It is no secret that interior design can be expensive, especially if you have recently shed tons of money to buy the home. Even if you are looking at re-furnishing a single room of your existing house, the costs can accelerate quickly. Do you want to get the bed replaced or redone? Are you planning to buy new furniture? How much will it cost to redo the flooring? What about wall hangings, window frames and other fixtures?
The thing is, there is so much you can do while re-furnishing a room that it can get overwhelming. Especially, when you are trying to do it all on a limited budget.
We bring you 10 furniture ideas that can help you beautify your home on a budget and convert it into your dream abode, all under Rs 5000.
Building a headboard
Create a focal point in your bedroom by building a headboard. Headboards can dramatically change the look and feel of your room and can add the much-needed cosiness to the otherwise raw bed.
Did you know? Headboards date as far back as ancient Egypt where the Pharaohs used to have headboards carved in gold or ebony.
Ready-made headboards
You can purchase a ready-made headboard as tons of headboards in countless designs are easily available.
While there is no limit to the maximum price you can pay for a headboard, a basic ready-made headboard price will begin from Rs6,000.
If that sounds like too much money, you can make a budget-friendly headboard at home. DIY headboards are lower in prices and can be custom-made to complement the existing furniture of the room.
DIY headboards
A headboard can be made from every imaginable material, including plywood, hardwood or wrought iron. There are tons of online tutorials with unique and creative design ideas that can help you in making a headboard all by yourself.
Our favourites:
- NiaNicole shows you how to make a tufted headboard on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw9WWBO6lCw
- Remodelholic has the same in a series of illustrative pictures.
Generally, plywood is used in making the headboard. With just plywood, padding materials, and some basic tools you can build your headboard at home.
If you have a square wooden shelf, you can increase its height to rise above your bed and fix it on the wall adjacent to the head of your bed. It can double up as a headboard as well as a shelf.
Let your furnishings play a double role
You can make optimum use of both money and space by assigning all your furnishings a double duty.
It makes sense to just opt for fewer multipurpose pieces of furniture. Not only is this option economical but you will be amazed at how beautifully some furniture can serve a dual purpose.
Some cool examples:
- Convert your ironing board into a mirror: Buy a mirror exactly the size of your ironing board and get it fixed on the bottom. Make it stand against a wall, and it works perfectly as a dressing mirror. It is a very interesting idea that combines two very important functionalities.
- Convert your old chest into a beautiful sitting area: Chests are great for storage and are often kept in the corner area of a room or living room. Double up the chest by converting it into a comfortable sitting area. Add a small rug over the chest and complete the look with some designer cushions and a side stand
- Convert twin mattresses into a sofa
Improve lighting
Correct lighting is the best and the most cost-effective method of transforming your room into a warm, inviting space.
Play with lights: Be experimental. Make a hanging cylinder-like pendant using LED lights and coloured plastic sheets or update an old lamp by covering it with a new lampshade and some spray paint.
Diversity works wonders: Combine different light types to give your room a diverse lighting pattern. Fix small yellow lights behind the headboard and blinking colourful LED strings close to the window frames. You can use task lighting to illuminate the art pieces in your room.
LED lights in different sizes and patterns can be easily found online. These affordable lights can work wonders in improving the overall ambience and furnishing of your room.
Use photos creatively
Art pieces are wonderful to decorate any space. In fact, things such as artwork, wall hangings, decorative rugs, etc. are essential to a cohesive design. And this is exactly the area where you can save the most money.
Click it or paint it: The interpretation of art varies from person to person, and it is good to put your interpretation to work and create your own art pieces rather than buying them. If you are good with a camera, get your favourite pictures framed and put them on display in the living room.
Frames can do wonders: If art isn’t your cup of tea, even a photocopy of a beautiful art piece looks excellent when put in a designer frame and hanged strategically.
Art doesn’t need to be expensive. It just has to be there!
DIY your decor
Décor has no specific function and is meant to decorate the space. That means anything that gives your room a better look and feel works just good.
Flaunt your books
Show off your vast collection of books by neatly arranging them in an open bookcase. You can add ply pieces to the bottom of your centre table and convert it into your personal coffee-time bookshelf.
Use old wine bottles
You can use them as a candle stand, decorative pieces instead of vases for fresh flowers. The options are many, and the investment is nil.
Hang old plates
You can hang them randomly or you can create a pattern through them. Use bold, bright colours and stick the largest one at the center to attract attention.
Let your personality shine through your home décor.
Use mirrors
Have a small room or room with low ceiling height? No problem! Few interior design ideas can amplify your space and make your room look bigger and taller than it actually is.
The room seems roomier when you prop up a large mirror in the centre of a room. The key is to make sure the mirror is at least three-fourths as tall as the wall. This is a well-tried classic trick often used by interior decorators to create instant square footage (even if it isn’t for real)
Refurbish old furniture
If buying new furniture seems like too much of expense, you can spiff up the old furniture to add a new lease of life into them.
Add new hardware
Fixing doesn’t have to be limited to repairing old pieces. You can update old furniture by adding new hardware. For example, convert the old shoe rack into sitting space by adding a seat/rug on its top.
Refresh the paint
Once you are done fixing the broken parts and adding the hardware, refresh the paint. A fresh layer of paint is enough to hide any spills.
Buy furniture without varnishes
If you have made up your mind to buy new furniture but want to save bucks, it is a good idea to buy pieces that are unfinished; maybe lacking a top coating of paint. These pieces usually contain a very small imperfection because of which the model will cost you a fraction of its showroom price. Usually, these imperfections are easy to ignore and if not, it can be hidden with some creativity.
Don’t forget the fifth wall
Put the ceiling to work. Often ignored, the ceiling can work wonders in continuing the design trend upwards.
Paint the ceiling, install fun or classy lighting fixtures, or add a false ceiling. The list of things you can do with the ceiling is endless. In fact, it is one of the easiest and inexpensive ways to get more design mileage out of existing furniture in the room.
LED Lighting
Ceilings are the new hot-spot for interior designers who are playing with both form and function. Including a beautiful LED lighting unit is a great idea to elaborate and exquisite the roof design
From offering the classic look with chandeliers and pendant to providing a stylish modern alternative, a proper lighting sequence, when integrated with an innovative roof design, can do wonders for any existing décor.
Cut the clutter
No matter how designer your furniture is or how well decorated your place is, organising is the key to attract attention and show-off great designs. Play with your furniture and build tons of storage space wherever possible. It is the only efficient and inexpensive way to get the clutter out of sight.
Use cabinet doors to hang items
Don’t let small stuff occupy valuable space in the shelf or drawer. Instead, use cup hooks to hang items on cabinet doors. You can even make small vertical racks on the doors, which can come really handy in holding lids, spices or any other vertical items.
Add vertical shelves
Every house, especially the kitchen, has a lot of flat cookware like pans, pan lids, plates, etc. A vertical shelf will make it easier for you to store these items in minimal space. The simplest way is to leave a few inches of space in the corner before putting up the shelves. Or you can use a plywood to make a vertical divider and you are done.
Having closet and cabinet doors helps to keep things out of sight making the house look cleaner and organised.
While proper planning is a mandate for any home improvement project, it becomes all the more essential when you are working on a tight budget.
After all, no one wants to get stuck in the middle of a renovation work only to find that they don’t have enough money for the sofa-set or that the couch they’ve ordered online doesn’t fit their room. Doing a little planning and some legwork beforehand will reduce the likelihood of encountering an unwanted situation along the way.
Great ideas.