10 AMAZING TIPS FOR ZERO DOLLAR DECORATING
You really don’t need a lot of money to change the look of a room. Actually, there are easy-to-do changes that cost no money at all! We just need to be a little creative, think outside the box and use what we have hiding in plain sight in our homes right now! Just the littlest changes can make big differences. Here are 10 amazing tips for zero dollar decorating!
You don’t have to look very far in my home to see things upcycled, repurposed, borrowed from other rooms, painted, brought in from outside, rescued from the basement or rearranged. My dining room is a great example of zero dollar decorating!
Here’s a challenge from me to you: Instead of just reading this post… try to think of a way you could use each tip in real life in your home! Use this post as a worksheet and start zero dollar decorating your home!
SHOP YOUR HOME
The best and biggest way to redecorate and not spend any money is to shop your home! Look at objects with a “fresh eye”. Our homes are full of wonderful home decor! They may need to upscaled, repurposed, given a new home in a different room or even taken apart and used in a new way! Find at least one item you already have to breathe new life into a room!
The “planter” that the plant is in is really a container for spoons that I found discarded in my basement. Perfect for a new planter! And the artichoke was also a cast off in the basement too!
UPCYCLE THINGS AROUND YOUR HOME
Take something you have discarded as out of style, old, tired or useless and make it into something completely different that you can use in your home!
Use old curtains, sheets, shower curtains, even old sweaters and turn them into useful and unique table runners, seat cushions, pillows or placemats! Get out your mismatched dishes and make a pretty tiered dish tray or make some great wall art! Use the insert of an old pillow in a new one. Transform an old dining room hutch and use it in the living room!
Find one thing you have stashed away that can be upcycled into something you can use in your home!
USE NATURAL ELEMENTS
Head outdoors and bring nature inside. Think seasonally! Bring in cut flowers in the summer, branches of colorful saturated leaves in the fall, baskets of green or pinecones in the winter and budding twigs and flowers in the spring.
Don’t overlook interesting pieces of wood or great stones! On a trip to Bar Harbor we collected and brought back a bag of pretty smooth stones and put them in a glass bowl. It made such a striking decoration!
I filled tall glass cylinders with walnuts, green split peas and corn and nestled candles down in them for a very interesting arrangement!
Go for a nature walk and find something interesting to use in your decor!
USE LEFTOVER PAINT
Paint is like liquid gold! Nothing updates a piece of tired furniture like a coat of paint! Seems like I’m always painting something at StoneGable! I use every bit of paint in a can!
Did you know that you can paint fabric? I’ve even painted a plain pair of curtains. Also think about all the spray paint around your home too!
Take an inventory of your old paint. Find a paint color you love and then paint something…how about the back of your front door?
CREATE YOUR OWN WALL ART
Old architectural elements make fabulous art! I love using old window and shutters as wall art too! How about framing your kids and grandkid’s art? Great art can be homemade and it’s so much more meaningful!
To see how to make these easy pieces of Architectural Art click HERE.
How about framing a favorite letter, a post card or even a pretty card someone sent you. Little art work tucked into a vignette or a shelf is so interesting.
REPURPOSE
Use things around your home in a totally different way. This is create and fun and adds tons of character to a room!
I love to use pedestal cake plate for almost anything but cakes!
Challenge yourself to find a new decor purpose from something in your kitchen!
DISPLAY YOUR BOOKS
Books are amazing zero dollar decor! I use them to bring interest and texture to a room and they make perfect “risers”!
Cover your books in burlap and they take on a whole new fabulousness!
To learn how to easily cover books with burlap click HERE.
Create a stack of books as a riser and perch something on top of it!
CREATE NEW VIGNETTES
Grab all your “stuff” and put together a new vignette. Nothing breathes life into a room like a new and interesting focal point! Don’t hold back… put interesting elements together!
For a little vignette help see 5 TIPS FOR CREATING AN EASY VIGNETTE
USE OUTSIDE GARDEN ELEMENTS, FURNITURE AND PILLOWS INSIDE
Bring great “boned” outdoor elements, furniture and pillows inside and use them as accents around your home!
I brought the garden stools from my front porch inside and created a unique side table! Even a great potting bench would be perfect as a “hutch” in a bedroom!
Bring one thing in from outside and give it an indoor home during the winter!
REARRANGE THE FURNITURE AND OTHER HOME DECOR PIECES
It’s amazing what a little rearranging will do for a room. Try something new and different. Move furniture from one room to another.
Move your home decor things too! It’s so much fun to move art, mirrors, accent chairs, small tables, lamps, accessories and plants around from one room to another. It keeps life and your home interesting!
Although many of the big pieces of furniture were bought for this room, there are still many pieces that came from other parts of my home!
Move one or two decor pieces around today!
There you have it! 10 AMAZING and very easy TIPS FOR ZERO DOLLAR DECORATING! I bet you have been zero dollar decorating too and maybe did not know you were doing it. And I hope you do more!
Do you have a great zero dollar decorating tip? I hope you share it with us today!
You can follow me on Pinterest and see all the great things I’m finding to pin every day HERE.
I made the roasted stuffed pumpkin for a dinner party recently and it was a show stopper. It was delicious and it looked exactly like the photo. I used it as an appetizer spread and served thinly sliced apples. YUM!
YUM!
love your ideas – thanks for sharing!
This is how I love to decorate, too. Great post, Yvonne!
Great ideas!( Your new dining table looks like it was made for your room!)
Great ideas and tips.
Great ideas! I don’t have a lot of money to buy things for decorating our home so these tips will be very helpful.
Yvonne,
Great time to inspire us to think outside the box. With the start of holiday decorating I’m certain some of your ideas will really pop into my head as I move things around.
Love, love, love your blog, you are so talented. Just recreated your late fall vignette – looks splendid – thank you!!!!
Thanks for sharing these handy tips! Your home and photography are both gorgeous, by the way~ Erica
Yvonne,
Great Tips for zero dollar decorating, dear friend!!!
I use many of the above ideas in my home decor.
I still think I need to invest in some pillows for my home.
Thank you for sharing!!!
Fondly,
Pat
Brilliant…and so easy. Sometimes I find myself lamenting what I do not have only to find it in another room or in the storage closet. This saves so much time, effort, and $$. Thanks Yvonne
Great tips Yvonne!….I love shopping my house and moving things around….My idea of zero dollar decorating many years ago was Green Stamps!…do you remember those?….I used to save and save my stamps for that pretty piece for my home…I still have the very first thing I got from Green Stamps!…
Great tips for keeping your home looking new. Love your home, Yvonne! It always looks beautiful:)
Great tips Yvonne. I recently did a major downsize and was so proud of myself when I went to decorate my porch for Christmas and I shopped my house, used what I had, and gathered things from nature. So many of your suggestions I put to use.
LOVING every post!!!! But a quick question for you: I have a pink-washed dining room set that I would like to keep but it is so dated because of the color. Can I paint the table, chairs, cabinet and hutch, without it looking bad? Or do I just get a new set? Thanks bunches!!!
YES!!!!! I painted my dining room chairs! I’ll be doing some fabulous painting post in the new year. Check out the post this coming friday! It’s all about fabulous painting finishes.
If there is one thing I can take from this I think the main thing has to be the upcycling process. It’s definitely important to re-use other things and recycle old pieces of furniture to help save some money. Thanks so much for this guide, I’ll be sure to re-use some old furniture to better help me!
Hi! I have to search your site because i really want the carpet in your blog! Would you know where i can get the same one?
https://www.stonegableblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/10-TIPS-FOR-ZERO-DOLLAR-DECORATING-colagestonegableblog.com_.jpg
Turned out i learned alot! Will definitely use your tips!
Thank you!
Hi Natalie, So glad this post helped you! That is music to my ears!!! The dining room rug came from Ballard Designs. It is an indoor/outdoor rug. Hope this helps.
Love your “zero dollar decorating!” Borrowing from the basement or other rooms – even from the deck or porch – makes sense. That little green garden table adds a great punch of color with your upholstered furniture. Love it!
I do this all the time too; you might say I’m addicted, Yvonne!!
Yesterday, I noticed that two of my outdoor cushions (on my condo balcony) have changed color in a few spots and don’t look as nice as they once did so on a very brave whim, I pulled out my acrylic craft paints and lightly “dry-brushed” some color here and there (no need to remove insert) and they are much improved!!
definitely “shopping your home” is the best advice ever! I do it all the time. I also love taking something old and making a new purpose for it… I have a piano music holder turned upside down,painted white, and added some wooden medallions and use it for a wooden “curtain” in my kitchen window! Thanks for the post… it helps those who despair of a beautiful home due to lack of money to be more creative and thrifty!
Wonderful how visual (and great suggestions) lend to renewed inspiration. Thank You, Yvonne
Great ideas to decorate using what you have at home! You always amaze me. Pam
I do this, too! When we moved last year one of my friends asked me about a pie safe and a small table I had that she did not remember. The pie safe had been used three different rooms there, but she had forgotten about it because it was a workhorse piece in my bathroom for the previous few years, and the small table, now
in the foyer, had been in the guest room. I also move accessories around all the time. Moving gave some older pieces new life in this home.
No doubt when we move again soon, hopefully, I will be rethinking items yet again to keep things fresh. Especially since I have little income these days. Every little thing I can do helps.
Your home is such an inspiration to me!!
Yvonne, you have amazing resourcefulness!
Never would have guessed the origins of all your beautiful things.
I would like to bring it more neutrals and get away from the colors I have now.
I’m shopping for a neutral leather sofa this week. The monster we have now is 20 plus years old and I have never liked it, but lived with it. DH picked it out.Navy teal and red plaid! yep!
The new one may have to be dark because of the limited colors I’m finding.
We live on a working farm and any upholstery is impossible to keep clean. Also DH insists we must have recliner sofa. sigh.
Such wonderful ideas! My daughter is remodeling/redecorating her grandfathers house and we are always using your ideas! Thanks so much
Love our decorating style !
I like to call this “in home shopping”!
I was interested in the history of the box with ME CUDAHY on it as our surname is Cudahy. We live in NZ.
Karen
Cudahy was a meat packing company. That’s about all I know.
I have an older bench that I would love to re purpose for the end of my bed. I love the fabric on the bench at your dining table! Is this fabric something I could purchase?