7 Easy and Inexpensive Decorating Ideas for Your Home

Looking for some budget-friendly ways to freshen up your home decor? I’ve got some really easy, and very inexpensive decorating ideas for you that can add an updated style to your home.

1. Stack of Books

Stack 2-3 books on top of each other to add a little character to your coffee or console table. You can take the book jackets off of your hardcover books, or if you happen to have a few old books sitting around, all the better. Garage sales are a great place to buy cheap, old looking books for decorating. Another option is to cover your books with brown paper sacks to get the vintage look. Check out this great tutorial on making book covers from paper grocery bags.

2. Showcase Flowers or Branches from Your Yard

When the leaves finally come back to your trees this spring, cut a few branches and put them into a tall vase for an easy, beautiful centerpiece. Dried hydrangeas are also really lovely in a vase on your tabletop. You can buy faux branches or flowers from places like Pottery Barn or HomeGoods, or from online sources like Afloral.com.

Source: Pottery Barn

3. Add Some Jute

I love wrapping jute string or jute rope around candles or glass hurricanes to add a little texture and interest. This way you can buy really inexpensive candles, or a cheap vase or glass hurricane and add some great natural texture to it.

4. Painted Wooden Letters

Lots of home decorating companies have beautiful metal or wooden letters for sale, but it is really easy (and very low-cost) to buy wooden letters from a craft store and spray paint them to match your decor! Hang them on a wall in your kids room, or lean them up in your bookshelves.

5. Make Your Own Art

Find an inexpensive frame or shadow box and make your own custom wall art! In the picture below, I bought a shadow box, a piece of scrapbooking paper that looked like burlap, and a starfish from Michaels. I attached the starfish to the burlap paper with a hot glue gun, put it into the shadow box, and then mounted the shadow box to the wall. The entire project took about 5 minutes!

You can also search for DIY printables online and frame them, or use dried flowers, plants, fabric covered canvas, a collage of postcards from your favorite places, plates, baby booties for a nursery, or any other special keepsake to hang on the wall.

6. Wallpaper the Back of Your Shelves

I love this idea! You can buy inexpensive wallpaper rolls at Target with fun designs, and use them to wallpaper the back of your bookshelves. The pop of color and/or design will create a strong focal point and really showcase all of your displays.

Source: The Painted Room

7. Make Pillow Covers from Napkins or Placemats

Yep, you heard me correctly. You can buy napkins and placemats from Pottery Barn or World Market and sew them into pillow covers. I have to give credit to Thrifty Decor Chick for this one…here is a link to how she does it. Pottery Barn pillows (with inserts) can cost $40-$60 in some cases, but you can buy gorgeous napkins and placemats (sometimes in the same pattern as their pillows) for about $6-$10 and sew them into pillow covers. Pillow inserts from Target or Joann fabrics are very inexpensive (especially when you have a coupon), so you can have a beautiful pillow for half the price. Talk about a huge savings!