How to Decorate a House with No Money: 16 Money-Saving Hacks

This year more than ever we are watching our budgets but the big question is how to decorate a house with no money. Well, thankfully there are many ways that you can decorate your home with a minimum spend.

In this post, I am sharing just how you can update your home without spending a lot of money. It might take some clever hacks and tips and tricks but you can update the look of your home with a little effort!

Decorating your home can be a challenge at the best of times for ensuring your style is translated perfectly into your living space isn’t an easy feat. However, what makes it more difficult is when you have a tight financial budget to be mindful of; a lot of fashionable interior designs come with a costly price tag. Luckily, there are many ways to redecorate on a budget and still reach your desired finish. These handy tips work for every room of your home from the living room to the dining room and will become part of your decorating bible for years to come.

How to decorate a house with no money

Here we have 16 of the best tips to update your own home on a tight budget. We have separated the tips into free ways to update a room and low-cost ways and both can make a huge difference to the feel of your home. With a little creativity, you can make your home beautiful on a tight budget in so many different ways.

Free Ways and DIY Projects

The easiest way to update a home on a low budget is to actually to use what you already have. Even moving things around your home and changing the position is a great way to provide a fresh look. You might be surprised at the transformation you can achieve with just a new furniture layout.

Secondly, before you decide to throw away that old piece of furniture because ‘it doesn’t go’ anymore, why not consider upcycling instead? Second-hand items need only a throw, a fresh coat of paint, or a sanding down and they can transform into something more in keeping with your decor. You can take the old family sofa, add some blankets and throws, mix in with some textured cushions and you have a whole new look for next to nothing.

A clever way to transform a room is by organising it better. A good decluttering and then organising what’s left is a great place to start. One striking way to arrange books for example is by colour. It always looks good on a bookshelf.

DIY is arguably one of the cheapest ways to freshen up your home on a shoestring budget, and contrary to popular belief you won’t need a hammer or drill for every new project. Inject some colour into your home by creating cute pompoms accessories, such as garlands and rugs. It will turn even the most tired of spaces into a fun area, and best of all you get to recapture fond childhood memories.

Next check out what leftover paint you have as quite often we have old tins of paint or tester pots and these can be used to create a focal point or feature wall. We used leftover paint to create a geometrical feature wall in the teenager’s bedroom.

Glass jars can be used in so many ways, either on a dressing table with your make up brushes and cotton balls or with flowers in. My favourite glass jars come from coffee and Nutella! Check out more on using glass jars in my post.

There are also sites like Freecycle where people give away furniture and house items – these are worth checking out because they can be a totally free way to update your home. In a similar vein skip hunting is a thing! If you see a neighbour getting rid of fixtures and fittings t=you can ask if you can give them a new lease of life!

Low Cost Ways to Redecorate

Start off by looking for secondhand pieces, Facebook marketplace, thrift stores and charity shops can be a treasure trove of discovery when it comes to beautiful things for little money. Not only is this a more environmentally aware way to shop but you can find one-off pieces rather than mass commercialised things. A photo wall is a popular idea and you will definitely be able to pick up a picture frame or ten in a local charity shop, have a look at home decor blogs for inspiration.

Vases with seasonal flowers make a great focal point on a coffee table and if you are green-fingered you can take cuttings from your own garden.

Another money-smart idea to always have at the fore when decorating is to check out the latest sales. Even though we can refurb many household objects, some pieces we simply can’t, and this is where smart online shopping comes to the rescue. By choosing to save money on a mattress at Bedstar, to name but one example, you can keep your accounts in the green and still savour the comforts of a fresh new bed. Our bedrooms are one of the most important rooms of our homes, so ensuring you’re comfortable is key.

Shop in budget-friendly home decor stores for your interior design trends, retail shops like B7M, TK Maxx and Homesense are full of great things that can update your home.

Find yourself some dupes! Aldi are well known for creating dupes of many of our favourite looks. Check out their special buys when they have a home week.

Textiles are a must when redecorating, so if there’s only one element of your home you can afford to change, make sure to devote the money to your curtains and drapes. A change of material, patterns, and thickness of your curtains can completely transform the feel of a room; light drapes give an airy spring vibe, while thick, heavy drapes give warmth for winter.

Learn to play with scale. By focusing on one large piece of artwork, furniture or decoration (known as accent pieces), you can add a dramatic sense of grandeur to any room look whether the space is big or small. Investing in just one or two key pieces of wall art can transform a room.

Another money-saving tip when making big purchases like a new bathroom suite or kitchen cabinets is to look at ex-display models. There is often absolutely nothing wrong with the fittings it is just that they have been on display previously but there is often a great hefty discount applied to these pieces. Check out flea markets and car boot sales too!

If your kitchen cupboards are still in great condition but you want a refresh look at getting them spray painted instead of ripping them out and having a new kitchen. We did this last year and not only does it look amazing it has aged really well. I was a little apprehensive that it would look homemade but the quality and finish is second to none and given the room a new lease of life.

This subtle shift in organising your living quarters can have a huge impact on the atmosphere of a room, thus changing the overall feel of your home without even having to spend a penny. It isn’t always an easy decorating tip to master, but the differences are quite pronounced once you nail it.

Whichever way you decide to freshen up your home, whether you decide to recycle a charity shop find or take advantage of a mattress sale, there are many ways to work around budget restrictions. We hope these 16 ways how to decorate a house with no money is going to help you find the inspiration that you are looking for.