Styling Your Home on a Budget

Styling and decorating your home can be done for less with some savvy ideas for an affordable freshen-up. You can create the style you love on a budget that works for you. For a personal touch, shop around and take advantage of anything you think will work, and make your old pieces new again with a little creativity. Plants are eco-friendly and add plenty of pizzazz to a room, and any little oddities that you find can make your home feel unique. A few bright ideas can give your home a new lease on life without a big spending spree, and the following tips can help get your creative juices flowing.

1. Add a Few Plants to Your Rooms

Plants freshen up a room and can give it a splash of colour that meshes well with the furniture. They’re also the perfect choice for those who want to live in an eco home. Plants are good for you too; they not only give your home a green boost but they also absorb carbon dioxide in the air and turn it into oxygen. Choose ceramic pots, or paint an old jar, vase, or urn, or turn a colander into a hanging planter – these can all look very stylish. A spider plant or fiddle-leaf fig are both large enough to place in empty corners, and a few smaller potted plants on window sills can freshen things up a little. Try contrasting the colours of the plants against the colours used for your furniture and walls.

2. Wall Mount Your Old Decorative Pieces

What’s old can become new again, if you know how to use it. You can repurpose some of your decorative pieces in a variety of ways if they’ve fallen out of favour. For example, you can upcycle old glass bottles, mugs and bowls into light fittings. An assortment of shallow wicker baskets you once loved can be mounted on a wall to create a patterned centrepiece that really makes the room pop. They make an interesting border for any pictures that you hang, plus you don’t have to spend a cent as you already own them.

3. Take Advantage of Public Domain Art

There are plenty of images that artists and photographers make available free of charge. Sites like Wikimedia Commons(1) and the various stock image sites host plenty, as may your local library. Instead of blowing cash on expensive prints from a shop, download a few of these images. You can print them off and frame them at a fraction of the cost while still using artwork to make your walls attractive. You can even add your own touches to them if you’re skilled with image editing software.

4. Use Built-in Furniture or Wardrobes

A lack of space can put a dampener on your creative ambitions, but built-in furniture can remedy the situation by making use of difficult nooks and crannies that would otherwise go unused. It’s a great choice if traditional furniture simply doesn’t fit well in the room. A built-in wardrobe works well in an awkwardly-shaped bedroom. You can also tailor the design to your budget. Built-in wardrobes range from small corner closets to full ensembles that can dominate an entire wall. Either way, they make great use of the space and set the bedrooms apart from the other rooms in the house.

5. Look For Little Oddities

A collectable here and an oddity there can spice up an otherwise neutral room. Of course, you could also decorate rooms based around the strange little antiques and quirky objects that you find at flea markets, op shops, and car boot or garage sales. These are excellent places for finding vintage items that cost far less than modern equivalents. Better yet, they add a lot of character to your home.

Author’s Bio
Kym Wallis, the founding director of Higher Ranking has over 15 years of advertising sales, digital strategy, and business development experience. He is currently working as Digital Adviser for Vergola.

References

1. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

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