home interior design budget

Finding Budget Furnishings for Your Home

Redecorating your home can be a huge expense if you allow it to be. High end furnishings cost a great deal of money, which many people find it difficult to justify.

There are a number of ways that you can cut back on your furniture expenses and decorate your entire home for a fraction of the cost. With a little bit of extra work, you can have a fabulously designed home without spending a lot of money.

If you are handy, you can take some older furnishings and give them new life. Whether you choose to give the furniture that you already have a fresh new look or you pick up some older items and add your own unique style to it, the cost saving will allow you to purchase much more for your money. Take a good look at the furniture that you already have in your home and really analyze whether it is too beat up to be used or it just needs a new look. Even the pieces that are a little beat up can be restored to their former glory with a little bit of work and attention.

Slipcovers can be a great way to give your old sofa a new colour and design. If your old sofa is still in relatively good condition but you are sick of looking at it, new covers may be just the thing to perk up your living room. End tables and coffee tables can be sanded down and refinished to restore their beauty or you can paint them in a completely different colour and make them look brand new. If you have good quality pieces in your home that have just become shabby over time, put a little work into them and make them look brand new again.

Along with the refinish work that you can do for your furnishings, give your walls some new colour. This is an inexpensive way to add new life to a room. And the new slipcovers and paint on your furnishings will demand some new colours on the walls. For the price of a couple of gallons of paint, your rooms can look stunning.

spend my days nosing around some of the world’s most jaw-droppingly beautiful homes. One moment I’ll be wowed by an expansive New York loft filled with designer Italian sofas, the next it may be a South African beach-front property featuring an eclectic mix of vintage finds and modern classics. When I return home to my own humble London flat, it’s hard not to feel a little downhearted. It’s the same for many people when looking through glossy magazines: they think these houses are beautiful, but unattainable.

But this isn’t so, even on today’s budgets. It’s said that out of these times of economic crisis comes great creativity, and this isn’t any less true when it comes to where you live. It’s all about changing your way of thinking. Rather than rushing out to buy something new every time you want to revamp a room, it’s about learning to work with what you’ve got. Don’t panic, we’re not talking about shoddy, Changing Rooms-style projects that ruin, rather than refresh a room, but simple, stylish updates that anyone can do.

It will be difficult to change your mindset at first, especially if you are more accustomed to trekking down to Habitat every time you want to update your house, but it can be done, and it will be cheaper. Think of the hours you waste traipsing around the high street and put them to use making-over the things already in your house.

There is potential in everything you own, even if you’ve been living with it for so long that you’re blind to it. That nondescript kitchen dresser that suddenly takes centre stage when you wallpaper the inside with a vibrant print; those plain Ikea drawers that are instantly updated when you replace the handles with mismatched vintage ones; even that awful pine stuff you bought in the 90s that suddenly stands out after being given a lick of something colourful. Alternatively, if you hate a piece of furniture but don’t want to pay to replace it, you can hide it by painting it the same colour as the walls of your house.

Paint, wallpaper and fabric are key to unlocking a new look for every area of the home. They need not be expensive either if you are canny: go for small amounts of quality materials rather than huge quantities of cheap tat. Make the most of the samples that companies offer too: they are often sold off cheap or even given away for free. I’ve seen shabby magnolia walls transformed into gallery-worthy installations by applying a patchwork of differently patterned wallpapers. Tester pots of paint may not cover a wall, but there is enough in those little bottles to paint old picture and photo frames and then hang them together on what was an empty white wall. A tablecloth made by stitching together clashing off-cuts of fabric can brighten even the dullest dining table.

You may not think of yourself as the type of person who can do these things, but neither did I. I’m hardly the most practical of people when it comes to picking up a paintbrush or revving up a sewing machine, but recently I have started to have a crack at more and more projects. I’m all thumbs when it comes to a needle and thread, but even I managed to knock-up a few simple cushion covers made from some bright Marimekko tea towels that I’d never used. A couple of hours of needlework and – voilá – a whole new sofa. Other recent projects include: painting the treads of my stairs in various bold shades, hanging an old fringed curtain behind the bed as a different take on a headboard, and covering some old dining chair seats with graphic Orla Kiely fabric.

How to Stage your Home on a Tight Budget

when trying to sell your home, one of the largest challenges is making your home appealing to potential buyers. Staging your home is a way to make your home look appealing to incoming homebuyers without having to change out your entire house! Many homeowners shy away from home staging because they think it will be expensive, or that they have to do a home transformation like many do it yourself television programs. On the contrary, there are several ways to stage your home on a budget, without losing your entire wallet.

De-clutter and de-personalize: One of the easiest and cheapest ways to stage your home is to get rid of clutter. De-cluttering doesn’t only mean removing unwanted items. It also includes purging items that don’t enhance the overall aesthetic of the room. This includes de-personalizing, which means your high school trophies and grandma’s antique plate collection need to be packed up for the next house. The goal is to make a homeowner want to walk in your house and see their belongings in it. De-cluttering and de-personalizing costs you nothing, except maybe your pride. Color in your home is important: Take a walk through your home and determine if there is a natural flow throughout your home. Are the colors neutral from space to space, or are they a vibrant, knock-you-over-the-head color in every space? Consider painting rooms that are overly personalized. Neutrals, and muted tones are the safest. Color palettes of browns, grays, and the gray tones of greens, blues, and yellows are neutral as well. Painting is the cheapest upgrade you can make to your home, and homebuyers will appreciate rooms that flow comfortably together visually.

Make your home look inviting: Home staging is all about ‘setting the stage’ for a homebuyer to want to buy your home. This means fluffing up pillows in the bedrooms, and making sure matching clean towels are hung in the bathrooms. While all of these seem like very simple tasks, a homebuyer will notice and it will equate to them thinking you have taken care of the house, etc…. Ensure fresh aromas are going through your home – consider baking some cookies before an open house, and open windows the day before to allow fresh air to circulate through the home. Setting the stage can require no money at all, just some time and a conscious effort on your part.

Bring in natural light: It doesn’t matter how clean your home is, or what colors you paint the walls if you can’t see them! Opening up window treatments, and blinds when staging is imperative. Natural light will also help you see what buyers will see! Clean, clean, clean! Bringing in natural light also has a psychological and physical affect on humans. It makes us feel comfortable and safe. You will be surprised how much better your home will look and feel when let in natural light, and yes, it’s free.

Staging your home on a budget has never been easier and more affordable. No longer should homebuyers use the excuse that they can’t afford to stage their home. The biggest concept to remember is you will soon be a homebuyer and be on the ‘other side of the table’. What amenities would you look for, and what will make you want to say ‘this is my next home!’ Keep these in mind when staging your home and the process of staging on a budget will be that much easier.

Freshome readers have you tried to stage your own home for resale? We’d love to hear if you have more ideas to add to the list!

Building On A Budget

Pricing it up

It’s important to work out an early estimate of the cost of building your home. You can use a free online building cost estimator or research local builders whose work resembles the size and quality of your ideal home. Most builders can give you an approximate idea of what your budget should be. Don’t forget to let them know from the get-go about any must-have features or additions, because the unknowns are what end up busting the budget in the end.

Evaluate the lot you are choosing to build upon. Maybe the lot is comparably cheaper to other property you are considering, but that may be a result of expensive building obstacles: trees that need to be cleared, drainage systems needing to be built, or layers of rock that must be destroyed. As a note, a remote lot may be cheaper than one more centrally located, however in the end, the most budget-friendly lots are those with access to public water lines, electricity and gas

Simplicity equals cost effective

Opting for simplicity in the shape of your home is another way to cut costs. Square and rectangular floor plans are easier on the budget than building complex shapes with involved roof-lines. Consider how much simpler a dome home is to build in comparison to a triangle shape with numerous vaulted ceilings.

Choosing Materials

Major budget-savers come when choosing the building materials for your home. Nowadays, there are many high-quality imitations of the pricier traditional material. You can still create the look you want without draining your entire budget on one room. For example, real hardwood floors are beautiful but you may consider less expensive alternatives like engineered wood, prefabricated floors or bamboo flooring. Instead of solid wood cabinets, consider that open shelves use less material and can make your kitchen, bathroom or home office feel more spacious.