Times are tough and budgets are stretched thin. It sometimes seems like there’s not enough cash for essentials and decorating projects seem like a luxury. But there are ways you can rejuvenate your home décor inexpensively with some do-it-yourself projects.
Rummage through Rubbish
Do a little dumpster diving and check out your neighborhood for discarded chairs, dressers, and tables. Then refinish the wood by stripping it (if necessary), sanding, priming and painting it in a bright color that you normally wouldn’t choose. Or go crazy and try your hand at painting plaid or florals or an artistic scene. The piece can then act as an accent and give the entire room a new look and feel. And because it was headed to the dump you can take the risk to make it wild and fun.
Create your own art by framing things that don’t normally strike you as art. A collection of items painted a solid color backed by vivid wrapping paper or wallpaper suddenly becomes a unique art piece when framed. Collect a large amount of flowers and press them and use spray adhesive to create your own collage of natural artwork. Look around and anything that catches your eye can be replicated or turned into framed art.
Mini Shelves
Create a collection of mini shelves to display your treasures by gluing plywood on top of crown molding divider blocks and then painting the entire thing. You can create a larger shelf by using a longer piece of plywood and two divider blocks.
Get Hooked
Hardware and decorating stores carry tons of unique hooks that can be used to hang just about anything. Look for favorite or unique treasures to hang and treat them like artwork. You can even turn a mudroom into a work of art by hanging many of these hooks all over and randomly hanging coats, hats, purses and other items.
Table Top
Give a table top a new look by covering it in fabric and tacking it down with upholstery tacks. Lay out favorite photos or postcards from vacations and lay down several coats of varnish to seal them. Paint a favorite game board on top and varnish over that for quick and easy game play.
Check Out: How to Make DIY Decorator Tablecloths
Buy a large bowl and fill it with your produce items that don’t need refrigeration. Apples, lemons, nuts, pears, limes, tomatoes alone or in combination create exciting centerpieces that may actually encourage your family to eat more fruits and veggies. If you have the space, look for several containers rather than just one large one.
Check Out: Flower Arranging Made Easy for Beginners
Rethink the Lampshade
Take a plain, ordinary lampshade and use spray adhesive to wrap it in decorative paper or dried flowers and leaves. Use a marker to paint stripes or decorations on it. If you don’t have any ideas, check out a scrapbook store and examine the hundreds of items that you could use.
Get Reflective
Find some old mirrors and frame them with small decorative tiles found at your favorite box hardware store. They tiles are meant to be used on backsplashes but can be glued to a mirror and make it look fabulous and new.
Track Lighting
Track lighting goes on the surface rather than having to be installed into a wall or a ceiling. This means that you can install track lighting yourself with a bit of help. The new flash of lighting will illuminate your home in a unique and exciting way.
Paint
It’s a bit of a cliché but painting is one of the quickest, easiest and least expensive ways to make a room look new and exciting. If you want a bigger project attempt some faux finishing or decorative painting techniques to give your walls more depth.