How to Refresh Your Living Space on a Budget
There's lots of things you can do to refresh a living space on a budget, we've done it ourselves just to make our house look more modern without spending big bucks! So let me take you through all of the things we have done to our home that has made a real difference to the look and feel of the place :)
Replace hardware
"Hardware" could be anything from door handles to electric sockets and that's precisely something we've done throughout our house. Even before we've decorated a room, we've switched out the cheap, nasty white plastic sockets and light switches for chrome alternatives. Even the air vent in our loving room was changed from a dingy plastic one to a sleek chrome one.
Other things you can do is replace the handles on your kitchen cabinets or you could also replace the handles on your windows and doors. It sounds complex, but it's actually really easy to do. We have new windows in some parts of the house and really old windows in other parts of the house, so we've replaced the handles on the old ones to make them look more modern, without splurging on a whole new set of windows. You can pick up window and door handles from about a tenner in your local hardware store and there's loads of designs and colours to choose from as well.
Create a statement wall
We've create a statement wall in our living room just to make things a bit more bold and modern. A statement wall does just that - makes a statement. It's designed to be a feature in your home and it can make a world of difference to how the room looks and the feel it gives. A tin of paint can be picked up relatively cheaply and easily, so if you're feeling particularly creative, grab a can in a bold colour of your choice and get painting!
Get new cushions & throws
We've recently renovated our living room and in a bid to add a few finishing touches, we've changed up our cushions and bought more of them! We did have striped cushions which didn't go with any of the new decor, including the curtains and the new colour of the walls. So we went on down to IKEA and bought five new feather cushion inserts and five new cushion covers.
It really has brought the sofa to life and added the touch that our living room was missing. We also added cushions to the guest bedroom that perfectly matched the colours and tones in the duvet cover. We spent less than £60 on seven new cushions and cushion covers and it's really just finished the room off.
We also have a wonderful wool throw from Packwood House which is a National Trust site in the West Midlands and I have that literally thrown over the back of the sofa, ready to use as and when you feel a chill. But it still looks wonderful with both the new sofa and the new decor, so it was a worthwhile, inexpensive purchase that's made a real difference in terms of making the living room look even more cosy.
Hang some new photos & prints
We love having pictures and photographs around the place and you can pick up a beautiful print from independent shops or online on places like Etsy and Not On the High Street quite easily and they won't break the bank financially. You don't have to spend over £100 on pictures, paintings and prints. The most expensive one we've bought ourselves was £25 (pictured in the first photo below) and we love it to pieces. Read more about our '50 Shades of England' print here.
The print you'll find in the second photo cost me £10 and it still looks smart and stylish. The right frame can also make a world of difference, so shop around and see if there are any inexpensive frames that aren't your bog-standard, basic white or black frame - IKEA are great for that, if you're looking for some inspiration.
Buy fresh bedding & duvet sets
We've found that investing in a new duvet cover, rather than using an older one we had, made all the difference in our spare bedroom. The duvet cover I chose went perfectly with the colour of the walls and it's just soft and relaxing. Like I've said already, we did have older duvet covers that we could have used, but the colour wouldn't have fitted in with our colour scheme and we thought to ourselves that we should just "go big or go home". So a brand new duvet colour was definitely the way to go.
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I hope you enjoyed this blog post. Let me know in the comments below what you've been doing to refresh your living space on a budget and I'll see you again very soon with a brand new blog post :)
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