You don’t need a big budget to transform your house into a home. Try these innovative ideas to give your home a fresh look.
You don't have to be a multimillionaire in order to have a beautiful home. In fact, there are many ways to improve the overall look of your biggest asset without breaking the bank. We've scoured the web to find some cheap, innovative ideas and discovered dozens of ways you can transform your house into a home. Here are a few we thought noteworthy:
Get creative and make your own artwork by painting patterns on canvas. If you're not artistic and are a bit nervous about drawing freehand, try using a cardboard template to help you get the right effect. Frame an assortment of old photographs or ransack second-hand shops for pretty plates and stick them on the wall.
Consider painting a headboard on the wall above your bed if your budget or the size of your bedroom doesn't allow for a bedroom suite.
Buy cheap shelving and use this to display your treasures. Shells, old books and even the beloved toys from your childhood can make a boring space look interesting. Just remember, less is more and you will probably achieve the right look by only displaying a few choice pieces.
Speaking of old books, one of the latest trends, it seems, is to use previously read publications to create furniture. The internet is full of ideas - just about anything, including tables and chairs - can be made by gluing, stacking and shaping books. For example, one enterprising person made a unique and beautiful shelf from a leather-bound book. While we think this is a fabulous idea, we do have concerns. Some books are extremely valuable, or in the case of first editions, could become extremely valuable at some stage. In other words choose the books you're going to use with care.
Cluster pillar candles of the same colour, but of different heights together on a coffee table for a dramatic effect.
Use mirrors to create the illusion of space in smaller rooms. The best place to find mirrors at bargain-basement prices is at flea markets, on dedicated second hand goods social media sites and at auction houses.
Repurpose furniture
Refurbished furniture may be beautiful but it also tends to be expensive if you're buying from a dealer. Consider getting out the sandpaper and varnish and transforming old or damaged wooden chests, desks and the like into works of art. One of the niftiest ideas we found involved repainting a tired old wooden ladder and transforming it into a towel rail in the bathroom.
Spice up things up in the kitchen by using blackboard paint on different sized glass jars – keep the chalk handy and label the jars as needed.
Try and get your hands on some wooden crates. They not only make fantastic book cases and wine racks, but can be easily be transformed into coffee tables, side tables, spice racks and even desks.
Pot plants aren't necessarily expensive and not only add colour and life to a home, they are perfect for filling empty spaces. Second-hand shops are the Ideal place to find pot plant holders and the good news is that anything goes. Decorative bird cages, teacups, a kitchen colander, old chairs…basically if you can think it, you can transform it.
You don't have to be a landscaper in order to turn your garden into a mini paradise. Fairy lights woven through the beams of a lapa or around the pillars on a verandah can add a little bit of magic to the outside of your home and a few strategically placed garden lights can transform an ordinary garden into an evening wonderland.
