooms look and feel.
3. If your furniture is a worn and you can’t afford to replace it at this time you might look into purchasing slip covers to give your couch or chair a new look or to cover both pieces to unify their look. There are some very cool slipcovers out there these days. You can really change the look of your furniture.
4. If you want to give the room a touch of romance or a softer look adding a few well placed candles is a budget worthy idea. If you enjoy scented candles you might use one or two in the room.
5. There’s nothing wrong with going out to yard or garage sales to do a little shopping. You can find some lovely lamps, light fixtures, side tables, coffee tables and other furnishings. Sure sometimes you might have to clean them up, sand or paint them but it’s worth the work.
6. Just cleaning up a room can make a huge difference! You might decide that it doesn’t need a change in decor once you clean and organize the clutter if it was really bad. Perhaps purchase some wicker baskets or hideaway storage boxes for your nick nacks and mementos.
7. One thing that I enjoy doing when I’m bored with the look of a room is to simply rearrange the furniture. It’s amazing how moving a bed or a chair from one side or a room to another can make a room feel so different.
8. If the room you are redecorating has a TV perhaps think about putting the TV in a cabinet so that it’s not the first thing everyone sees when they walk into the room. TV’s seem to become the highlight of the room that they are in and frankly they aren’t all that pretty, are they. Find ways to minimize their impact on the room they are in if possible.
9. If you’re feeling creative you might try a new painting technique or applying a wall covering to either all of the walls of the room or as I stated above just one accent wall in the room. There are many different types of painting techniques that you can try. There are even some interesting plastering techniques such as Venetian plaster which makes an interesting feature wall.
10. If the room is dark or if you have dark curtains or drapery by all means open it up and let the light in. Your room will feel larger when you open things up. Now if you don’t like bare windows try sheer curtains, they will allow quite a bit of light in and still give you that nice open feeling.