How to Decorate Cheaply?

Decorating your home in an attractive way doesn’t have to cost a fortune. With some clever decorating ideas and budget-friendly tips, you can create a stylish living space while being kind to your wallet. This article will explore simple yet effective ways to decorate cheaply for every room in your house.

Buy Secondhand Furniture and Décor

One of the best ways to save money when decorating your home is to shop secondhand. Check out thrift stores, garage sales, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and consignment shops to find unique furniture and décor items at a fraction of retail prices. This allows you to get quality pieces that fit your style for very little money. Be on the lookout for:

    Tables

    Sofas and chairs

    Cabinets

    Rugs

    Artwork

    Vases/decorative items

    Curtains/blinds

Upcycle and Repurpose

Breath new life into old furniture, containers, and household items by repurposing them into something fresh. Upcycling saves you money and lets you customize pieces exactly how you want. Some upcycling project ideas include:

    Turning a dresser into a TV console

    Using mason jars as vases

    Transforming a ladder into bookshelves

    Painting tired furniture with chalk paint

    Making over crates and pallets into tables

    Covering storage bins with patterned paper or fabric

Shop Discounted Home Goods Stores

Stores like HomeGoods, Tuesday Morning, and Ollie’s offer brand name home goods and accessories at steep discounts compared to traditional retailers. They receive excess inventory and floor models making everything very affordable. You can often find:

    Pillows and throws starting at $5

    Area rugs for less than $100

    Table lamps and ceiling fixtures for $15-30

    Designer cookware and dinner sets

    Holiday/seasonal items at 75%+ off after the holiday

Be willing to hunt for deals and keep an open mind not knowing exactly what you’ll find each visit. That’s part of the fun!

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Store Average Savings Types of Items

HomeGoods 20-60% less Pillows, rugs, lamps, kitchen/dining, artwork, furniture

Tuesday Morning 40-80% less Home accessories, seasonal items

Ollie’s 50-80% less Rugs, furniture, outdoor items

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Use Fabric to Inexpensively Makeover Furniture

An easy no-sew way to update tired furniture pieces is by using stretch fabric. Simply staple or use adhesive to wrap the fabric tightly over the surface to create a smooth, tailored finish. Use patterned cloth to make a statement or neutral cotton fabric for a classic look. This works wonderfully to recover:

    Dining chairs

    Stools

    Headboards

    Lampshades

    Side tables

Other options are adding trim, tassels, or nail heads to customize the final look.

Display Collections creatively

If you collect unique items like frames, pottery, baskets, or specialty food containers, show them off around your home in creative displays. Some ideas include:

    Hanging a wall gallery of same-sized frames above your sofa

    Arranging woven baskets under an end table to corral blankets or magazines

    Showing off colorful glassware or mugs on floating shelves

    Grouping vases together into tableaux on sideboards, mantles, or countertops

The key is to style collections with intention in areas people will notice and appreciate them. Feel free to mix colors, textures, sizes, and shapes for visual interest.

Embrace Greenery

Houseplants instantly liven up any space with natural beauty. You can easily grow low maintenance, air purifying plants like snake plants, aloe vera, English ivy, peace lily, and pathos on a budget. Start by picking up small starter plants or clippings divided from a friend’s plant for just a few dollars each. Other ideas are:

    Group similar potted plants together to create the look of a single, large statement plant

    Use trailing plants in hanging baskets to add dimension and softness to a room

    Add height with tall thin plants or small trees placed in corners

    Incorporate cacti and succulents for unique texture

Greenery makes any area feel refreshed. Best of all, plants improve your mood, reduce stress, and purify indoor air.

Craft Artwork from Nature

For original wall art that won’t break the bank, look no further than materials found in nature. Create one-of-a-kind crafts to brighten up your space using:

    Dried botanicals – Pretty arrangements of dried flowers, plants, seed pods, and branchesDISPLAY

    Wood slices – Unique “canvases” to decoupage photos and scrapbook paper onto

    Shadowboxes – Display shells, rocks, sand, driftwood, miniature plants, and sea glass floated in the frame

    Leaf prints – Ink leaves, ferns, or other foliage before pressing to printable canvas or cardstock

Natural materials make stunning compositions that feel organic and soothing. Best of all, you likely already own much of what you need to gather from your own backyard.

Incorporate Meaningful Sentimental Items

As you decorate, look for special ways to feature meaningful keepsakes and family heirlooms in your home. Displaying sentimental items prominently adds warmth, tells stories about your family, and doesn’t cost extra money. Ideas are:

    Hanging a vintage quilt passed down generations above a guest bed

    Placing old family portraits in matching thrifted frames on your staircase gallery wall

    Showcasing inherited china or silver serving pieces in your dining room

    Using your grandmother’s engraved jewelry box on your bedroom dresser

    Letting kids decorate their rooms with their own travel souvenirs, trophies, and art pieces

Surround yourself with nostalgic treasures that make you smile. Use your home itself to celebrate your family’s history.

Repurpose Everyday Household Items

Many common household items can moonlight as decorations around your home once you start seeing them with creative eyes. Possibilities for repurposing include:

    Displaying a collection of your white china plates on a living room wall

    Stenciling and spray painting old tin cans to use as pen holders on a desk

    Hanging a wooden ladder horizontally for draping chunky knit blankets and woven throws over each rung

    Placing assorted sized glass bottles and apothecary jars on a bathroom vanity to hold Q-tips, cotton balls, and soaps

    Grouping metal and wooden spoons together in a tall glass vase

    Tying ribbon around glass candle votives or LED tealights to create mini accent lighting

Everyday items add character when styled creatively in unexpected ways.

Prioritize Multi-Functional Pieces

Since space in homes is often limited, choose furnishings that serve multiple purposes when possible. Some flexible ideas are:

    Storage ottomans – Stylish seats that open to stow blankets inside

    Benches – Seat guests and store shoes underneath with built-in cubbies

    Trunks – Vintage-style chests to use as rustic coffee tables or end tables with storage

    Desks – With shelves above to double as display space for photos, art, and keepsakes

    Media cabinets – Feature closed storage for electronics/DVDs and an open back panel to mount a TV flush

This efficient use of space through multifunctional pieces prevents rooms from feeling cluttered visually or physically.

Mix and Match Thrift Store Finds

Never underestimate the decorative potential found in local secondhand and thrift stores. They are treasure troves filled with unique home goods often sold at unbeatable prices. You just need vision, patience, and creativity to see how to use pieces in new ways. Some ideas are:

    Hang a collection of different sized ornate mirrors gathered over time above a fireplace

    Use delicate silver-plated items like teapots, trays, bowls to stage on dining tables and consoles

    Stack vintage suitcases and trunks to act as quirky side tables

    Layer richly patterned throw blankets at the foot of beds

    Display odds-and-end ceramic figurines, vases, cake stands together in curio cabinets

Part of the fun is finding special charm in imperfect, well-loved things. Don’t be afraid to mix metals, woods, styles, and colors to reflect your personal taste.

Key Takeaways

    Shop secondhand stores first when looking for home furnishings and accessories

    Breath new life into old items around your house by repurposing or upcycling them

    Use fabric to recover and update worn furniture pieces

    Surround yourself with meaningful keepsakes that reflect memories and family history

    Look for quality furniture and home goods at steep discounts from off-price chains

    Incorporate lots of low maintenance houseplants to enhance any space

    Craft wall art, prints, shadowboxes from natural materials in your backyard

    Style collections of beloved items in creative displays around your rooms

    Choose furniture that serves multiple purposes – storage ottomans, benches, trunks

    See decorating potential in everyday household items when used in unique ways

Conclusion

Decorating stylishly while on a tight budget simply requires clever ideas and resourcefulness. With so many affordable options today for secondhand furnishings, deeply discounted home goods, upcycling projects, sentimental keepsakes, and homemade crafts using natural materials you can create beautiful, personalized rooms without having to overspend. Use these budget decorating tips and tricks to design special spaces reflecting your style.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What are the best thrift stores for home furnishings and décor?
   Some top-rated secondhand stores to shop for home goods are Goodwill, Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity Restore, consignment shops, Facebook Marketplace, and garage sales.

2. Where can I sell used furniture and household items?
   The best places to sell gently used furniture, home décor items, and housewares are Facebook Marketplace, Offer Up, Craigslist, consignment shops, and yard sales. These enable you to declutter your house while earning extra cash.

3. What types of fabric work best to upholster furniture?
   Stretch cotton blends, durable upholstery fabrics, slipcovers, and even sheets make great material to staple or wrap over furniture frames to create an updated look.

4. What are simple upcycling projects for beginners?
   Easy upcycling ideas include transforming mason jars into vases and pencil holders, covering storage bins in patterned contact paper, decoupaging photos onto wood slices to make custom wall art, painting tired furniture pieces in a fresh color, or staining crates to use as rustic side tables.

5. Where do I find discounted home goods stores?
   Some of the most popular off-price home goods chains to shop for major savings on name brand items are HomeGoods, Tuesday Morning, Ollie’s, At Home, Burke’s Outlet, Big Lots, Gabriel Brothers, Marshalls, TJ Maxx, and Ross.

6. Which house plants are easiest to care for?
   Beginner-friendly houseplants that do well in most indoor conditions with minimal maintenance are snake plants, pathos, aloe vera, peace lily, Chinese evergreen, English ivy, philodendrons, spider plant, succulents, pathos, and jade plants.

7. What types of materials from nature work to make budget art?
   Beautiful free artwork can be created using items found outdoors like dried flowers and grasses, evergreen clippings, leaves, sticks, pine cones, acorns, sand, pebbles, shells, and driftwood. Display them in shadowboxes, vases, or pressed under glass.

8. What are quick DIY wall art ideas
   Some fast and easy homemade wall décor ideas are painting wood rounds into monogram letters, creating a photo gallery wall showcasing meaningful pictures in matching frames, making geometric designs with painted dowel rods, displaying a collection of vintage plates, or arranging framed pressed flowers/ferns picked from your garden.

9. How do you make old things look new again
   Breathing new life into worn household items is often as simple as cleaning them thoroughly, painting a fresh color with spray paint formulated for the material, replacing hardware like knobs and pulls, gently sanding then restaining wood pieces in a modern hue, or wrapping upholstery in new fabric or slipcovers.

10. What unusual things can I use to decorate affordably
    Some out-of-the-box everyday items that can moonlight as budget home décor include glass bottles, apothecary jars, silver and wooden spoons, china plates, tin cans, old books covered in decorative paper, mason jars, global textiles like saris as wall hangings, and nature elements like dried botanicals, rocks, and sea glass.

11. Where can I buy secondhand furniture
    The best places to shop for quality used furniture on a budget, while still getting great quality pieces, are Habitat for Humanity Restores, thrift stores like Goodwill and Salvation Army, garage sales, estate sales, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, Offer Up, and consignment furniture shops. Compare prices both locally and online first before purchasing anything full price.

12. What should I look for when buying used furniture
    Key things to inspect closely when buying secondhand furniture are checking for: sturdy construction and joints, signs of woodworm/damage, mold/musty smells, peeling veneers/finishes, fabric tears/stains, functioning hardware/moving parts, missing pieces, and that dimensions fit the desired space.

13. How do I make a room look complete if I have mismatched furniture
    The key to styling a cohesive room with eclectic thrifted or inherited furniture is to use common décor elements throughout to tie the space together. Some examples are repainting all wood pieces the same basic neutral shade, choosing one signature color to repeat in accents, using same style hardware for knobs/pulls, incorporating identical lamps/lighting, repeating complementary pillow/blanket patterns, and hanging coordinated art/wall prints in matching frame styles.

14. Where can I buy inexpensive area rugs
    Great places to shop for stylish area rugs while on a budget are discount home goods stores like HomeGoods, Tuesday Morning, and Ollie’s, online retailers RugsUSA.com, Overstock.com, and Ruggable.com, big box stores like Target and Walmart, and warehouse clubs such as Costco and Sam’s Club. Always measure your space carefully first since rug sizes vary slightly across brands before purchasing.
15. Should I make my own artwork or buy pre-made wall art
    Making your own DIY artwork using materials found in nature, family photos, sentimental objects, and things like wood rounds, frames, and canvases purchased from craft stores is often much more affordable than buying pieces pre-made. It also allows you to create wall décor and prints that reflect your unique personality and style.