7 Room make-over tips on a budget

Recently, I moved into my new studio apartment. As a student, this is however not a cheap undertaking. Therefore, I had to come up with ways to save money, as well in the short term as in the long run. That is why I have some tips here that will make it easy for you to give your room a make-over on a budget, so a beautiful interior design doesn’t cost you loads of money!

1. Posters and pictures

Photographs can do a lot for the atmosphere in your room and they don’t cost the world. That is why I bought a few black wooden photo frames, all in the same size. With them, I bought some cute posters from Postery.com, Etsy.com, Junique.com and Desenio.com. I also made some posters with texts myself on a design website called Canva. Right now, I have beautiful photos and funny texts throughout the house, but in December, I also changed some to Christmas themed posters. This way, you can easily change up your room without too much effort or costs.

2. Blankets and pillows

Maybe not the most original interior design tip for room make-overs, but definitely a good one. Especially if the furniture is relatively simple, this can make a huge difference. With the use of some pillows and blankets, you can easily change the color theme you have. For instance, I have a light grey couch with a mustard yellow blanket draped over it, whereas in December, I decorated it with green pillows to match the rest of my decorations.

3. Move stuff around

Online, there are lots of websites that can help you to visualise how your room will look when designing your interior. However, they also make it much easier to see if the couch would maybe also look nice in that other corner, without you having to drag your furniture across the room with the risk of having to put everything back later if it does not work out. Moving some chairs or turning the couch or table a quarter can make a huge difference!

4. Use boxes and pots as decorations

Especially in smaller spaces, decorations can make a room feel crowded easily. In addition, they might also bore you, which would mean you would have to change them out every so often, which is not that sustainable or cheap. Instead of buying decorations, you can however also use what you already have. For instance, I have my pasta and rice in glass jars of different sizes. This way, I use my space optimally and they add a homey feeling to my kitchen. I also chose to buy a spice rack in a second hand store and it looks beautiful on my countertop now.

5. Make a statement wall

It often works really well to personalise a space by making one wall stand out. I chose to have one wall painted in a dark, forest green color, but you could also make a picture wall, an inspiration wall or use wall stickers. All these options can be really inexpensive, but it works wonders for the atmosphere in the room. Another idea is to only paint the parts sticking out of the wall, like the window- and doorframes or to make a stroke with blackboard paint, which will give you the opportunity to decorate your wall yourself every day if you would like with chalk!

6. Trade with others

That you are bored with that statement chair now, does not mean everybody is! Therefore, you can also ask your friends to trade stuff. I had a beautiful small carpet that did not really fit with the style of my new house anymore and a friend of mine loved it, so I gave it to her. She had a chair leftover that her roommate did not like, so I got that chair back in return. This way, you can change furniture, which is normally quite expensive, for free! Other places to look are of course second hand shops, where you can also sell your own old furniture, or online trading websites.

7. DIY

And no, that does not necessarily have to mean that you have to crochet your own lampshade based on that YouTube video you once saw. For me, it means using photographs I made myself as posters and for a friend of mine, it meant making a pillow out of a very cute tea towel. A room make-over is worth nothing if there’s no personal touch to it! My dad also made a nightstand for me with old, scaffolding wood that looks amazing and I know some people that use fruit crates as bookshelves. These things don’t have to be hard and they give your room a lot of personality, without costing a lot. With this, it is however important that you keep calculating the costs, because I have seen many DIY projects that would cost me way more than the actual product from the store.

I hope you have some new inspiration to start and if you have any other ideas, please let me know in the comment section below! And if you liked this, please subscribe to my blog or follow me on Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter, so you’ll never have to miss a new post!

Lots of love,

Lisa

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