Have you been feeling a bit bored and uninspired as you walk throughout your home, longing for a refresh? As we approach the holiday weekend and you begin to plan spring upgrades throughout your home for the summer, we tasked Décor Aid designers to come up with easy to manage, budget friendly interior decorating ideas to get you inspired with tried & true ideas to make the most out of your décor, with the least amount of effort.
REFRESH YOUR WALLS OR PAINT AN ACCENT ONE
While painting can be labor intensive, there’s no denying it’s accessibility and instantly transforming powers. And if an entire room refresh seems a tad much or out of reach as for the time commitment, use a sliver of a narrow wall and finish a room with an unexpected tone, paint technique, or even paper to add personality and a punctuated elegance.
GET RID OF CLUTTER
Psst! This one’s free! Because we forgot to mention that sometimes budget friendly interior decorating ideas don’t require funds, consider this one on us. Come on – get rid of that clutter!
Explore new ways to store and conceal, and seriously, set up one small corner for clutter (hopefully in a cabinet, or boxed) and let it all go. Honestly, there’s no excuse for keeping the unnecessary as you’re only getting in your own way of living in the best space you can.
BE RESOURCEFUL
Why pay full price for anything? As we’re notorious for getting our interior design clients the best price possible for their new furnishings and services, we highly recommend paying attention to sales alerts, sample sales, and signing up for email sale newsletters. And as it takes a number of sources to decorate a house, set up sales alerts via Craigslist for local estate sales and flea markets that’ll have steals marked with personality, nostalgia, and warmth.
REPURPOSE WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE
Just because you bought a chair that was for a room doesn’t mean that it has to spend its entire life with you in that room. Go from room to room and start exploring new options for chairs, accent tables, decorative items and even tables and accessories as a simple move can make both the room and item feel new again. And you just may be pleasantly surprised at how great the new placement worked out.
UPDATE FURNITURE
Out of all the budget friendly interior decorating tips on our list, this one may just be the biggest splurge, but in the long run, it may just be well worth it.
If you were savvy enough to already have invested in well-made, timeless furnishings, a fresh coat of professionally applied varnish, paint, or a new upholstery update will add years to those investment pieces while completely reinvigorating your home with a second life.
HIGHLIGHT COLLECTIBLES
Like any budget friendly DIY home upgrade, go throughout your home and evaluate what still has value, what holds interest, and what feels contemporary and think about how you can use those extra’s to elevate your home’s aesthetic. Move things around, experiment, and have fun with the mix.
By moving about what easily gets hidden and often forgotten, we guarantee you’ll have guests inquiring about where you got that new sculpture or decorative figurine. And if you’re out of table space, floating shelves make for a great, inexpensive way to showcase your mementos and collectibles.
SWITCH OUT LAMPSHADES + ACCESSORIES
Because more often then not, your lampshade should never be as old as the base itself as they’ll be the first to show signs of age and since they can easily be replaced, why not take advantage and swap them out at least every 3-5 years.
We love the way the room featured above pops with the use of simple, easy to find black shades for a sturdy sense of elegance.
ADD MIRRORS
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again; mirrors are the one universally appealing decorative item that you can nab for a steal to add magic to every room when thinking budget friendly interior decorating ideas. For starters, they come in every shape and size imaginable, are one add-on you’ll never really need to splurge on, and they help you take full advantage of natural light as they can make a space seem more expansive.
We’ve seen our interior designers surprise us time and time again with clever ways to add at least a couple of mirrors in each room throughout a project from leaning an oversized antique flea market find on the floor against a blank wall, to hanging simple narrow mirrors horizontally above doorways and windows to trick the eye into thinking the ceiling is higher – magic, just like we said.
DIY ARTWORK
When the time comes it pays to have saved cherished posters and prints of all types as they make an inexpensive art alternative to enhance and tie rooms together. Notice how the room above boasts a dramatic ( and easy to copy) gallery wall used to finish the room with a statement-making installation.
Go a similar route with a similar plan to use framed works to punctuate a room with placement that will work to make the pieces conversation starters and think bold and unexpected.
ADD NEW CABINET AND DRAWER HARDWARE
When it comes to budget friendly interior decorating ideas that are easy to tackle, replacing hardware on elements like dressers, and kitchen and bathroom cabinetry is an incredibly affordable way to give older furnishings a new life.
Easy to score, easy to install, you won’t have to stress when choosing new fixtures and hardware as they can be sourced relatively inexpensively and since there are a plethora of style options, you’ll be able to easily switch them out when the time calls.