There are easy home decorating ideas that anyone can do. Only 20% of Americans report feeling happy with their home décor. If you are in the 80% category, following a few tips about how to improve your home décor on a budget can help you to feel better about your space.
You do not have to commit to a complete home remodeling project to make your space into something you are happy to come home to. Get creative and follow some of these home decorating ideas and you will wind up with a home that you are happy with.
Getting a good start on your home decorating means have a clean space to work in. If you can afford it, hire trusted house cleaning services to get your home spotless. It is far easier to make décor choices when your house is already cleaned up.
Having a professional clean and organize your home can mean having more time to focus on what you need to change to be better able to enjoy the décor of your home. Here are some cheap and easy choices that you can accomplish in a weekend:
- Paint
- Switch out curtains
- Consider an area rug to hide that old flooring
Paint can easily transform a room, and if you get creative you can add some drama as well. It may be far too expensive to wallpaper an entire room, but most people can afford to wallpaper an accent wall to add a little visual drama.
Choose your palette wisely. While the painting is relatively easy, it does take work, and it is not something you want to have to do every few months. Pick colors that make you feel good about your space.
It is a good idea to get color chips from your local paint store, tape them to the wall, and take a look at them during different times of the day. Color can change dramatically in different lighting. For example, grays can have lilac undertones or bluish undertones, that will be revealed as the lighting in the room changes.
Taking your time to pick your color will ensure that you are not disappointed by the color. If you choose to do that accent wall in wallpaper, do the same thing with the swatches.
If you cannot afford the premium vinyl windows right now or you live in an apartment with a property manager that does not understand your angst over the old windows, decorate them. Curtains, drapes, and other window treatments are a relatively inexpensive way to cover up a bad view or old windows.
Ideally you will have painting your space first. You can choose window treatments that complement the color of your walls or that add a little contrast or color interest to your room. The sky is really the limit when it comes to finding window treatments that fit your taste.
Layers of treatments like sheers with drapes covering blinds are a great way to add texture to the room. If you did not paint and are stuck with builder white throughout your new home, and you really do not want to take on the project, curtains are a great way to add some pops of color without going overboard.
Curtain and other window treatments are also a great way to control the amount of light and radiant heat that come into a room. They can be inexpensive and easy to install and are easy home decorating ideas.
Cheap Home Decorating Ideas for Ugly Floors
Ugly floors can really ruin the whole vibe of a room, but replacing the floors can be expensive. What do you do? Well, you cover them up of course. Area rugs are a great way to cover old ugly floors, bring color into a room, and add texture to space.
The best part is that area rugs can be found on the cheap. You can use area rugs in every room. You can use rugs that tie a theme together. They can be a great solution for several different decorating challenges.
Okay, you got the house clean, the walls are painted, the curtains are hung and you have some new area rugs scattered about, what’s next? Next on the list is arranging your furniture. How you arrange living room furniture, bedroom furniture, even kitchen furniture all matters.
Home decorating ideas would not be complete without talking about where you place your furniture. There are a few do’s and don’ts when it comes to arranging furniture that may surprise you for example:
- Do choose a focal point in every room.
- Don’t shove furniture up against the wall.
- Do consider how the traffic in the room naturally flows.
- Do consider size and placement.
Every room should have a focal point. For example, in the living room your area rug, or large coffee table can be the focal point. One of the biggest decorating mistakes is to shove furniture above against the wall. It can be hard in smaller sized rooms not to shove that sofa against the wall to give more room for walking about, but leaving a few inches between the furniture and the wall can actually make the room feel larger.
Natural Flows
When you are considering where to place your furniture in the room, consider how people naturally move through the room. We will use the living room as an example. How do people enter the room? From what end of the room do they enter? You do not want to put a chair right in the path of the natural entry to the room.
Again, in the living room you want to have a table at arms reach of every seating space. Whether it is a side table of the coffee table it should be placed an arm’s length away from the seating space. This makes the room more usable and keeps people from having to exit their seats to pick up their drinks off the table.
Create conversation areas in each room so that people can speak to each other without having to shift in their seats. This will help to make your home feel comfortable and welcoming.
After you have all the main things in place, it is time to start addressing the details. The details are what make a house a home. Adding simple things like floral arrangements that contain your favorite flowers can really brighten a room.
Many home decorating ideas are built around surrounding yourself with the things that make you happy. For example, collections on display are a great way to personalize your space. These home decorating ideas can be easy to implement and cost-effective:
- Use framed family photos to decorate.
- Display your collections in groupings that draw the eye.
- Visit thrift shops to find wall décor and other items that you can use in your décor.
Family photographs can add interest to any room and of course, you get to see reminders or important moments in your life. A gallery wall made up of family photos is a great way to add an accent wall to any room on the cheap.
Hang artwork that you love. That does not mean that you have to spend hours finding good art that is affordable, of course, it can mean that, but it can also mean framing and hanging your 1st grader’s artwork.
Get Creative With Where You Shop
Thanks to the internet the world is your oyster when it comes to shopping. You can easily fund all the home decorating ideas you have by shopping online in out of the way stores that offer deep discounts.
Remember, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure. Shopping at thrift stores for everything from home furnishings to wall art can really ring up the savings and give you an opportunity to add your own touch to the pieces that you find.
Repurposing item that you find at your local thrift shop is a great way to add your personal touch and to create a home décor theme that I all yours. There are plenty of home decorating ideas out there that can teach you how to transform old furniture and more.
One of the best ways to save money and create a peace that you are proud of is to do most of the work yourself using items that you found super cheap at thrift shops. You do not have to go to a high priced home designer style store to find some amazing pieces.
Home Decorating Ideas for Arranging Collections and Hanging Art Work
Is there a right way to hang art? Is there a right way to arrange your collections? The answer to both is a definite maybe. Clearly you want your art to be level no matter which way the layout is but there is no wrong or right way to design your gallery wall.
Displaying your collections does have some rules. You do not want to over display. You want each piece to be recognizable from the other pieces otherwise you wind up with a display that looks far too cluttered.
Here are some home decorating ideas for getting a look you love with both artwork on the walls and collections on the shelves:
- Before you drive a nail into the wall to hang art, make a template of the art to be hung and tape it up. It really helps to get a visual of where you will hang things in a room. Use craft paper or butcher paper to trace the artwork. Tape the template to the wall and take a step back. This can give you an idea of where you want to hang things without having to put them up and take them back down.
- When it comes to displaying collections consider height as a factor. A combination of tall and short items will play off each other and keep the eye interested. Color is also a consideration. You can group items of similar shades together to get a more uniformed look or you can do a little contrasting.
- Leave some space. Whether it is the artwork on the walls or collections that are being displayed leave some space between the items. Overcrowding anything is a bad idea and leaves you with a seriously cluttered look.
There are a couple of rules of thumb when it comes to home decorating ideas that you should embrace. Remember we said how nice a good floral arrangement looks and how good it can make you feel? Flowers are a wonderful addition to a space, but not cheap fake flowers. You can get by with high-quality silk arrangements but it is also best to go with the real thing.
Another one of the tried and true home decorating ideas is when you have an empty space you are not sure what to do with, add some houseplants. Houseplants look great, and can easily add interest to just about any room. Also simple accents around windows and a way to add style to any room.
Things you should absolutely avoid is anything that is too trendy. When you are making decisions about your home décor consider taking a step back and asking yourself “how long can I live with this?”. Home decorating trends are fun and can be great for a small space like a bedroom or home office area but you do not want to commit to a trend for the common spaces in your home unless you really love it.
There is a Decorator in All Of Us
You can create a space that you love by following some simple home decorating ideas. There is a home decorator in all of us just waiting to get out. Once you take the first step the rest will come easy.
