Updating the look in your bedroom can be challenging, especially when you don’t know where or how to start. When you’re on a tight budget, decorating becomes even more of a challenge. Fortunately, there are many ways to give your bedroom a new, updated look without spending a lot of money. You’ve actually taken the first step by looking to the Internet for help and ideas. Good for you, just remember to bookmark this page so you can refer back to these helpful tips and ideas and valuable links to extra resources.
Paint and Wallpaper
If you’ve been reading articles online about how to transform your bedroom on a budget, you’ve probably noticed how often repainting your bedroom is mentioned. It is true that repainting a room is a fairly inexpensive way to improve the room’s appearance. However, I would like to take this one step further by suggesting a technique called sponge painting. This idea actually came from the first house I bought when my daughter was still a baby. The previous owner had fortunately done all the work for me in my daughter’s bedroom and it was this bedroom that really sold me on the house. There was an adorable wallpaper border running along the middle of each wall. Below that, she had done a sponge painting technique, using the sponges as a stamp. The bottom half of each wall had little red hearts stamped all over, in a random pattern.
You can find helpful tutorials on sponge painting at House Painting Tutorials and Better Homes and Gardens. In addition to the stamp technique, you can use sponges to create an all-over texture on the walls or the ceiling. Save money by buying most of your supplies, such as the sponges, buckets, trays, stir sticks, brushes and rollers at dollar stores or thrift stores.
If you are happy with the color on your bedroom walls and they don’t really need repainting, you can accent your walls with a wallpaper border. Wallpaper borders are easy to apply, they don’t cost much and borders really help add a designer touch to the room.
Bedding
New bedding can get really expensive. One way to save money while giving your bed a makeover is to buy a bed-in-a-bag. A bed-in-a-bag is an all-inclusive set that includes a comforter, shams, sheet set, pillowcases and bed skirt. Some sets even include decorative pillows. A bed-in-a-bag can often be purchased for about the same price as a comforter alone would cost.
Furniture
There are a couple of ways to reuse old furniture while still updating its appearance. Wood furniture can be refinished by sanding and then repainting or staining it to make it look like new again. Back when I was starting out on my own in my first apartment, my parents helped me transform a brass table with a glass top into a completely different, rustic looking vanity. A small piece had broken off the corner of the glass top, so my father took a piece of plywood and cut it to fit perfectly where the glass top had been. He stained the wood a nice dark color. My mother then painted the brass base, first with a dark, charcoal colored paint and then she applied a terra-cotta colored paint over the first color, dabbing it on with a sponge. The finished result looked similar to old metal starting to rust. The table was transformed from a modern looking, shiny brass and glass table to a rustic, antique looking table.
You can cover unattractive nightstands or end tables with inexpensive fabric that you can purchase at places like Walmart, thrift stores or even yard sales.
Window Treatments
Dressing up your windows can really improve the look in your bedroom. Check out Fun Frugal Mom to find out how you can make curtains out of your old bed sheets. You can even take this one step further by visiting Martha Stewart to get ideas for embellishing curtains.
Other Accents and Decor
If you’re a parent, a great idea for inexpensive bedroom wall décor is to gather up some of your favorite artistic pieces created by your children and frame them. A picture of a horse my daughter had drawn for me conveniently covered a hole in my bedroom wall for years.
There are endless resources for inexpensive accents and décor that you can add to your bedroom for those perfect final touches. Check your local free classified paper (in Las Vegas, it’s the Nifty Nickel) for information on weekend yard sales. Prepare to get up early and go see what treasures you can find. Your local thrift stores are also good places to find inexpensive décor for your room. If there is a weekend swap meet or flea market in your area, don’t pass up the opportunity to find hidden treasures there as well. Don’t forget to haggle when you’re buying from private vendors at yard sales and swap meets, it’s how savvy decorators do business!