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Decorating tips for anyone on a shoestring budget BY JULIA MILLAY WALSH DOMAINEHOME.COM
Call us optimists, but we think everyone under the sun can and should have a beautiful home. If you’re pinching pennies, there’s plenty you can do to create a stylish and inviting home for yourself and your friends. The first step (and this is true no matter where or how you live) is to clean your home and get it organized. Doing those two things alone will drastically improve the quality of your space. Then, on to decorating. With years of budget decorating behind (and in front of!) us, we’ve amassed a few helpful tips for making house with a slim wallet. PAINT AN ACCENT WALL Painting your walls is one of the most cost-effective decorative updates you can make to your home. But if you’re on a shoestring budget, the two cans of $30 paint it may require to paint your bedroom could very well put you out. Instead, consider painting an accent wall. A quart (which covers up to 100 square feet) or a 2.5-liter can (which covers up to 260 square feet) is likely all you’ll need to cover a single wall, which can make just as much of an impact. Better yet, use BEHR Marquee paint, which offers one-coat coverage so you won’t need to buy primer as well. So long as you’re
majorly skilled in the workshop. There actually are a remarkable number of sophisticated projects out there to take on, though; you just have to hunt for them. SET UP SALES ALERTS If you’re dead-set on something that’s out of your price range, first look for it on Craigslist, and if that fails, try to buy it on sale. You can use ShopStyle to set a sale alert for products from literally hundreds of major brands; just enter your search filters or terms and press the pink “Add Sale Alert” button and you’ll be emailed when the item goes on sale. A number of retailers like Overstock, Amazon and Macy’s will also alert you when something goes on sale or returns after being out of stock.
painting on walls that have been painted before (i.e. not on plain drywall), and you’re using one of the 420 colors in their collection (i.e. not color matching), Marquee paints will literally paint over any existing interior wall color under the sun with full coverage — trust us, we’ve tried it!
GET RID OF UNSIGHTLY ITEMS Before you start worrying about what you can and cannot afford to buy, consider what you should get rid of. Dated, worn or damaged items could be doing the look of your home a disservice, and if they’re non-essential,
removing them can give your home a clean slate. One of the worst offenders common in rental apartments is vertical blinds. Or how about those not-so-stylish college posters you’ve been holding on to? Let go, or at least put them in storage.
DO IT YOURSELF Making your own furniture and décor can earn you a great savings. But that said, the DIY revolution of the early 2000s unleashed a whole lot of not-sochic craftiness on this world, and it’s easy to feel you can’t pull off a stylish DIY project unless you’re
SUBSCRIBE TO CRAIGSLIST I am the poster child for shopping for and selling furniture and décor on Craigslist. If you are not doing it already, that’s your biggest mistake. You can find great deals for pieces for a number of reasons: Sellers don’t know the value, sellers are eager to sell, stores are liquidating or something is brandnew and strategically listed for less than retail. But browsing Craigslist is very time-consuming, so my best tip for you is to subscribe to your CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
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