Inexpensive Home Decorating

We recently bought our first house and trying to decorate our home had become very troublesome and started to cost a lot of money. With so much space to fill and not enough stuff to fill it, I started to look for new ways to decorate that didn't cost me an arm and a leg. We have done a lot on our own instead of making the big purchases in the stores. We made our own tables for about $25 each (8ft X 2ft) and got a $10 gallon of paint for those tables and we didn't even use 1/4 of it. We rearranged our furniture and I changed most of the pictures in the house. Just doing these things made decorating so much easier. The dollar store has also become one of my favorite places to shop. Here are some more ideas on how to do some inexpensive home decorating.

Everything you own can possibly take a new coat of paint. From walls to furniture to accents. A fresh coat of paint can make anything look like new. So how do you get paint cheap? Easy! Go to a store that sells paint; Lowes, Home Depot, Sherwin Williams, etc. and ask them if they have any miss tinted paint. Most gallons of paint run $25+ but a miss tinted paint can cost as low as $5 a gallon at some places and it could be exactly what you were looking for! We just recently went and got our own miss tinted paint at Lowes and it only cost us $10 for a gallon and we didn't use hardly any of it. We've got plenty left over that when we get the rest of our "craft/computer room" finished it will all match and look really nice. We have even thought about using it in our master bedroom since we want the walls to be gray (both rooms will be hubs for another time).

You can use fabric for many different things as well. Reupholstering your own furniture is a great way to save you lots of money on having to buy all new stuff. Chairs are easy to upholster, just unscrew it from the bottom, measure fabric, pull it across what is already there (or remove old and add new padding if you want) and staple. Then reattach the chair to the frame and tada! A whole new chair. You can also use fabric on a board, add a little ribbon and you've got a cute place to hang pictures, cards, etc. You can get fabric cheap at stores like Michaels, Hobby Lobby, Joann's, etc. by looking at the pre-cut fabric. The stuff that is left over at the end of a roll that isn't quite a whole yard or a little more than a yard is usually in its own basket by where they cut the fabric. Sometimes you can mix and match these fabrics to make exactly what you want. They are usually discounted quite a bit too. Some up to 60% off the price of a whole yard.

About once a year it is important to change out your photos you have placed around your house. Not necessarily the ones hanging on the walls (i.e. family pictures, important pictures) but the ones in small frames around the house. Changing out these pictures can make a room look and feel completely different. I am the type of person that keeps pictures on my refrigerator and when I get the new ones of the people on the fridge I change them out. Every time we have people over they are constantly looking at the "new" pictures on the fridge. It also helps my kids know who is who in our family since we don't get to see them a whole lot. Changing these photos doesn't mean spending a ton of money on new picture frames, it just means to change it up a little. You can even paint those frames to make an even bigger difference in your home decorating.

This is so simple and makes your house look and feel completely new. Growing up my mom and I were always rearranging our furniture. We would change it up about twice a year (if not more) and now that I have a house of my own I am finding that I do the same thing. If I feel like I need a change it's as easy as pushing a couch to the other wall, moving a table or two, rearranging the book shelves, and there you go, a completely new living room/bedroom/craft room then it was before and it didn't cost anything!

You'd probably never think of it but you can find some really awesome things at the dollar store, grocery store, craft store and even the hardware store that would work great in your home for very little money.

• Dollar Store - I shop at the dollar store a lot! Mainly because I have three small children and we have been teaching them about money so it's easier to take them into the dollar store with their money and they can pick out whatever they want, count out their money, and get their change and receipt (they LOVE doing this). I went there with my mom a while back and we bought 6 things for under $7 and it really made my master bathroom exactly what I wanted it to be. I got three different size vases, two candle holders and a package of votive candles. We had so many sea shells and sand from going to the beach and the kids gathering so much that I used some of those. Putting it all together in the center of my vanities made it great. You can also get vases for fruit, nuts, flowers, yarn, just about anything. You can even make the coolest things from dollar store finds like a cake platter. Just use a small vase, turned upside down, and a glass plate, glue together with glass glue and you've got a really cool looking cake platter for very little money!

• Craft and Hardware Stores - Craft stores are always having some kind of sale. They also have huge sections that are clearance priced and work great when combined with other things you have in your home. Hardware stores you can use tools as decorations (they don't have to be the name brand ones) and you can also get wood that has been miss cut to make your own stuff for your home. The possibilities are endless.

• Grocery Store - You can buy fruit, vegetables, nuts, flowers, etc from any grocery store and make them look fabulous in your home by placing them in a bowl in the middle of the table, in a large vase on your entry table or having a fruit "tree" in your kitchen. This will keep your items on display, add color to your room, and it's always changeable!

The most inexpensive way to decorate your home is to bring the outdoors in. Take some pinecones and leaves, maybe a few branches even and put them in a long rectangle plate in the middle of the couch table. Use sand and shells (like I did in my bathroom) for a beach theme.

If you are Military, spouse of a Soldier, have a Military ID, MANY places give a military discount of 10%. Most places that give the discount don't ever tell you because they don't "have" to. Most Home Depot, Lowes and AC Moore give the discount but will not ask you if you are Military. The best way to find out is to ask. The worst they can say is no.