How to Decorate Walls Cheaply
Decorating the walls of your home can add a great deal of atmosphere to your living space; wallpaper, artwork, paint and framed prints can add color and style to any room and make it fell more lived-in. The problem is, these things take money and time. Also, those who rent their homes, apartments and condos know that making permanent changes to your walls isn't allowed, which limits your decorating choices. This guide outlines some inventive ideas for those who want to decorate their walls cheaply and efficiently. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Paper
- Poster frames
- Removable wall hooks (like 3M hooks)
- Paint
- Sticky notes
- Image editing software (such as Adobe Photoshop)
- Removable wallpaper
- Sticky tack
- Picture frames
- Photos
- Magazines
Instructions
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Use removable materials. Many companies like 3M have a wide range of affordable products that are completely removable: hooks, mounting squares, Velcro tape and more are all available for your mounting needs. You landlord will thank you if you grab one of these next time you want to hang a picture.
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Consider painting just one wall. Less paint and less time equals less money spent. You could also paint the bottom half of the walls like a border.
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Use wordle.net. This is a great site that allows you to make what they call “word clouds.” Simply paste a chunk of text into the generator, or type in the address of any blog or website that has an RSS feed, and worlde.net will create colorful, interesting groupings of words that are attractive enough to serve as artwork. Just print out one of these creations and stick it in a cheap photo frame and you will have customizable, next-to-free art for your home (see Resources below).
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Use famous or inspirational quotes. Turn a block of colorful sticky notes into a focal point by writing quotes or personal notes on them and arranging them in a grid design. You could also try a geometric or any other pattern. Use the super sticky kind to ensure that the notes won’t fall off the wall.
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Make pop art or lithograph-style artwork on your computer from photos you already have of your family, friends and loved ones. Simply scan the image onto your computer and follow one of the tutorials below to create one-of-a-kind prints that you can frame and hang. Pictures of children look particularly well with this, as well as photos of couples.
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Use removable wallpaper. Sherwin Williams’ EasyChange wallpaper comes down just as easily as it goes up. Finally, a great wallpapering solution for renters! Wallpaper a whole room or, as with the paint, just wallpaper a single wall or try a border. The EasyChange wallpaper comes in hundreds of designs and colors (see Resources below).
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Make collages.Use a large piece of paper and an archival quality glue-stick to affix cut-out images from magazines and photos to the paper. If you’d rather not cut your actual photos, take them to a print shop and have them color-copied. Another variation on this idea is to use bulldog or binder clips and push-pins to hang pictures in a pleasing collage-like arrangement on a wall or on a large cork board. Simply clamp a clip onto the photo and balance the clip on the push-pin as if it were a picture-hanging hook. Then use removable wall hooks to attach the cork board to the wall.
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Tips & Warnings
Always check with your landlord if you are unsure of whether or not you can make changes to the walls.
