8 Low-Cost Ways to Decorate Your New Apartment
Decorations can turn your apartment from a simple place to live to a real home. That makes it an important step when you move into a new place, even if you are on a tight budget. Fortunately, there are a few cheap ways to spruce up your new home.
Container Gardening
Plants are a cheap and easy way to add some life and color to a building. Growing a container garden is easy in any apartment with a window. Simply put a planter along the window or a larger pot on the floor near it, and add some flowers or herbs. You can even get extra value from the garden by planting mint, basil, or other flavoring agents. Some plants can even make your apartment healthier by filtering the air!
Split Sets
Furniture tends to be cheapest when bought as part of a matched set. If you only need one item from the set, consider finding a friend to split the cost and take the other items. That will let you get the discount without buying any extra furniture that you do not want or need in your new apartment.
Frame Pictures
Consider covering your walls in pictures rather than paintings. They tend to be much cheaper, and you can even take your own pictures to make sure that your decorations have special meaning to you. Printing a picture is fairly cheap, so this will not strain your budget. If you want to invest a little more money, put your pictures in fancy frames. That will add a touch of class and make them look more like fine art, but it will remain affordable because small frames tend to be fairly inexpensive. They also protect the pictures from damage, which will make them last much longer.
Replace Upholstery
Replacing the upholstery on your furniture is costly, but it is still cheaper than buying new pieces. The end result will look similar, so this is a great way to save money. You can even buy old and worn furniture and then replace the upholstery to save money over buying completely new pieces. You should focus on the shape of the furniture rather than the color when doing so, because the general shape is one of the few parts that you will not be able to change.
Diagonal Carpets
Proper placement can make simple and mundane carpets look striking and exotic. Simply place them diagonally along the floor instead of placing them parallel to the walls. That will give it the appearance of having a unique and unusual pattern while allowing you to save money by getting something cheap and fairly generic.
Unusual Textiles
Curtains, blankets, and other textiles are large pieces that can have a big impact on the way that a room looks. Unusual prints and patterns rarely cost much more than solid colors, so you can easily spice up a room by changing these pieces. They are also easier to make than most pieces of furniture, so they are a great place to start if you want to take on a DIY project to get something truly unique.
Updated Handles
It is fairly easy to detach the handles and knobs from dressers, cabinets, and other containers so that they can be replaced. Swapping those fittings out for more impressive versions is a great way to make the furniture look good without significantly increasing the price. If the furniture is painted, consider using fitting in a contrasting color to make them look more striking. If they are made of unpainted wood, you should consider brass or wooden fittings to prevent them from clashing with the rest of the piece.
Paint and Stencils
A simple coat of paint on your apartment‘s walls will give it a fresh and inviting appearance. Painted designs can even be a cheap alternative to elaborate decorations. Even an unskilled painter can get a fancy pattern by attaching stencils to the walls and painting over them. You can make your own stencils with cardboard or any other convenient material, but you can also buy them from many arts and crafts stores if you aren’t comfortable doing it yourself.
