For a lot of people, great style means that you either have a keen eye or a lot of money - or both. They seem to go hand in hand .The more luxury items that we can afford, the better our house looks; we are able to spend on things that go hand in hand rather than try and mis-match for the sake of being quirky or edgy. In every housekeeping or interior design magazine, the focus is not on being frugal or thrifty to save on your spendings, but instead they suggest only the best of the best in order to promote some false sense of superiority that we are all to aim towards and achieve. No wonder so many of us are falling into debt - we are under the impression that we must do whatever it takes to get the top-rated stuff as proposed to us by the experts and endorsed by celebrities. However, it doesn’t have to be this way; there are simple things that you can do indoors which will cost the fraction of the price of anything mainstream that you need to spend a ton of money on, that will look amazing in your home.

The lounge is a communal meeting point; for many, it’s the only room in the house that their guests will see bar the bathroom. There is so much that can be done in here without the need for spending a huge amount of money in order to get it up to par with what you like. In terms of decoration, simple bunting is cute, cheap and effective - you can find a style to suit your choice on sites like eBay, or personalise your own. If you have any postcards lying around or hidden in drawers, you could consider framing them and putting them up on your walls for a different approach to showing people where you’ve been.

 Alternatively, if that’s too much of a tacky idea or your postcards aren’t quite up to scratch, selecting photos from your phone and altering them in an app like Snapseed or VCSO before sending them off for cheap prints to frame is a great idea - it can be personal to you then, and is a fantastic way of showing off where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing. You may even have people ask you where your prints are from, so who says that you have to spend a small fortune on buying a limited edition photo or rare picture just for the effect.

Plants are also amazing to have around the house - they can actually reveal quite a lot about your personality depending on the type you pick and whether they have a pop of colour or not. Succulents are still very much on trend, and they’re also insanely cheap to buy in relation to other plants. They have an added bonus in that you don’t really have to water them much, which is a life send if you’re too busy to dedicate the time to keeping them alive as you would any other plant that withers after a day. Succulents come in a variety of shapes and colours, and you can even incorporate them into a terrarium to really give some edge to a room; whereas you could be spending upwards of forty dollars on buying a ready-made terrarium, making your own could cost you as little as less than ten dollars.

 

Everybody knows that if you have a bad bathroom, there’s not a lot that can be done to spruce it up. If you have moldy tiles or walls, bits of porcelain breaking away from where they need to be or not much light to work with, this room can be a nightmare to work with. If these problems are occurring then you probably need to bite the bullet and have a look around for a website that can either lend you the money or give you tips on how to sort this stuff out. With that out of the way, if you haven’t got any of these things occurring [or even if you have - you can at least try], look at simple quotes or designs that you can pop into a bold frame to draw attention away from everything else. People like having things to look at in the bathroom, and if you have plants to spread around the house then they will thrive in the humid conditions. You can make your own handmade soaps to add a nice touch for those who are visiting, or even for yourself; the more effort you put into the little details rather than the bigger things, the more you will be achieving your desired effect and the less you’ll be spending. You don’t even have to worry about buying new towels to fit in with any theme you’re trying to work with - simply buy some dye and give them a new lease of life. It doesn’t have to take you throwing your cash at a salesperson to give your bathroom the love it deserves.

 

Paint is relatively cheap to buy. Budget brands are actually storming up the ranks to be on par, if not better, than the leading named products. There are few things that a good lick of paint can’t do to brighten up a room, and the great thing about achieving the ‘interior design’ look is that if you’re going for a neutrals/shade theme then you only need two colours; you can then mix and match these colours together to create different shades to use as you please. Forget about buying individual pots that match intrinsically, as you’ve already got what’s there to achieve it.

New duvet covers can make a world of difference in decorating, and if you try and focus more on what you can try and test in terms of the fabrics in the room then you will do well on keeping to a budget. Think outside of the box - don’t just consider a duvet set and pillows, but lean towards blinds/curtains and throws that you could incorporate into the design as well. They don’t all have to match perfectly, as you could stick with a colour or a general theme i.e.geometric to offset each other. Lampshades are a thing that nobody really considers when doing up a home, but they can really add a lot to a room. Styles can vary, and so can colours, so pick one that will suit both what you like and how much money you have to spend on it.