How to Decorate Your First Home On A Budget
Congratulations on getting married! Now both of you are moving into a new place. Be it an apartment or a storey house, the challenge of making a house into a home relies on you. Setting up a new place is a daunting task, and it can easily break your bank.
Here are a few budget-friendly ideas to decorate your first home together.
- Try Painting Yourself
You can save a significant share of your budget if you paint the house yourself. Not only will you both have fun doing it, but you can also rope in some of your friends to help you out. Try being creative and do an accent wall art. You can also stencil wall art directly with paint, which makes a great statement piece. Like quotations or mandalas.
- Random Wall Art
Pick unique pieces of wall art, photo frames, and hanging art you like. Set it up in a combination of different colors on an entry wall of your house. You can use names carved in wood, rustic clocks, themed shadow boxes, Nordic art, and black and white photos. Set it up in a random fashion to breathe life into these plain walls. You can even find second-hand stuff for this.
- Doing DIY
Have an old table you can’t part with? Try DIY-ing. You can find plenty of tutorials on refurbishing and upcycling old furniture. Sand it down and give it a fresh paint of coat for starters. This will help you keep in the budget rather than buying something completely new.
- Invest for future
Always remember to buy furniture that will last for a long time. Cute and trendy things don’t last long. As this is your first home think long term when purchasing functional furniture, especially when it comes to bed and the living room couch. A right mattress and wooden furniture will last longer and help you save money. Investing in quality rugs, carpet, freestanding storage, beds, and armchairs are investments that pay dividends for years to come.
- Multipurpose
When on a budget, your best bet is to find pieces that can be a double duty. Ottoman with storage space, a coffee table that is also a bookshelf, living room couch, or sofa which has to pull out for guests to use – think in these terms. Since now, living spaces are expensive and smaller, plenty of interior designers have come up with unique products that are multipurpose and easy to store.
- Ask your family members
Look to family members and friends for second-hand pieces you can use, but for a bargain or even rent for a short period. Things like lamps, rugs, cushions, chairs, tables. You’d be surprised by the amount of stuff that gathers stuff in everybody’s attic eventually. Sometimes family members insist on ‘gifting’ you things. If you think you have the sort of relationship on what a gift can be and they can comply, ask for something you’d potentially use in the house and instead of rejecting it eventually. You can even upcycle, reupholster, or DIY old passed down furniture.
- Wholesale shops for everyday essentials
Go to big wholesale stores and retailers for everyday staples. Things like crockery, consumer electronics, towel, bed linens, curtains, etc. Keep in mind to keep a strict list for stuff to buy within your budget. It’s easy to get sucked into buying things you don’t first need at such retail shops.
- Add Plants
You can never have enough plants. The green instantly adds life and color to your living rooms, halls, patio, and even kitchen. They bring in fragrance, and you can also put them in front of a problem spot (Hiding a cracked wall, etc.). You can add vines around the door frame. Get cute single potted plants to liven up your bookshelves or rack. Choose a variety of plants that are inexpensive and low maintenance. You can even paint spray pots with the theme of your house décor.
