Free or low cost home spruce up ideas -- please share

[imagine]

I thought a thread where were shared things we had done to spruce up our home that were free or low cost would be fun.

And we might pick up some ideas on what we could do.

This is going to be so much fun



I'll go first

I moved the pictures around in my home. We had received a picture for Christmas. I hung that in one room and moved the picture that was there to another place and so forth and so on. Three rooms ended up with a face lift. Cost of this spruce up -- free

So waht have you do? What are your ideas?

[Moor]

One thing I like to do, is take the pictures from old calendars and put them in frames. I have 4. I change them from time to time.

We work puzzles a lot. I puzzle save them. Then I hang them in poster frames, homemade frames, and old frames from salvage. They also make great gifts.

Postcards, greetingcards, and such make great photos also.

I go a lot to Lowe's and HD and look in the paint section for the paint that people bring back. I have gotten several great colors for 5 bucks a gallon. I use that a lot to change the look of a room.

Wrapping paper over a box makes a great decoration.

Seasonal decorations. During the spring, gather spring flowers. During fall, go get some leaves, some pine cones, acorns, and make a centerpiece for the table. During the winter, get some pine boughs.

[The Muse]

I think a gallon of paint is one of the least expensive and most dramatic ways to change the look and feel of a room.

My favorite "free" spruce up is to swap furniture and items around the house, I recently swapped a table in my formal living room with the one in the foyer, and moved a lamp from my mudroom to the foyer.

Now that the seed catalogs are coming in, I'm starting to think about what I'd like to grow this year. If you start them from seed, flowers and other plants are a very inexpensive way to spruce up your house outside.

[Laurie in Bradenton]

I agree with Muse rearrange a room Changes everything. When we stripe our wood floors (wax off/ wax on) we take everything out of the room. A huge job in itself. But then when we put stuff back we clean/dust and wash off and rearrange everything. What a huge difference. Bookcases to the otherside, tv to a new corner, shelves on bookcases switched around for plugs. Wow what a difference. And everything is fresh and clean!
Also I do the seasonal stuff monthly. Dragging out valentines stuff now. Christmas and Hannukka all put away.

Laurie in Bradenton

[Missy]

recovering throw pillows is an easy way to change a room, change drapes out...a good spring cleaning /decluttering will do alot for a room too. new fresh candles, make em yourself and you can match your decor more closely.

[elphie]

Funny you put this up as just yesterday we decided to spruce up the kids plain old bathroom which is also the guest bath. They already have a beachy shower curtain so we are going with that theme. Some of the ideas we came up with...

-we hung their beach towels on the towel rack for everyday use, they are big soft and they immediately make us think of being at the ocean

-we dug out pictures from our last beach vacation and will buy some cheap frames at the dollar store to display some of them in (we are thinking of a 9 block arrangement)

-we dug out the fishbowl from the fish that is no longer with us and filled it with some of the seashells we collected from that same vacation

-my dad is building a small shelf with a plate rack type lip on the front to display the sand dollars and starfish we found

My living room is already decorated in a frugal fashion but not on purpose... I wanted the space to reflect what we love and is important to us and it just so happens it was super cheap to do.

-I frame at least one scenic photo from each of our family vacations to add to the display on our wall. All of the pictures are black and white and in white frames for continuity but they are various sizes for depth and interest. These scenic photos are grouped together

-I also have several family photos that I have taken myself that are also framed in white frames, although some of these are in color. These are not really grouped, more scattered throughout. I don't really like posed studio pictures so I just find pictures I really like that I've taken and take advantage of deals from Snapfish.

-The pride of our living room is a group of 3 message boards (the type with ribbon crossing that you just slip thing behind the ribbon) that displays ticket stubs and postcards from various places. Most of these are places we've been but if someone sends us an especially interesting or pretty postcard we add it as well.

-I also have a bowl full of the interesting rocks we have collected on our adventures.

The kitchen is less done but I still like it to be pretty so I bought clear glass cookie jars for about $5 each and I use them to store fresh fruit.

-It is really pretty and colorful to have jars of lemons, apples, and pears (or oranges or limes or whatever is on sale that week) lined up on the kitchen island. And as an added bonus we are more likely to eat it all if its out where we can see it.

-food in genearal can be pretty and if you have the counter space to keep dry beans, oils, etc. out in clear containers it looks great

-I love the convienence of my pot rack but I also love how it looks. If you don't want to buy one then look online for directions to build a wooden one. I especially love how my old garage sale colandars with star shapes look hanging from mine.

The kids rooms are fun too...

-my dd loves to create scrapbook pages that she uses as wall art instead of putting into an album

-my ds created a solar system using styrofoam balls found in the craft store that is hanging from his ceiling

-they both have "posters" that are made from packaging materials, the front of notebooks, newspaper photos (the sports section for ds, a nearby landmark for dd)

-we don't like topsheets in our family but bought sheet sets instead of just a fitted sheet for our kids. We then used the topsheet as a curtain... it matches the bedding perfectly and you can't tell at all, it even had a pocket already sewn in for the curtain rod!

[shoiji]

I bought some sheers for the windows in the bedroom at a thriftstore. Also, getting rid of some furniture really opened up the livingroom.

Made a duvet cover out of sheets for a comforter in the livingroom.

I also moved some paintings around.

Once the weather warms up I will be buying paint for the bathroom and kitchen.

I need to start saving up for a cover for the sofa. It really needs one. Only this I fear will cause more buying since things will look to "OLD".

[MommyBliss]

~Flowers from your garden or trader joe's, they have cheap bouquets from 3.99 and I think fresh flowers always make a sweet impact.
~Plants, greenery indoors always brightens things up.
~Get rid of clutter, it will feel so much better and look so much better.
~Have things you love around you, I love having pics of my children up.
~Recover pillows
~Open up the windows, it will air it out and freshen the scent in your home.
~Flickering candlelight, beautiful at night.

~Rearrange furniture, free and instant pick me up.

[madhen]

I have to agree with rearranging furniture and painting. I re-did my livingroom, and it looks 200% better. Also, I will completely remove all the furniture from the room and start with a blank canvas. It is funny how having an empty room can get your creative juices flowing.

Mirrors are nice and can be had relatively cheaply if you just get the panes cut to size and don't worry about the frames. I had a HUGE mirror in my old house - it covered almost the entire wall. It made the room look twice as big as it was.

[ri*smom]

These are great. My top two are furniture re-arranging and painting. I also wanted to add that our Lowe's has "Oops" paint behind the paint mixing station that sells 50-75% below retail (mostly from not getting the hues correctly mixed for the customer) and we will have painted our whole home (inside) for under $100 using Valspar Premium paints. Sometimes I use Amy D's philosophy of mixing colors, too. Works out lovely, I just steer clear of high gloss after my experience with it in our bedroom.

[Buc-O-Mama]

Moving any mirrors to face a window or light source brightens a room fast.

Going vertical, moving up curtains/valances as high as you can make rooms bigger. As simple as moving the rod, lots of time you have the length.

Rearranging furniture works wonders around here. Swapping the bedroom and living room lamps.

Hitting the Goodwill and framing every day objects. Movie stubs, take out menus, the kids' artwork, seed packets and even seeds.

Pick one wall and paint it boldly. Red, terracota, black. If you hate it, it's only one wall. I'm a huge fan of the mistake paint at Lowe's too. My dining room is cocoa, someone's error became fabulous on my walls.

Decorating in different levels is great too. Try some tall twigs in a short vase to give it a different look. Elevating something pretty on a pedestal or cake stand you already have can give it a different feel. Even a stack of books you already have can be interesting.

Recycle tall cans for luminaries, pound some nails in them to make holes in a sunburst design. Paint the outside or don't. They look great outdoors or indoors. They are super easy to make for different holidays (hearts for Valentine's day, etc.)

[mamamia]

Great topic!! Here's a couple I do.>>

Make "custom" look matting for picture frames by using wrapping papers. I made a couple with an "old map" design. Just "wrap" the cardboard that comes in the frame and position picture on it. I use pieces of rolled backwards scotchtape to help with that part. It was a great look when one of my sons had a nautical theme in his room. Ties everything together nicely.


Another look that's really popular and nice is fabric covered flat pieces of styrofoam. Try to use different sizes to mix and match co-ordinating pieces of fabrics to go with your room colors. All's you do is cover and use thumb tacks to secure the fabric in place. You could probably get really creative with this. Grouped together, it makes for a cool focal point. I have 2 black and silver designs for my 16 YO. She loves them. Thinking of doing a few smaller ones for main bathroom.

Love all the ideas amd hope to see more. I can read about this stuff all day!

Have fun!

Theresa

[Buc-O-Mama]

I forgot to add one of my very favorites, an extra large Ball jar filled with cookie cutters in the kitchen

[pollypurebred39]

I once saw the most incredible kitchen re-do ever. The owner just could not put any money into it so it had to be with what they already had.

* They pulled out all fabric, old pictures, frames, Etc. out of the attic, garage, basement.

* They mixed leftover paints.

* They removed cabinet doors, filled nail holes and repainted. They kept them off and arranged dishes in a pleasing way.

* They painted the kitchen table and all mismatched chairs.

* They covered coffee cans with material and planted flowers in them. Then they lined the window sill with the new flower pots.

* They made a new tablecloth with a patterned sheet trimmed with a another patterned material.

* They made chair seat pads with all different fabrics, but trimmed the same as the table cloth.

* They made curtains out of the same materials.

* They then made fabric pictures with all the different swatches of fabric that was used in the kitchen, and framed them.

It was absolutely amazing and not a dime was spent in the re-do, everything was what they had on hand.

[pollypurebred39]

Oh I forgot. They also made skirts for the bottom cabinets.