Redecorating a room can be fun on any budget. Sometimes new paint, a couch cover, and rearranging the furniture will give a room the perfect look and feel. Sometimes a total redo is the solution.
Regardless of whether your project is big or small, the absolute most important thing to do is plan. Your interior decorating plan should be precise, detailed, and well researched. The worst thing a person can do is walk into a home improvement store without thinking it all through because the temptation is simply too great. With so many colors and choices, a person can easily go broke just making a decision. So know what colors you want, what you want to repair, what you want to replace, and what just needs to be updated (perhaps the lamp is beautiful, but a new lampshade would match the curtains perfectly).
Go into the home improvement store, hardware store, or home decorating store, for the first time with your money at home. Make your first trip part of the research. Take measurements of the room or rooms you want to decorate then find out how much paint costs, consulting with a store employee about how much paint you will need. Note: experts agree that if you plan on reselling your home you need to paint your walls a neutral color so that reselling is easier.
Discover how much everything you will need can cost, or just window shop. Get ideas about the pictures you want hanging from the walls, or which coffee table will fit perfectly when you rearrange the furniture. This is the fun part, you get to plan, imagine, and dream, without spending a dime.
Look at magazines and interior decorating books. They are chalk full of wonderful and user-friendly tips and can provide inspiration and ideas you may not have thought of.
Next, set your budget and be reasonable about it. If you shop around and do your homework, you really don’t have to spend a fortune. Also, give yourself a little leeway with your money: leave yourself about two hundred extra dollars (if possible) for any unexpected or emergency costs that might come up. If an extra two hundred dollars isn’t possible, then try to set something aside. Call it the “just in case” fund, and be strict with yourself that it only gets used when you absolutely have to.
Of course, you always have the option of hiring a professional interior decorator that will go over the entire planning process thoroughly with you. But if a professional isn’t in the budget, or you think that doing it yourself is preferable, feel confident that interior decorating can be as simple or as complicated as you make it. So make it simple, and make it fun.
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