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In Frugal Living, General, Interior Design

Make Your Home Look Fabulous On A Budget

Author Nicki CawoodPosted on
Make Your Home Look Fabulous On A Budget

I may not have mentioned this more than a hundred times but we are moving home tomorrow! Given that we are in the midst of moving here are a few tips to help you make your house look fabulous on a budget.

 I have so many plans and projects for the new house and am confident that I can do all these things bit by bit. None of these things needs planning permission or anything like this, so they are all relatively straight forward ideas. By the time you have finished reading this you are going to know how you can make your home look fabulous, even when you are on a tight budget.

Buy a Property

If you are looking to make a real estate investment and want to live in the property you have the opportunity to make this property suitably fabulous after you have figured out what your budget is going to be. This needs to be in line with the amount that you have spent on the property though, or else you are going to have issues when it comes to purchasing the items for your home.

Find The Perfect Couch

The first thing that we are going to look at in terms of making your home look fabulous is ensuring that you find the perfect couch. You might be thinking that there is no such thing as a perfect couch, but we can assure you there is. For example, one that matches the rest of your living room is going to be a great start. For this reason, it is recommended that you go for something of a neutral colour. If you don’t do this, then you could find areas of your room clashing, throwing off the whole vibe of your home.

It doesn’t matter whether you want to choose leather or fabric, because this is down to personal preference. You do need to consider all the factors here though, such as how long you want it to last, whether you have kids or pets and so on. These will all play a part in picking the perfect couch for your home.

Paint The Walls

This isn’t going to cost you very much money at all, especially if you decide to do the job yourself. Just get yourself a can of paint and some paint brushes, then you will be good to go (I’m a fan of Farrow and Ball). Paint doesn’t cost that much, and you will find that all paint stores will have a selection for you to choose from to ensure that you are getting the colour that you love.

Make Your House Look Fabulous on a Budget With A Theme

Have you thought about having a theme throughout your home? This doesn’t have to be expensive, but it can be anything you want. For example, if you love Harry Potter, why not have Harry Potter items around your home? By doing this, there is a theme continuing throughout your home, and you are not going to have to spend thousands to make this happen. Picking up items when you see them is the best way to get this idea going. You might find that there is an awesome decoration when you are just browsing the store, and you can pick it up to add to the collection when you get home. You know that our new home is going to be cram-packed full of Dungeons and Dragons awesomeness.

Try Minimalism to Make Your House Look Fabulous on a Budget

Minimalism is a popular design trend at the moment and appeals to me, up to a point. The whole idea behind this trend is to make things look as spacious and open as possible by removing all the clutter from every room in the home. If you don’t like clutter, then this could be the design trend for you to follow.

If you are wondering how you could get started with this, a great way is to go room by room and sort out the things that you no longer want or need. One of the rules you should follow is that if it doesn’t bring you happiness or hold sentimental value, then it needs to go. Having items just to take up space goes against the entire principal of minimalism which could mean that you need to get some extra storage space.

Charity Shops

Finally, you can always check out charity shops. Sometimes people can be a little funny about buying items that have been used by others, but they are fully sorted out before they are resold to you. So, what is the issue with buying those curtains for half the price they are worth? Not only are you getting a great discount, but you are also helping by contributing to charity. You never know what awesome things that you might be able to find if you head over to a charity shop and start looking for home accessories.

Make Your House Look Fabulous on a Budget

When it comes to trying to make your house look fabulous on a budget the challenge of doing it in a thrifty way makes it all the better! If you have any top tips for home makeovers on a shoestring, let me know!

In Interior Design

Spice Up Your Home

Author Nicki CawoodPosted on
Spice Up Your Home

Living in a home is more than just having a place to stay. We’re moving shortly (10 days and we still haven’t packed) but the new place already feels like home. Your home is somewhere you feel at home, somewhere you love and somewhere you are proud of. We’re there already with the new spot!

We have grand plans for the new place and you’ll no doubt hear all about these soon enough! I’ll be posting about adding a new look to each room and so have put together these ideas for you to get started with thinking about what you can do with your home.

The Driveway

We are so grateful to have a driveway where we are moving. On street parking is an absolute pain. We’re determined to make the most of the driveway though as it’s one of the first things you see when you approach the home. First impressions are important so you’ll want to make sure that everything is tidy if your focus will be on making the most of your driveway too. It’s easy for the drive to become a little messed up with various bits of dirt and stone making its way onto it.

It’s wise to give the tarmac a little sweep every now and again to avoid the neglected look. You can also give the drive a spray with a pressure washer if you want to go one step further. After years of the floor taking a beating from the elements, it can slowly become very dirty over time – so slow that you don’t even realise it is happening. A blast with a pressure washer will show you the difference that was made.  

Your Garden, Your Home

When you think about making your living space better looking, what you do to your garden will be near the top of your list of priorities, surely? You’re going to want it to be either as close to flawlessness as possible – you’ll be looking at it a lot, or wonderfully wild (in a deliberate kind of way). The first thing you’ll want to do is to clean it and clear it. If it’s a bit of a mess, make sure everything vanishes – a tidy garden is very comforting. In terms of additions, things like potted plants, ornaments, and fish ponds are very lovely looking and add to the comfort of being sat out there.  We’re going with simply but with seasonal surprises. More on this later!

Get A Conversion

A popular thing to do nowadays is to take a certain part of the house and convert it into something more practical. The most popular choice is to take the loft and turn it into an extra bedroom or office. Obviously, your loft is going to be full of stuff, but if they’re no longer hold any value or you can find another area to store it all, then you could turn that attic into something beautiful. Another good idea would be to take your garage and make it into something other than a place to store old stuff – if you don’t use it for your car, that is. But who parks their car in a garage anymore?  

Our grand plans for the garage are very much steeped in geekery, which won’t surprise you if you know us or have read many of my other blog posts.

Get An Extension

If you need more room or just want to add an extra part to change the style up a bit, you could apply for permission to get an extension built onto the house. You might need an extra bedroom or an office space. You could even put a lovely conservatory out the back. This isn’t something we’ve planned but is a great idea if you are looking to add value and space to your home.

Move To A New Home

If you fancy a big change, you could just up sticks and move to somewhere new, like we have. Sometimes you need to pick a whole new place and carry on from there. A good idea to freshen things up would be to have a little look at some new homes that are being built. There are tonnes of companies that are creating new places every day, so if you wanted to check out some Redrow new builds, you could just head online and see what’s available from the likes of them and others. When you buy an entirely new place, you get to decide almost everything, so a personalised design would come as part of the purchase. If, like ours, your home is a little older, places like Rightmove can be great for having a nosy inside people’s homes for inspiration!

There is no wrong way to breathe new life int your home but if you are looking to make changes, this is a good place to start! 

 

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