Decorating on a Dime

I've got the decorating/redecorating bug. When I gave birth to Camryn on January 19th of this year we had barely gotten all of the Christmas decorations out of the house and into the attic. Because I was hugely pregnant, I did not feel like putting all the stuff back on the walls and fussing over decorations.

Now that she is 3 months old (in two days), it's Spring Time, it's yard sale time, etc. I have the decorating bug. I want things to be pretty again. I want new to me stuff because I'm tired of my old stuff. But that's not going to happen with my current budget.

Here are some ways to redecorate without breaking the bank.

1. Move your old stuff to a new location. I took some pictures and quilts from the living room and put them in the dining room. I took some containers and candles from the kitchen and put them in the bathroom. Now I like that old stuff again. It seems fresh in its new location.

2. Do things that are unconventional. Who says that a picture frame has to have a picture inside it? I have a frame that has great style. I love the edging but the glass for the frame broke. I had the frame sitting in my garage thinking that one day I would replace the glass. Yeah, right! So I took the frame and put in on the wall with nothing inside. I am now looking for some wonderful object around the house to mount to the wall inside the frame. But the frame itself looks good to me.

3. Paint the room. Paint is very inexpensive and can really change things up in a room. I always look at Home Depot or Lowe's for their "ooops" containers. These are containers of paint that they mixed up for a previous customer but then the customer didn't buy it for some reason. These are usually greatly discounted.

4. Don't have time to paint the whole room, paint one wall or give the trim a fresh coat. My project for the summer is going to be repainting my inside doors and trim. Because these areas are small they shouldn't cost too much to repaint.

5. Give up the idea of traditional window coverings which are very expensive. Do something creative with your windows. Inspired by the Nester, I decided to "mistreat" my windows in the dining room. These windows were so bare, only having faux wood blinds over them. I had bought some fabric, oh, two years ago to make curtains for that room. That fabric has remained in my closet for that long because I thought I would need to drag out the sewing machine, have a pattern, some expensive curtain rods, etc. Well, no more. I took that fabric, my hot gun glue, some ribbon, and upholstery tacks and made some window "mistreatments". I like them. Who cares that they aren't "real" curtains? (Pictures coming soon!)

6. Shop yard sales and thrift stores for unique stuff. Bargain for it.

7. I "took" some stuff from my grandparents' house. This may sound bad but it's not. I always tell my grandma about stuff she has that I like. She told me I could have some of it when she dies. Well, I told her I'd rather have it now if she's not going to be using it. I want her to see how it brings me joy now. She agreed and now I have a cool 1920's Singer Sewing machine, some 1940's milk bottles, some Blue Willow China, and lots and lots of quilted pieces. I love them!

8. Group lots of similar items together. If you collect something, show it off. I bunch of salt and pepper shakers lined up on a window sill can look very pretty. I put a bunch of plastic canvas paper dolls together in a long frame in my girls' room and it looks really neat. Bring out those things you've had hidden in the closet because you didn't know what to do with them. Use them.

9. Use Velcro. Okay, this may show my redneckish roots but I swear by Velcro. You don't need a fancy plate hanging system when Velcro will hold your dishes nicely to the wall! I kid you not. Do you have a plaque or cute sign that you want to hang up but don't want to make another hole in the wall? Use Velcro. And the best thing is when you get tired of that item on the wall just replace it with something else you can Velcro there.

10. Write on your walls. This all en vogue right now. You can do a Google search of vinyl lettering and you will find lots of companies that will sell you words to stick up on your wall. Like these. Or these. Or perhaps these. I'm not going to order any of those. I'm just going to type in great saying in Microsoft Word, choose a nice font, print it, and then use an overhead projector to make it big. Then I will paint the words. If you don't have access to an overhead projector you can use a copy machine to blow up your words and then cut them out as stencils. Trace around them and then fill in the middle. I'm going to write one of these in my foyer. I haven't decided which one.
"Having someone to love is family, having somewhere to go is home, having both is a blessing."
or
"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

What have you done to decorate on a dime?