5 Budget friendly home decorating tips

If paying for the down payment and closing costs of your home is expensive enough, then how much more is blindly filling your home with lavish personal designs and furniture and other improvements that you don’t really need? Putting your design in your new home can add up easily. But it doesn’t have to with these budget friendly home decorating tips.

A small budget doesn’t automatically mean that you should settle for subpar design. There are numerous opportunities to create a big impact at an affordable cost. Here are some smart tips on how to accomplish affordable home decorations.

• Create a plan and check what you “really” need. How often do you impulsively buy stuff that you don’t even remotely need? Things like door stoppers and blinds sold for less than $5 are good, but if your house only has sliding doors and curtains, you’ve only wasted money.

Ask yourself what pieces of furniture you want to keep and which ones you’re willing to part with. If you are planning to buy a new furniture set, it’s best to go with foundational pieces that are color-neutral. Colors like beige or light gray goes a long way combination wise, prompting little adjustment in the future.

• Don’t buy matching sets of furniture. They look cute and you can get a deal for as low as $599 if you purchase a deal that includes a sofa, an ottoman, and a love seat – but should they really go together?

Furniture tends to have longer longevity if you simply avoid deals and focus on each item individually. You should put your decorating budget on a new sofa and get your ottoman and new lounge chair from a thrift store and reupholster it.

What’s my justification? Well, it’s better to have a living room full of select pieces of furniture than a matching couch deal that will look dated in six months.

• Select paint colors and hardware design. Before putting all your effort into the perfect furniture piece, make sure to pick out the paint colors, deciding if you want to swap out any fixtures like faucets and handles, and what type of hardware you are going to replace it with. For example, repainting the front door white and swapping out door handles can boost aesthetic design.

Also, the color of your design pieces should harmonize with the color of your home itself, and in extension the community. There are monotonous communities with modestly designed homes (Walter White’s neighborhood in Breaking Bad). Now, compare it with simple yet elegant communities built by Lend Lease home builders. Striking difference, right? In any case, living in a lively and colorful community invites more artistic and creative design freedom.

• Strategize floor plan. Before designing the space, figure out what you want to use space for. Are you going to use it for partying a lot? Will you need more seating for additional people? Do you want a more formal arrangement? These considerations will help you dictate the layout of the furniture that will be conducive to your lifestyle.

• Think home aesthetic. Always think about the big picture. It’s very important not to let all the decoration options overwhelm you. Sometimes simplicity is the best solution. At the end of the day, a piece of vase is just one moment in the grand scheme.

The takeaway

Figure out the shell of the space first in order to know what types of furniture you are going to need. Knowing the finishes and materials of the space beforehand will allow you to create seamless design ideas. And whatever you do, don’t forget to have fun!