Holiday Decorating on a Budget
Tips for Giving Your Home a New Holiday Look for Less
Let the gifts and toys break your budget this year and use these tips to redecorate your home for less.
Around the holidays people begin spending more time indoors and, quite frequently, they have an urge to redecorate their interiors. But redecorating can be expensive. The following tips may help you give your home a new look for the season while keeping your budget in tact.
- Undecorate. Take down old knickknacks and photos and accessories. It's hard to create a new look without a blank canvas. And you may not even realize how tired some of your standard pieces seem until you get them out of the room. If it’s hard to take down that treasured family portrait just remind yourself, it’s just for a few months, then it goes right back above the mantle.
- Go Shopping in Your Own Home. Look through your old decorations and accessories and bring back old favorites. Consider reserving a corner of your storage area for decorating items. This way you can frequently change out accessories so your house always has a fresh look.
- Bring Back Your Family. Holidays are a time for family and friends. Show your loved ones how much they matter by decorating in their image. Find old photos and scatter them around the house. Have a collection of holiday photos of your family throughout the years framed together and make it the new centerpiece over the mantle.
- Call In the Movers. Get some help if you need it, but move that furniture around. I used to have a winter configuration and a summer configuration for my living room. The winter one was closer and cozier and centered on the cold weather entertainment, the television. The summer one was more open and let traffic run right through the middle of the room.
- Spend a Little. Update your look by spending a little money. Paint is cheap, so if you want to really create a new look, paint the room. Otherwise a little fabric goes a long way, make some throw pillows, purchase slipcovers for your furniture, get new bedding, pick out a festive shower curtain, buy some throws rugs and blankets. If you can sew, consider having a second set of curtains. These things do cost a bit BUT are much less expensive than actually redecorating an entire room.
- Holiday Decorations Take Center Stage. You're probably already spending a lot of time decorating for the holidays and your effort deserves to be noticed. Adjust your furniture and even lighting to highlight those treasured holiday keepsakes. Let your holiday spirit dictate your interior decorating plan for the season. If you're doing a tree in blue and silver this year consider adding home accessories such as pillows, slipcovers and throw rugs, in those colors. The effect will be overwhelmingly fresh and give everyone that happy holiday feeling.
If gifts are stretching your budget these tips can help you create that festive atmosphere in your home while keeping your savings account relatively untouched. If you do decide to buy some accessories to spice things up, purchase those things that can be used time and again. Obviously, you don’t want to buy a throw rug that says Happy 2007! But think twice about those things decorated with Santa’s and angels. Try solid colors that make a bold holiday statement but could possibly be used in the future in a more generic setting. Basically, make your purchases wise ones that will last the test of time.
