Four Ways Decorate for Next to Nothing

If you like to keep your home looking fresh with new decorations, you don’t have to rely on store-bought items to complete your new look. You can make your own decorations from items that you already have lying around the house. Using items in different ways and changing things around a little bit can alter your space and make it seem new without costing more than a few bucks. Some of these suggestions don’t need any money at all. You simply need some imagination and a little time.

Put a Cork in it

Some of the most practical items create interesting decorative pieces. If you are a wine-drinker, collect the corks from your favorite bottles in a decorative bowl on a shelf or end table. A bowl full of corks alone is a good conversation starter. Once the bowl is full, cut the corks in half and glue them to a traditional corkboard. You can hang the new wine corkboard in the kitchen as a fun place to pin recipes or notes. A used wine bottle can make a nice decorative touch for taller shelves or high windows. The sunlight passing through different colored bottles provides an interesting and ever-changing pattern in the room throughout the day.

Frame More Than Just Photos

Framing any item creates an immediate decorative appeal. You can use tiny frames for things like souvenir tickets from your favorite show or postcards from a recent vacation. Frames can add a third dimension to your walls. Take the glass out of a frame and mount fun toys or other tiny items in the frame to create your own piece of pop art. It can be fun to put together a board game with the pieces glued in place to hang on the wall of a game room or family room. If you can find an antique board game at a yard sale, you can add instant nostalgia to any room.

Change the Lighting

A room’s lighting makes a big difference in how the room looks and feels. Try experimenting with putting your lamps in different parts of the room to see how the room changes. Invest in some inexpensive upward-shining lights that will create dramatic lighting along one wall. You could use a regular desk lamp to draw attention to that part of a room or highlight your favorite piece of artwork. Trade lamps out from different rooms and use them in new ways. Imagination is the key.

Bring the Outdoors In

One of the least expensive ways to change decorations throughout the year is to take advantage of the natural decorations that grow in your backyard every month. During the fall, you can collect pinecones to make interesting centerpieces. Fresh flowers are nice to bring inside during the spring. Dried flowers are good for arrangements in the winter. Acorns can be glued together to create fun decorative items. Brightly colored leaves, arranged in a frame, can hang on the wall during autumn. The right driftwood or branches will create a dramatic wall hanging any time of the year. The possibilities are endless when you simply look around and the bounty of natural beauty around you.

Jessica Bosari writes about different ways to save money for LowIncomeApartmentFinder.com. When renters need to find cheap apartments, they can find them there.