1. Ask your artistic friends if they have any paintings that no longer want. You can get art wire on the cheap, and use those removable wall hooks to place art strategically around your walls. Generally, the centre of a painting should be at eye level, but rules were made to be broken!
2. Fresh flowers! It’s probably rude, but I like to pick flowers from gardens I see while I walk home. Yeah, like flowers from bushes in front of people houses. It’s free, but don’t go telling peope I do this! I mean, you could always go to the grocery store, but that’s expensive, and this is sprucing things up on the cheap!
3. Glass containers. I love, love, love glass containers for storing everything from my lipgloss collection, to cups for pens. It is a cheap and easy way to instantly make a storage solution elegant. Comb through local thrift stores, garage sales and your parent’s basement to see what they’ve got to offer.
4. Decorate with books. No, not your textbooks. I’m talking all your favourite leisure books. Grab two bookends, which you probably have lying around anyway, then line up your favourite books along a desk. Arrange them in some sort of clever fashion. (I like to do height order, but colour order looks much more chic and takes much more time than I have patience for. ) Put a glass vase (see tip #3) on each end, fill with flowers (see tip #2) and you have an instant visual interest piece that doubles as a storage solution and triples as making you looks like a smart kid who reads.
BLABLA
5. Paste up pictures, notes, tape stolen flowers to your wall, etc. Change the elements often and keep the edges of your scrapbook fluid and uneven. If you’ve ever watched a PogoBat video on YouTube, you’ve seen this idea in action. If not, take a look at the wall behind Dan Brown’s head in this video:
6. (Bonus tip) I got this tip from a friend who’s landlord was a bit of a lazy bum: cover holes in your walls with strategically placed posters. So those are my tips for decorating on the cheap. Do you have any?
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When my friend moved into his new place, he loved it because the rent was cheap. But there was a reason rent was so cheap. The walls of his bedroom had lots of random holes all over them. So, be bought a bunch of large posters, and used them to cover the holes. The posters also worked as room decoration. A two in one solution!
Tapestries is what I use and thrift store art. you would be amazed at how much neat art you can find in thrift stores.
@Textbook rentals- I know, right? Thrift stores are, in my opinion, the first place a person should look if they’re looking for anything unique!
Thanks for sharing these few cheap and free decorating ideas to help you get started.
Let’s face facts – on a college student’s budget, you’re not going to be able to hire an interior decorator to add some pizazz to your pad. In fact, for most of you, even a $50 spending spree in the home décor section of your local Wal-Mart would probably be pushing your budgetary constraints.
But take heart, dorm room denizen. Even if you’ve got nothing but lint in your pockets, you can “de-institutionalize” your room and add a few basic personal touches that will make your place feel more like home.
I am quite surprised that you are recommending students steal flowers to decorate their rooms. Being broke does not give you the right to steal from people. Someone took the time to plant & water those flowers and it most definitely is not just to decorate a thief’s dorm room. Why stop at flowers? Why not wander into that person’s garage or backyard to see what else can be stolen for your own benefit?
@laptop Briefcases OK, so steal is the entirely wrong word. I should have said, it’s ok to occasionally pick a single flower if you see a large bush of them growing along a sidewalk path. I have flowers growing along the edge of my lawn, and I love when I see someone come up and smell them and take one to put behind their ear. Flowers and beauty are for sharing! I don’t mean we should all walk onto Mr. Wilsons’s lawn and grab a handful of his prized tulips or dig up a rose bush:P
@Escort Booking- this is true! But even for a small, little bit, you can go a long way. Places that sell can of paint often have batches of incorrectly mixed colours that are still quite beautiful. And at Sherwin Williams, you can pick up a huge bucket of it for $9, which will more than cover and entire room once or twice!
I have seen rooms of my friends appearing shabby because of books being placed here and there! I love flowers, so probably keeping them in my room certainly can lift my spirits up! Thank You.
@A.Y.: Flowers and beauty are for sharing, but not for you to take and enjoy at home. If everyone had this attitude towards flowers, people would stop spending time growing them. They would just get fed up with other people ruining their hard work. By you stealing that flower, others can no longer enjoy it and it quickly dies in your room. I think steal is entirely the right word, unless you take the time to knock on their door and ask permission to take a flower. Oftentimes gardeners take the time to plan out their flowers just how they want it to look. When some of those flowers are stolen, their plan is ruined. It is both theft and vandalism.
Very nice video. I think all the mentioned ways are superb.
With the help of these anyone can make their room elegant in their budget. Such way can make everyone’s task easy.
I have also found that you can go to local estate auctions and get really good stuff at a fraction of the price.
In Regards to tip #5, I love when I go into a girl’s room at the College Dorm, and just see their walls all prettied up with photos, I find that girls have the most talent with that, at least in the college scene, they are all just able to put together some great patterns and designs with the photos on the walls.
i hear egg crates, but those could catch on fire. so i don’t want to use those. do thing blankets work well? or rugs hung on the wall? any other safe way to sound proof a room cheap? thanks!
The only suggest I have outside of these great tips, is to perhaps try to hit up the local salvation army! From time to time you can always find some great things in there!
Till then,
Jean
@textbook rentals: Yes buying second hand is a great way to save money on decor. In addition to Salvation Army, I recommend checking our craigslist. You can be sure to find a good deal on some furniture that is as good as new.
These are all great tips to spruce up your room, another way is to put up picture you have taken of friends and family.
Really great tips for home decoration in budget. I admire those writers who share the best of their knowledge in writing such articles. Keep up the good work and continue inspiring readers.Thank you so much.
Another really simple thing you can do to make your dorm look better, is to buy 2 cheap lamps and use those instead of the bright fluorescent overhead lighting. You’ll be amazed at what a difference lighting can make!
These are all great tips to spruce up your room, another way is to put up picture you have taken of friends and family.