Many decisions to renovate a property or just decorate a few rooms get cut short once budgets start being thought about. Some choices that you can make for your home can be devastatingly expensive, causing you to think twice about doing anything at all.
Yout Home On A Budget: Start NOW
But don’t fret too much.
Whilst building an extension or knocking a wall through to combine two rooms can cost thousands, there are plenty of alternatives to liven up your home and add a touch of freshness to the place.
Read our guide for decorating your home without breaking the bank below.
Paint Your Walls
The main image that pops into people’s minds when decorating is mentioned is paint-covered overalls and covers on furniture. There’s a good reason for this visualisation.
Painting a room is probably one of the best ways to revitalise it.
“You can also try creative some creative repurposing ideas for your home”
This not only changes the general appearance of the space, but certain colours can change the mood that the room inspires as well as changing the amount of light reflected around the space.
Bright colours and whites will allow light to bounce throughout the room and the benefits of this natural light can be great.
Mental wellness can be positively impacted by an increase in natural light in your living space, and a brighter room can be more appealing if you plan on selling the property too.
Lighting Choices
As well as natural sources, light fixtures are very important to suit certain times of the day and light up dark spaces that the sunshine can’t reach.
Choosing nice light fittings and bulbs can drastically improve the appearance of your entire home and doesn’t have to be overly expensive either.
A complete change of lighting in your house can be a great alternative to restructuring the place entirely.
A common reason to knock walls through or build side-returns in terraced houses is a perceived lack of space but well-placed lighting can make a room feel bigger, negating your need for costly renovation.
Mirrors
Choosing to place mirrors throughout your home can aid your lighting choices, as well as natural sources, to move throughout your home.
Not only do these serve to redirect light but well-placed mirrors can deliver a sense of space where there is none.
Adding some mirrors to a dark and narrow corridor will brighten it up as well as make it feel much less cramped.
You can find some attractive and cheap mirrors in charity shops and places like Ikea too, so have a search around for some great options.
Rotate, Reuse And Recycle
Assess what you already have and consider moving things around a bit.
Putting a chair from your bedroom in your lounge or using your kitchen stools for a new living room drinks bar could add some great touches to these spaces, with no cost at all.
Whatever it is you have, consider whether or not they can be used as a “new” item or piece of furniture.
Taking old and unwanted items from friends and family is also a great way of both giving new life to pre-loved things and helping the environment by stopping them being thrown away.
Artwork And Photos
Do you consider yourself to be an art aficionado? Perhaps you’re an amateur or professional photographer?
Whether you fall into one of these categories or not, adding artwork to your home is a perfect way of adding a splash of colour or eye-catching décor with very little effort or cost. It may be best to avoid purchasing any expensive pieces, however you could find some attractive and intriguing local pieces in your area.
A lot of local venues sell the work of local artists, especially independent bars and cafes. If you can’t find somewhere like this, search for a nearby art gallery for some cheaper and potentially stunning pieces.
You might also have your own artwork or photographs that you may want to display. Transfer your work onto canvas prints from PhotoBox and arrange them into a bold photo wall combined with other canvases or even framed photos and art.
For a quirky look, use different shapes and sizes of pictures which will really draw the eye.
A New Look For Your Floor
Changing up your floors doesn’t need to take a lot of time or be costly.
Of course, laying tiles or wood can really add up, but there are some fantastic options with some awesome design to really wow visitors and make the place feel fresh.
Consider adding some vinyl flooring for kitchens and bathrooms, replicating tile patterns as well as sturdiness. You can even find vinyl with wood patterns as an alternative to fitting actual wooden flooring.
For carpeted areas like living rooms and bedrooms, instead of tearing up your carpets, first hire a professional carpet cleaner or rent a device yourself, if it’s required, then choose some fresh new rugs for these spaces.
You’ll find that a large enough rug can hide a majority of your floor space, getting rid of any need to replace your carpets, especially if they’re clean too.
Get Creative
If you’re the artsy type, you likely already have some ideas for things you can make or design for your home. Make use of reclaimed materials to construct your own shelves or storage, headboards, and even tables.
The great thing with making your own items is that nobody else will have it—they’ll be completely unique to your home.
This eradicates any sense of sterility from having a cookie-cutter home and will cause a multitude of great talking points with your friends and family.
The downside is that these projects can be time-consuming, so be prepared to put the work in.
Cushions And Sofa Throws
Along with structural renovation, furniture tends to be the next biggest cost when redecorating. If you’re sofa is perfectly comfortable, and isn’t broken, you might just need to it a slight makeover.
A great way of doing this is either changing your sofa’s cushion covers or adding some blanket throws and fresh cushions to cover the old with the new.
A tip to avoid the struggle of directly matching the colours of new furnishings to your current ones is to just not even attempt it. Instead, consider some cushions that make more of a statement or ones that match other décor in the room.
If you have a lot of house plants for example, you could find a cushion featuring a print of some of the plants in that room.
Bringing In The Green
As humans, most of us have a innate attraction to nature and rightly so. Millennials especially have brought the idea of owning exotic plants into the mainstream over the years.
Plants and trees provide us with fresh air and serve to boost our moods, improving mental wellness as well as the appeal of our homes.
Visit your local florist or garden centre and bring in a selection of hardy house plants to inject life into your home.
Hanging and trailing plants such as Devil’s Ivy or Spider Plants, as well as succulents and cacti are great for beginner plant owners.
Most can be left alone save for weekly watering, and succulents can be left for even longer. Just avoid letting them become neglected as nothing is more unsightly than dying house plants.
Photos: Shutterstock
Support us!
All your donations will be used to pay the magazine’s journalists and to support the ongoing costs of maintaining the site.
Share this post
Interested in co-operating with us?
We are open to co-operation from writers and businesses alike. You can reach us on our email at [email protected]/[email protected] and we will get back to you as quick as we can.
