8 Ways to Decorate Your Home on a Budget

A few months back, I sent my email subscribers a survey about what they wanted to see here on the blog and I received an overwhelming number of people wanting more budget decorating tips! (Psst…if you aren’t a subscriber, you can become one for free by entering your email in the box below this post!)

While I don’t consider myself a DIY or home decor blogger, I do think I have a lot of tips that will help real moms on real budgets decorate their homes. I’ve been shoe-stringing my home along for about 7 years now and I’ve got a few tricks of the trade! 🙂

1. You can do a lot of good with a can of paint!

If you know me in real life, you’ve probably heard me say this a time or two…or ten! But in all seriousness, a can of paint can completely transform a room. Plus, you can literally paint so much more than you think!

Ugly cabinets? Brighten them up with paint. Dinged up trim work? A coat of paint can do it a lot of good! Ugly, used furniture? Fix it with paint! It’s my secret weapon when decorating on a tight budget. I almost always use Behr paint from Home Depot just because I feel like it covers so well. Paint is one of those things that you get what you pay for and spending a few extra bucks for better coverage and to make the process go smoother is totally worth it!

I’ve just recently come to love chalk paint thanks to my sister-in-law, Kacie! I had used it a few years ago on a project I did with my sister, but just recently painted a used bedroom suite I inherited for free. It was old, dark, dinged-up and not my style at all! A few coats of chalk paint completely revitalized these pieces. What we thought would be furniture we would just use for a few years until we could build our own, has become something we really love and plan to keep indefinitely! 

If you need to fix up a room, try adding a fresh coat of paint. It can really do wonders! 

2. Utilize & Revive Hand-Me-Downs

If someone is offering to give you furniture, try to think of ways you could make it your own, fix it up, and give it a fresh look. Sometimes a coat of paint (like the bedroom suite) or a slipcover can completely transform a piece of furniture without breaking the bank. 

We have inherited the majority of our furniture from family, but we’ve had to do a little work to almost every piece. Just a few things we have inherited over the years include a piano, 2 armchairs, a storage cabinet, 3 bedroom suites, a queen bed, and a glider with an ottoman. Not all of them have been my style, but I’ve been able to put in a little work to each piece to really make it just a little more me. 

By utilizing hand-me-downs, I was able to put together this gallery wall for less than $10.

3. Make It Yourself

Have you ever walked through a furniture store and looked at the prices on the wooden furniture? The first time I did in hopes of finding end tables for my living room I almost passed out! Finished wood furniture can cost several hundred to several thousand dollars depending on what it is you are purchasing. However, with just some pine boards, a little knowledge in how to use a few power tools, and our time, we’ve been able to make several wooden pieces of furniture for our house with several more on our list of things to do soon! 

Those end tables I was looking at in the furniture store were priced at $449 each. Tom and I were able to build our own completely finished end tables for $45! If you are interested in making your own furniture, check out ana-white.com. She provides very detailed plans using basic tools that you can make for pennies on the dollar of what you would pay retail. 

4. Shop Yard Sales, Online Swaps, or Goodwill

You can find some real gems used if you just keep your eyes open for them. Sometimes they are exactly what you are looking for and other times you may need to give them a little love to make them work for you. Either way, it will save you a ton of moola to purchase things used. 

5. Ask for Decor/Gift Cards as Gifts for Your Birthday or Christmas

When we moved into this house, we ended up not having enough furniture to fill the space. (We moved from 864 square feet to 1684 square feet, so we almost doubled our square footage exactly!) While I wanted to go out and just buy a couch for our living room to fill the space, my much more frugal husband had other ideas! 🙂 So I sold some stuff and asked for money for my birthday and Christmas that year and was able to go and pay cash for a sofa for our living room in January! If your family asks for ideas for gifts for a special occasion, ask for gift cards. They can really add up!

6. Use Coupons & Shop Sales

I’m always looking for a good deal and try to never pay full price, especially if I know I don’t have to. If I know we are going to be in the market for something for our home in the foreseeable future, I will start collecting coupons and hunting down bargains like a mad woman! A few places that I find great deals on home decor items are Hobby Lobby (always use a 40% off coupon!) and Ikea. I’ve also been really impressed with Walmart’s selection of home decor items as of recently.

And, I will probably make a few people mad with this comment, but I find Target’s home decor items to be greatly overpriced. There. I said it. It’s out there. If you shop there after season markdowns, you can sometimes find good deals, but otherwise, I think they ask way to much for things that you can either buy much cheaper elsewhere or oftentimes DIY yourself. I do enjoy browsing their home decor aisles for inspiration though! 😉

This area in my dining room is one of my favorite spots in our entire home. It has come together over time, but I definitely took advantage of sales and used coupons to purchase everything here. A lot of these items are hand me downs as well! 🙂

7. Add it to Your Budget

If you are struggling to decorate your home and think you need to do it all at once, think again. I was there once too. It’s frustrating when you so badly want your home to look a certain way, but your pocketbook just won’t allow it. If you have even just a small amount of wiggle room in your budget, try to add in a line item for home decor. It can be as little as $5-$10 a month. You would be surprised what you can do for such a small amount of money! DIYs, thrift store finds, and hand-me-downs can go a long way.

This is the newest little spot we put together in our bedroom just this week. I pulled items from around the house and we added the shelf with leftover supplies! I love when things can come together so perfectly without spending money!

8. Don’t Pay Full Price for Furniture

If you do decide to purchase furniture brand new (we have only done this once in 7 years of marriage!), don’t EVER pay full price. That little tag hanging off that sofa you really want? Totally negotiable! Always ask if they are running a special? And if you have cash in hand, you can usually get an even better deal! Try to get it down a little more. We purchased our current sofa for about 20% less than that little tag had it listed at! It really never hurts to ask.

While decorating an entire home can seem overwhelming and make you see lots of dollar signs, remember it won’t happen overnight. Take your time, save up, and add a few things here and there as the budget allows. A little bit goes a long way! Happy decorating!

If you have any other ideas for decorating on a budget, please share your thoughts below! I’m always looking for new ideas and I’m sure the other readers here would love more tips!