How to Decorate Your Home on a Budget
Updating the decor of your home can be a very fun thing to do. It will keep the rooms looking fresh and make the atmosphere feel exhilarating to enjoy. But when you’re on a budget, you may feel limited to the choices you can make.
The truth is, decorating on a budget can be really simple and you don’t have to sacrifice style or function to make your house your dream home. Here are some tips to follow that can make a huge difference in your home.
Plan and Prioritize
A key part of decorating well on a budget is to plan for and prioritize your decorating wants and needs. Here’s how to do that.
A beautifully decorated home isn’t one that’s full to the brim with decor. It’s simple and lovely to look at and pieces have been chosen with intention. Even if you’ve been given lots of hand-me-downs and secondhand furniture over the years, you can simplify.
Defining your decorating style is the first step in creating a beautiful home because when you know your decorating style, these choices become much easier to make:
- Paint colors
- Patterns
- Furniture
- Rugs
- Curtains
- Art
- Lighting
Did you know there’s an order to decorating your home that will make everything so much easier?
- Define a personal decorating style.
- Choose a color scheme and palette.
- Plan the furniture layout.
- Select area rugs and window treatments.
- Plan and install the lighting.
- Add any wall treatments.
- Select and display art.
- Sprinkle in accent pieces.
When you decorate in this order, you will be able to visualize your space and avoid costly mistakes along the way.
Create a Budget for Decorating
So you’re ready to decorate that space. But wait, you need to budget for it first, right?
There’s no reason to go into debt or to be caught off guard in the money department when decorating. Nor do you need to fill your home to the brim with things you just picked up here and there.
Here’s how to budget for decorating so you don’t overspend or clutter up your house.
Look around whatever room you’re planning to decorate and make a list of the items you’d really like to add or change. List everything. Then rewrite the list in order starting with the most wanted or needed items at the top.
Do some research to find pricing for the items on your list. Shop around, compare prices and availability. Look online. Check secondhand stores to see if any items on your list are available that way. Go into local stores too. After gathering this info, allocate a price to each item on the wish list.
Saving for decorating works just like saving for anything. Set up a bank account that you will use just for decorating. If you skip coffee today so you can save up for that throw pillow, transfer the money into the decorating account right away.
The biggest tip to follow? Be willing to compromise.
No one has an unlimited budget, so knowing ahead of time that there are some things you will need to compromise on is going to save your sanity.
Look over that list you created and decide what you can compromise on. Will you be okay with laminate flooring that looks like hardwood? Do you love that Pottery Barn slipcovered sofa, or can you live with a very similarly shaped Ikea version?
You will have a much easier time decorating, and be much happier, if you know before you begin that you can’t have it all.
