Balancing your budget and interior decorating don’t always go hand in hand but with these decorating tricks you can get great new looks without spending a lot of money.
Paint
It’s great advice that bears repeating, but in the grand scheme of things paint is very inexpensive and can transform a room in a day with a little elbow grease. It can also be used to transform other decorating objects.
DIY Network
The DIY movement is still alive and well but how about taking that a step further. Look for people with skills that you can swap. If you’re really good at sewing and they know how to wire a light fixture you could swap skills and each get some new decorative touches for less.
Damaged or Returned
Communicate with the sales people and let them know that you’re trying to get the best deal possible and you’d be willing to take returned merchandise or slightly defective pieces. The defect is usually not very obvious and stores are usually more than happy to get rid of custom orders that have been returned.
Mix Looks
Avoid buying sets of furniture and accessories that are designed to go together. This look is really not chic anymore and can be quite costly. Instead look for items that have a similar unifying element and purchase them when they’re on sale, piece by piece, rather than loading up all at once.
Learn to Sew
The hardest part about sewing on a sewing machine is threading the machine, seriously. By learning to sew and purchasing an old, secondhand, no frills sewing machine you can make curtains, tablecloths, duvet covers, pillows and more with almost no effort at all. If you want to save even more, look for discounted fabrics.
Hit Garage Sales and Secondhand Stores
You may not find a Renoir at the big sales, but there are gems to be found it just takes a little shopping and persistence. Remember that you don’t have to accept items as they are too, a little elbow grease can turn trash into treasure.
Think Outside the Box
Use found items as decorative elements rather than mass marketed items. Shells and stones collected in a jar are interesting but so are acorns, apples, limes, and other inexpensive found items. Artwork is expensive but framed seed packets and antique postcards aren’t and are just as interesting.
Move Everything
One free way to make your home look fresh and new is by moving your furniture, pictures and odds and ends around. Don’t stop at rearranging a room but take your armchair from the living room and add a reading nook to your office, move bookcases around, see the house as a whole, not just room by room.
By using these budget decorating tips and techniques you’ll get the most out of your current interior decorating scheme and you’ll be able to refresh the look without going over budget.
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