How to make your home look beautiful on a budget

Posted on Monday, June 25th, 2018

Naturally, everyone wants their home to look beautiful. However, various expenses – like those of gas and electricity, looking after kids and, of course, getting to and from work – might weigh down on your finances, leaving you with little to spend on visually sprucing up your residence.

However, we are happy to break the reassuring news that making your home look nicer does not have to significantly deplete precious money. Here are some ways to cost-effectively beautify your home.

Clear clutter

Before thinking about what you could add to your home, it is worth considering what you could get rid of. You might be able to give some items to a charity shop or offload them through eBay, Ideal Home suggests. However, do not overly fret if you genuinely need everything you see in your home.

You could still de-clutter your home by following Marie Claire‘s advice to put unsightly paperwork and clothing into stylish storage – the outer look of which could, of course, be stunning.

Rethink your layout

If you still cannot bear to part with anything or your home continues to look packed with items, another option is shifting some pieces around. You could be surprised by how much fresher the home feels if you allow yourself to experiment with the abode’s layout.

Even just moving the sofa could suffice for making that home feel new – as could making that single large furniture piece the focal point in the room.

Add – or perhaps even make – new cushions

If your budget does not stretch as far as a new sofa, you could still pick up a few affordable cushions to place on your existing sofa, a good technique for freshening its look. For those cushions, you could select colours from the palette already used by the room’s walls and floor.

Another possibility is making your own cushions, as House Beautiful advises. This approach could give you a freer rein to choose the fabric. Do not like sewing? Consider using fabric glue instead.

Give the decor a more metallic look

If you do shop for new furniture pieces, cushions, lighting fixtures or bathroom accessories, choose ones in metal colours like gold, chrome and copper. You could even use spray paint to put such hues on furniture that is already in your house.

When on the lookout for new homeware to buy, keep an eye out for pieces with a brushed or matte metallic finish, as these items can be especially appealing from a financial point of view.

Cleverly conceal unsightly pieces

Some pieces in your home, you might not yet be in a practical position to replace or banish. For example, your budget might be too tight for a new, unstained carpet – and what are you supposed to do about that ugly-looking Wi-Fi router when your household relies heavily on the Internet? Actually, you could lay a rug over the existing carpet and hide the router in a hollowed-out book.