Home Decorations

The first sign is that you find yourself drooling over images of beautifully redecorated rooms, outfitted with thousands of dollars’ worth of new furniture and accessories. Then, as you realize you could never afford this kind of makeover on your modest personal budget, feelings of inadequacy set in. You become depressed at the idea that you’re going to be stuck staring at your bare walls and dated furniture forever.

Fortunately, that isn’t true. There are actually plenty of ways to transform a room from top to bottom spending merely hundreds instead of thousands of dollars. In fact, with a bit of time and creativity, you can sometimes give a room a whole new look for less than € 100.

The best cure for a home inferiority complex is to learn more about how to redecorate on a budget. Once you see some of the great rooms other people have put together on shoestring budgets, you’ll realize that you can do the same.

Low-Budget Decorating Techniques

If you want to make your home look amazing without spending a fortune, the first thing to do is forget everything you’ve seen on TV and in magazines. When the decorators on TV make over a space, they almost always do it in the most expensive way possible. They throw out everything in the room, invest in high-end replacements, and hire contractors to install them.

To redo a room for as little money as possible, you need to approach it differently. Instead of changing everything, your goal should be to keep as much as you can, while finding ways to make your old stuff look new. Instead of buying brand-new items, you should try to use things you already have or can pick up secondhand for a song. And instead of bringing in pros, you should do the work yourself whenever possible.

1. Do It Yourself

DIY Low Budget Decorating Technique

Nearly any kind of remodeling or redecorating job is cheaper when you do it yourself instead of hiring a pro.

Investopedia offers several examples of how much DIY can save you on common home decorating jobs:

120V 1600W Professional Linoleum or PVC Vinyl Flooring Welding Heat Gun Kit with Hand Held Hot Air Plastic Welder and Floor Welding…

$279.99

Rated 4.1 out of 5 by 7 reviewers on Amazon.com

Installing Vinyl or Linoleum Flooring. Cost for professional job: For a 10-by-10-foot room, about € 700. Cost to DIY: € 350. Potential savings: € 350.

BOSTITCH Flooring Stapler for Engineered Hardwood (EHF1838K),Black

$189.99

Rated 4.4 out of 5 by 350 reviewers on Amazon.com

Installing Hardwood Flooring. Cost for professional job: Around € 8.50 per square foot, or € 1,275 for a 150-square-foot room.

Cost to DIY: About € 5.50 per square foot or € 825 per room.
Potential savings: € 450.

New Design TST Glass Metal Tile Iridescent White Glass Silver Mirror Stainless Steel Blends Interlocking Strip Wall Tiles TSTNB01 (10 Square…

$169.50$249.48

Rated 4.7 out of 5 by 53 reviewers on Amazon.com

Installing a Kitchen Backsplash. Cost for professional job: About € 850. Cost to DIY: About € 300. Potential savings:
€ 550.

Graco Magnum 262805 X7 Cart Airless Paint Sprayer

$445.08$558.00

Rated 4.6 out of 5 by 425 reviewers on Amazon.com

Painting Interiors. Cost for professional job:
About $1,685 for an entire home (about 1,500 square feet).
Cost to DIY: About € 400. Potential savings: € 1,285.

Villa Acacia Wood Tiles, Outdoor Patio and Deck Interlocking Pavers - 12 x 12 Inch, Pack of 10, 6 Slat

$49.92

Rated 4.3 out of 5 by 69 reviewers on Amazon.com

Adding a Deck. Cost for professional job: To build a 10-by-12-foot deck, about €2,450. Cost to DIY: About € 750. Potential savings: € 1,700.

Another perk of DIY is the satisfaction of being able to show off a project you did with your own hands. Economists even have a name for this phenomenon: They call it “the IKEA Effect,” after the store that specializes in ready-to-build furniture.

A 2020 study at Harvard found that people consistently placed a higher value on things they had built themselves and saw them as equal in value to the work of professionals.

Dinning Table Sets