How to Update Your Home on a Budget (9 Mistakes to Avoid at all Costs!)
Excited to fix up your home but the budget is tight? Home improvements on a budget can certainly pose a challenge but are completely possible! This post will show you how to avoid the following mistakes for a happy wallet and home.
1. Not having a plan
Absolutely, hands down, the number one thing you should do when updating your home on a budget is
to come up with a plan.
Map out your space and determine the right size furniture for your space.
You could even place painter’s tape down on the floor and spend a few days walking around it to decide on how it flows.
Making a physical map with pencil is incredibly helpful in the grand scheme of things.
This doesn’t have to be fancy, but try to draw your room to scale, add in any features of the room like windows or
doorways, and then you’ll be able to play with different layouts to determine how you want to design the room.
This also helps with furniture placement, even if you’re just redecorating, as it is much easier to move a pencil than a couch or solid wood dresser or heavy couch.
Figure out your style and what type of furniture you’ll need based on how you live.
For example, if you love lounging around in the living room, a sectional is great. If you enjoy entertaining, having two couches that face each other or several chairs in your living room might be best for you.
Knowing how you will use the space is so helpful when purchasing furniture.
Yes, your taste can change, and you can always redecorate at a later date if you decide to do so, but having a plan will get you a beautiful home now, without spending a bunch of money on the wrong items.
Once you get your furniture laid out, work on your color scheme and patterns. Physical samples are incredibly helpful at this point to be able to visualize how the room will look when complete.
Putting it down on paper will enable you to purchase exactly what you need and want for the space but will keep you from spending extra money and time if you picked out the wrong things because you were going on a “whim”. This will cause you to pick out all the pretty things, but they may not look right when pulled together in your space.
Having a plan and knowing your dimensions will also allow you to pick up that perfect vintage piece right away before someone else grabs it, because you know what you’re looking for and the dimensions.
Having a plan will not only create a beautiful and cohesive looking room, but it will keep you from passing on great deals and from overbuying unnecessary items.
2. Getting distracted from your plan with pretty things
After coming up with a plan, stick to it! (At least as best you can.)
I know that it is incredibly easy to see something, fall in love and pick it up impulsively.
The problem with this, is if you’re on a budget these impulsive purchases can add up, ESPECIALLY if they don’t fit in with your overall plan. You may not even use the item at all, and then it was a complete waste of money.
It’s also easy to do this with paint colors. You may have a whole plan worked out, but then you fall in love with a color and go for it, without thinking about how it will look when everything is pulled together.
This is an especially difficult side track as painting takes time, can be hard on the body, is messy, and costs money. Only painting once is a very, very smart idea.
Don’t waste your time or your sanity. Stick to the plan!
3. Purchasing cheap furniture and décor
This one may seem like an oxymoron. You might be thinking to yourself, “if I’m on a budget, wouldn’t I want to buy cheap stuff?”
Inexpensive, yes! But cheap… no.
Have you ever heard the expression “I’m too broke to buy cheap?” How about “You get what you pay for”?
Cheap products are usually unable to hold up to any wear and tear. Not to mention, they will look cheap and you will get tired of them awfully quickly.
Which leads to you having to replace the cheap thing much more quickly than if you purchased a quality piece (you do not have to break the bank to do this! I’ll explain more on this later…)
This means that you’re basically purchasing something twice (and spending double the money).
You can actually save the initial cost by just purchasing the slightly more expensive (but better quality) product right from the get go.
For a simple example, I purchased kitchen scissors from the dollar store twice. Neither pair works. Not even a little bit.
So while I’ve only spent two dollars, I still have to purchase a better quality pair for around $8. If I went ahead and spent the $8 for quality kitchen scissors initially, instead of trying to make something cheap work for me, I would have actually saved 20%, plus a bit of my sanity. And it’s better for the environment, too!
It is the same thing with furniture and decor. You could easily buy cheap, but if it breaks after 6 months and you have to go out and buy another one, you’re really spending more money than you need to.
You could easily find beautiful furniture and artwork on facebook marketplace, from garage sales or thrift stores that are built to last, and you wouldn’t waste your money or time on a cheap product.
Save yourself the headache.
This brings me to my next point…
4. Not purchasing furniture and decor second-hand
I know that it can seem weird to purchase used furniture, especially if you’ve never done it before. You may have to wonder where it came from, what they did to it, does it smell? Is it dirty? Is there dog hair all over it?
I get it. You can find some grimy things out there.
BUT you can also find amazing, quality, one of a kind furniture pieces for an incredible price. A budget-friendly price.
You can even find stuff for free on facebook marketplace, from friends, and even on the side of the road. You’d be surprised at the treasures people get rid of that you can pick up for free!!
We’ve furnished about 95% of our home with free hand-me-downs and curbside finds.
Just about everything in this picture was free.
The painting was my mom’s, the rug came from a tag sale for free at the end of the day, the couch was a hand-me-down from family, same as the lamp, basket and wood furniture.
Even the coffee table book (turned remote control storage!) was free.
You really don’t have to break the bank when furnishing your home. And it’s good for the environment, too!
5. Avoiding DIY’s
I know you’ve seen the amazing things that can be done to old furniture with just a little bit of paint.
There are a TON of tutorials on Pinterest and Youtube about how to turn something kind of blah into a beautiful piece.
This is a really great way to stretch your budget while creating an absolutely gorgeous piece custom for your home.
And you definitely don’t have to be some kind of painting expert. Certainly, the more you do it the better you will get, but even a total beginner can give a fresh new life to a quality, yet outdated, piece of furniture.
How about building your own furniture or decor?
I get it: power tools are scary and could take off your fingers. It’s true.
BUT that should not stop you from figuring out how to properly and safely use them to create amazing DIY projects.
I was always terrified of power tools. And a healthy fear isn’t a bad thing BUT once I learned how to use tools I felt so empowered.
I want you to feel the same way.
It’s an incredible gift to be able to create something with your own hands. The amount of pride that comes from creating something from nothing cannot be matched.
That is how I feel 100% about my DIY mantel.
And entryway table.
You can save a TON of money, even with wood at the price it is, if you make something yourself, while creating a completely unique and custom feature for your home.
Give it a try!
6. Cutting your wood prematurely
If you do decide to build your own DIY projects (and you should!!) MAKE SURE that you measure like 15 times to ensure proper measurements.
Or, at least cut your wood long.
Once you cut, you (most of the time) can’t put it back on.
I’ve wasted several bucks on wood that I cut to the wrong size in my days.
Have a plan, know your measurements, and don’t make my mistakes! Also, use the same measuring tape to ensure accuracy.
Check out our mistakes to avoid when working with lumber to keep you on budget.
7. Not waiting for holidays to purchase big ticket items
I’m not just talking black Friday here, folks.
Just about every month has a holiday for a sale. President’s day, Columbus day, end of summer sales.
If you know that you want to purchase something (especially something big), it is absolutely worth it to wait a few weeks until the next holiday to make the sale.
A couch, for example, can be very pricey. If the store does 20% off at holidays, that could be several hundred dollars back in your pocket.
And if you have a plan and know what you’re looking for, it will make sourcing that much easier.
8. Buying super trendy big-ticket items
While you may love it right now, that bubble couch’s hay day may have already come and gone.
Which means that unless you are able to shell out another thousand bucks, you are stuck with a couch that is “so last season”.
Timeless, neutral classics are so important when you’re on a budget and trying to create a beautiful home.
Sure, we all love color. But it is better to add color with small things like throw pillows and artwork, instead of a bright orange couch that you may hate in a few months.
Going with neutral items for the larger elements of a room is a very smart idea as you can easily change up the look and feel of a room with décor items, but the couch will still match with everything.
This will save you a ton of money and heartache.
If you do have a bright colored couch that you are getting tired of, you don’t have to purchase a new one.
Consider looking for a couch cover instead.
You can find couch covers for most styles for just a fraction of the cost of a new couch. Just recover and voila! You have a fresh look.
This is also a great way to get that bright colored couch you love, minus the permanence.
9. Not utilizing the items you already have (or can get for free)
This mistake is about missing opportunities to utilize furniture for outside-the-box purposes. You’ll have to get creative for this one.
If you let your friends and family know that you have just moved into a new home or apartment, often they will offer you furniture that they are not using. This is awesome, but can also be a burden if you have nowhere to put it.
While sure, you can always turn down the offer, it’s best for your wallet if you figure out another use for those items.
For example, is someone trying to gift you a dresser but you already have one? Instead of saying no, look at other areas of your home and figure out if you can use it there instead.
Fantastic uses for dressers are TV stands (with storage!) or a bathroom vanity, buffets can be turned into kitchen islands.
A storage bench can be turned into a disguised kitty litter box.
A kitchen and chair set can be protected with outdoor paint or stain and used as outdoor furniture.
Utilizing items that you find or were given for free can really help your budget and will give you cool and unique conversation-starter pieces.
Getting all of these pieces for free was so incredibly helpful and is how we furnished our home from almost all hand-me-downs (with the exception of my office chair and most recently, our living room couch).
And you can too! Just a little creativity goes a long way.
Recap
Avoiding these 9 simple tips will help you create the home of your dreams while maintaining your budget.
- Not having a plan
- Getting distracted from your plan
- Making cheap purchases
- Not puchasing second-hand
- Avoiding DIY’s
- Cutting wood prematurely
- Not waiting for sales to purchase big-ticket items
- Buying super trendy items
- Not utilizing stuff you already have
Get creative, get to work and share your progress with us so we can all be inspired!
And let us know what money-saving tips you use to help create your dream home.
