How to Decorate a New House With a Limited Budget

When you buy a new house, you may face financial concerns. After all, between a down payment, closing fees and your upcoming mortgage, a new home is quite an expense. As such, you may be faced with the task of decorating a new house with a limited budget. If this concept scares you, don't worry. Believe it or not, you can decorate a new house on a limited budget - and make it look great.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. The first step in decorating a new home on a budget is assessing the things that you already have. Chances are good that your current room, apartment or house has some great decorations that you can use in your new dwelling. Look through the things that you already have. Keep the things that you like and get rid of the things that you don't. When you decorate your new house, you don't want to start off with decorations that you do not enjoy.

2. Search for free and cheap things. Ask friends and family members for leftover paint. You can always alter the color by buying a color of paint that will blend well with the original color. For example, if your relative gives you light blue paint, but you want your room medium blue, buy a can of dark blue and mix the two together. Buying one new can of paint is less expensive than buying two.
   
   Also, look around at garage sales. You never know what kind of inexpensive treasures you may find. With some new paint, someone's old toybox can become your new living room table.

3. Ask for help decorating your new home. When people feel that they have genuine input, they may be more willing to help you shop for things and help you do the decorating work. If you've got five people helping you shop for inexpensive things, you'll have lots of wonderful decorations before you know it.

4. Realize that inexpensive does not equal cheap. Let's say you have two mismatched couches for your living room. Purchase two inexpensive sofa covers, and you've got matching couches. Or, visit a local discount store and purchase pillows in the colors of both of the couches. Let's say you have a red couch and a blue one. Place blue pillows on the red sofa, and red pillows on the blue one. All of a sudden, you've brought a room together.

5. Adopt a minimalist attitude. Choose a theme or theme colors for each room in your house, and start decorating...but decorate small. You don't need to buy all of your decorations at once. Leave three walls empty, and put one piece of art on one wall. The room will look nice, and you can add more pieces as time goes on. Essentially, instead of investing a lot of money in one room, invest a little bit in each room, so your whole house looks minimalistic but complete.

6. Work with what you already have in the new home, even if everything isn't completely your style. Let's say your bathroom has a green tile floor. Instead of ripping it up, paint the walls a bold color, so the floor isn't as noticeable. Or, get large bathroom rugs and cover up as much of the floor as you can.
   
   The same concept works well in the backyard. Let's say that you have space for a raised garden, with a wall made of rocks. Even if you don't love the style, plant flowers that you like in the garden. That will give it a great look until you can replace the area with what you really want.

7. Think frugally. Decorate walls with pictures of friends and family. Decorate your bathroom with rubber ducks from the dollar store. Let an inexpensive fruit bowl decorate the middle of your dining room table. Decorate with colorful candles. Purchase colorful folding chairs. Have fun!

8. Let household goods act as home decor. For example, a bookshelf full of colorful books is functional, and looks beautiful. Place DVDs in colorful boxes on shelves for a fun and functional look. Purchase a brightly colored home phone or alarm clock. Let the necessities give your home character.

9. Shop for inexpensive furniture. Your 'for now' furniture does not have to be your 'forever' furniture. Shop at stores like Target and IKEA for great deals on modern looking furniture. You can always sell it later and make some of your money back.

10. Accept the fact that home decorating is an ongoing process. You can't expect to make your new house into a home right away. The key is making your house into a place you like, and allowing time to make it into the place that you love.

[godfather25]

on 9/27/2009 Very good tips on decorating a house on a limited budget.