Decorating on a Pennyby Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger 18 Mar 2008 12:28 PM Want to update your room without spending a lot of money? Try these ideas that are cheap but look fabulous. 1. When in doubt, paint. Paint is a relatively inexpensive way to change out a room, update a room or brighten a room. If you do the labor yourself and get free paint, then it won't cost you a dime. Click here to learn about free and low cost paint. 2. Throw pillows instantly add some color to a room without a huge expense. Make the pillows yourself to get a custom designer look for a frugal price. Throw pillows can even disguise worn or outdated furniture and draw the eye away from less exciting parts of your room. Combine different sizes and shapes of pillows for the maximum impact. 3. Throw rugs can do the same for your floors as throw pillows do your your furniture. To be very frugal, ask a carpet store or home modeler for free remnants and then have those remnants bound. You can create throw rugs in the traditional shapes, such as squares and rectangles, or go wild and try circles and triangles for real deal impact. 4. Hide inexpensive lighting behind a potted plant or a sofa. This will allow you to spend less on your lighting, but still add a lot of drama to the room. Colored lighting is inexpensive and bathes a room in soft, warm color. Try this look in a cozy family room, a romantic bedroom or a bathroom. Use gel sleeves, colored light bulbs or unlined colored lampshades. Three way bulbs and dimmer switches will save you money, too. 5. Try adding candles to the room for a very frugal design element. Candles can be cozy or elegant or modern. They are great for a finishing touch to a room. Frugal candles can be found everywhere, or you can make them yourself. What frugal decorating ideas do you have? Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here. Related Articles: Save on Furniture with The Three "F"s Frugal Ways to Decorate A Child's Room A Frugal Room Fit for a Princess Learn more about Mary Ann Romans  Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat. Relevantfrugal tags User Comments  deedee1231 (4030) 18 Mar 2008 01:02 PMI have been wanting to make new curtains for my daughter's bedroom. In the past I have used second hand sheets or too-large drapes as fabric for curtains, I just cut them down to size and sew them. I have not been able to find anything large enough to use to make her curtains as she has 5 windows in her bedroom. Do you have any advice for finding frugal fabric for this project?  Mary Ann Romans (26876) 20 Mar 2008 06:35 AMCheck out Frugal Fabric Ideas in this blog for my response. Thanks! StBridgit (322) 20 Mar 2008 09:22 AMFrugal decorating--my forte! Here are some great ideas for keeping things fresh in your home without spending a lot of money: 1) Use paint on one wall to accent a room. If you're afraid of using color, this is a great way to ease away from neutrals. It's also very cheap, as you can use a quart or less of paint and change the way a room feels. 2) Rearrange your furniture! It's amazing what a little furniture shuffling will do to bring new life to a room. Break up matching sets and shuffle chairs between rooms for some fun. 3) Paint wooden pieces of furniture. If you have some beat up wooden furniture, an easy way to breathe new life into it is to paint it. If you're afraid of special paint finishes, stick with a solid color. It will look like new and save an expensive trip to the furniture store. 4) If you need new furniture, shop at yard sales & thrift stores with an eye to repainting and recovering if necessary. There are many pieces of upholstered furniture that can easily be re-upholstered with a good staple gun and glue gun. Experiment or take a class at your local craft store--still cheaper than buying new! Also be open to repurposing furniture--a good low chest of drawers can easily serve as a buffet table in a dining room! Mary Ann Romans (26876) 20 Mar 2008 09:40 AMWhat great ideas St.Bridgit! We used the accent wall in our daughter's room, and it has gotten rave reviews from friends and family--and the room isn't even decorated, yet! Well, I like all of your ideas, actually. We did you an old dresser as a buffet in our kitchen in our old home. It worked very nicely.  thequeenofthecastle (413) 24 Oct 2008 12:37 PMI have had a cool lamp base I found for a $1 a while back, but I was having trouble finding a frugal lamp shade. Then, the other day I was looking through a magazine and saw a "kid craft" idea where you wrap yarn around a lampshade to recover it. I ran to my closet and grabbed some cool red yarn I had and a lampshade my sister in law gave me that was ugly and broken and stared wrapping. It ended up looking awesome. The shade was always the right size, but now it matches my color scheme and looks cool too and the yarn kind of mutes the light, so it has nice ambiance. Community Tags design, Decorating, frugal, paint, thrifty Discuss this article
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