Cheap Decorating Ideas to Update Your Room

Is your room feeling tired, dated and unloved? You don't need to spend a fortune or do a major overhaul to update your look!

Ingenious & cheap decorating ideas and tricks can give your home a whole new look...

Do you feel that your room is starting to look a bit tired and dated?

You wish it looked a bit more modern and fun, but don't have the time, energy or finances to give it a thorough interior design makeover...

...it's about interior designing it yourself, to make the most of your existing furniture or furnishings, and finding quick and easy cheap decorating ideas, to give that added oomph to your room.

So, let's look how to help a slightly tired or out-dated room find a more modern and contemporary look - without spending a fortune!

• I feel that it is always a bonus to include well-loved objects, furniture and treasures into any decorating scheme.

  Using your existing belongings helps your house to become a home - and helps your interior design ideas to reflect your own life and personality.

• Of course, if you hate certain of your belongings, it will probably be cheaper, and happier all round in the long-run, for you to get shot of them...

  ...and invest in a few, new, special treasures that you really love.

• Speaking from personal experience - and this is a mistake we've made time and time again in the cause of saving money - re-decorating your room to fit in with a truly hated piece of furniture, bathroom suite, kitchen cupboards, tiling scheme, etc, will never allow you to be truly happy with your interior design scheme...

  ...even if you've made a passable attempt at matching, blending or disguising the hated item. If it's just not you... it's just not you!

• In these cases, you should certainly bite the bullet and just get rid! In most situations, however, you will find plenty of interior design ideas, and especially cheap decorating ideas and tricks to give your home a quick and easy makeover!

Cheap Decorating Ideas and Tricks

• Clear the clutter! In many rooms, a good clear-out, sort through and tidy can give your home a new lease of life.
• While you are doing this, whay not re-think your storage solutions, and the organisation and arrangement of your room.

  For more ideas on doing this, take a look at this $1 E-book on Home Decorating Tips, Clutter Busting and Storage Solutions, and at the section here on the art of arranging furniture

• Add a rug to tired carpets and floors, or re-stain floorboards in a dark, high-gloss varnish, or paint with a special floor paint.
• Whitewash expose brickwork, or add simple, plain MDF panels to disguise old-fashioned fireplaces.






An interesting creation to modernise a fireplace.
Yours needn't be as intricate as this!
• Paint dado rails and skirtings the same color as the walls, to minimise impact and maximise space.
• Change your light fixtures for something more modern looking - a striking central light can be an excellent focal point for your room.
• Change door handles and light switches for contemporary chrome, or brushed steel fittings.
• Create your own focal point with a strong color on one wall, a bold wallpaper or a striking picture or accessory.

  This means the attention falls naturally on this aspect of your room, and the less-liked areas just blend naturally away.







Attention falls naturally on such a striking wall.
Even a luxury wallpaper on just one wall can be very inexpensive.
• Celebrate the retro feel with those old-fashioned objects you just can't get rid of, for whatever reason. Add a few choice pieces from the same (or even, different) eras, to make a strong style statement.

  Keep the rest of your look plain and decidedly modern though - you don't want to look like you got lost in a time-warp!

• Mix and match modern and retro for a unique and eclectic look - one of the best and easiest cheap decorating ideas that can give really stunning results.
• Paint old-fashioned or out-dated furniture - try white, grey, or a subtle color to match the walls. This will also add to the feeling of space in the room.
• Simple Roman or Venetian blinds at unfussy windows can instantly update the feel of your home, and maximise light.
• Group together pictures or objects with a similar theme or color scheme, to make a strong artistic statement with your belongings.






Keep your traditional-styled possessions and just display them in a modern way
• Too many dated floral patterns can make your room look and feel old-fashioned. Floral prints are still very much on trend though, perhaps now more than ever! Just 'weed' yours out to give them a modern twist.

  Choose the brightest, boldest, or simply your favourites, and mix with neutrals or contemporary bright colors, keeping the florals as pretty accents.










• Kitchen cabinets, or kitchen and bathroom tiles, can be painted over with specialist paints for a new look. A simple, clean white is an easy way to get a more modern look.
• Fresh funky and bright towels or teatowels in bathrooms and kitchens, and new blinds and accessories, can give your room a fresh, new feel, and can be very effective cheap decorating ideas, with minimum fuss and effort.
• Try using deeper neutrals and dark, rich browns, to update a tired or pale home decor scheme.
• Fresh throws and cushions can instantly update a tired sofa, chair or bed, and create a welcoming focal point in your room.

I hope these easy, quick and cheap decorating ideas have given you some inspiration to make some simple changes to your room, and to make it appear more modern, and to help you and your family love it more.

Wisely made changes need only be quick and cheap decorating ideas - however small, these will impact on the look and feel of your room, and give that contemporary, updated look without taking an age, or breaking the bank!

The beauty of this kind of interior design is that you can update your home as often as you like, at minimal expense and time, and look like you are constantly up with all the trends.

Follow the principles of how to design in your changes with these interior design tips and tips and tricks for decorating with color.

Take a look at some of these update your room fast fixes we tried in our own lounge revamp

Have you got your free subscription to my interior design e-zine? Receive my free, e-mail newsletter, full of all the best interior design ideas, tips and techniques, straight to your in-box.

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