How to Decorate on the Cheap

Decorating your home doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg, these tips and tricks can help you design your dream home on a tight budget!

While it may be easy to decorate a home with a boundless budget, that is not the situation for most of us, right? Over the years I’ve picked up some tricks for decorating for little to no cost and I thought I would share them with you today!

Create your own art

You don’t have to spend a fortune to get some art on the walls. Here are a few sources that won’t cost you an arm and a leg:

• Free printables on Pinterest – From hand lettered art to full illustrations, Pinterest is full of art sources for absolutely no cost other than the printer ink and paper you’ll use to print them
• Waterlogue app ($4.99) This fun app lets you turn and photo into a watercolor type art piece. It’s gorgeous to play with, I promise you’ll be addicted! Some ideas would be family photos or a photo of your home or favorite vacation spot.
• Vintage Art – There is a HUGE amount of vintage art available for free online. The website Picture Box Blue is my absolute favorite for finding free vintage art. It has old maps, vintage botanical drawings
• Free Photography – websites like Unsplash offer very high-quality completely free photographs that you can download and print. I’d recommend sending them to be printed inexpensively at an office supply shop for the best appearance unless you have a very good home printer. You can also experiment with printing the photos in black and white for a variation on the end look.
• DIY Projects – A little scrap wood and patience can go a long way in building your own decorative wall art like this DIY Wood Map or Wood Cutout Star from my other blog, The Happier Homemaker.

Harness the Power of Paint

Paint is a high-impact change that doesn’t cost a lot of money. You can paint walls to give a room an entirely different look. A simple accent wall can add a ton of personality to a room. You can also paint furniture that may have seen better days. Don’t underestimate how much of an impact it can have, like when we painted our master bedroom a dark navy blue!

Change accessories between rooms

This is one of my favorite tricks, switching items like pillows, throws, and art between rooms. It may seem like a little things but it helps me to change up my rooms seasonally without spending a dime.

Change inexpensive accessories

Can’t afford a kitchen update? Painting the cabinets and then changing out the hardware can make a HUGE difference. Updating small items like hardware, lampshades, buying pillow covers, or decor like candles change a room without much of an investment.

Add greenery

Adding plants to a room instantly make it feel more warm and welcoming. Many houseplants are very inexpensive. Shop sales and cook around your home for baskets and containers you can use to disguise less expensive containers.

If you have a yard or local area you can take clipping, create an arrangement of flowers or branches to liven up your space. The philodendron leaves below come from a plant in our backyard and last for months in that vase!

These tips can help you begin to create your dream space without having a dream budget. Did I forget any tricks? Let me know in the comments!