How to Decorate a House with Simple Things

Decorating a house can be expensive if you decide to go for everything new. However, you can decorate your home with simple things by transforming, refreshing, rearranging, and repurposing what you already have without spending a penny.

Here’s how to decorate a house with simple things:

1. Work with plants and flowers.
2. Recycle old furniture.
3. Showcase your books and collections.
4. Combine furniture.
5. Use handmade decorations.
6. Add a mirror to your room decor.
7. Reuse old plates.
8. Add or rearrange throw pillows.
9. Create a gallery wall.
10. Make a big decor statement.
11. Create decorative lampshades.

These simple tricks will transform your house into a beautiful home. Read the details of each in the rest of the article and don’t hesitate to implement what works best for your living space.

1. Work with plants and flowers

They say you can never go wrong with nature, which is why plants and flowers should be among your first low-budget decorating ideas. Plus, plants have benefits that go beyond aesthetics. Studies have shown that having plants in your home benefits your health, memory, relationships, and work.

To decorate your home with plants/flowers, you can:

• Bring in an outdoor plant if the season allows.
• Replace a plant already in the apartment with one from outside or another room.
• Place a plant or flower vase in places where you have never used plants or flowers before, such as an empty open closet space, to give your home a new look and feel.

You can also create a decorated space with:

• Plants
• Flowers
• Plant wall shelves
• Pressed plant/flower frames

2. Upcycle old furniture

Do you have unused furniture in your basement or attic? You can dust it off and reuse it as home decor. For example, you could repaint an old stool and turn it into:

• A practical flower/plant stand
• A sofa side table
• A bedside table

Old cabinets and tables also make for traditional decorative furniture in hallways, in front of unused doors, or alongside long glass windows and at empty corners.

Additionally, they can serve as displays for:

• Plants
• Flowers
• Clay or ceramic collections
• Other decorative objects

3. Showcase your books and collections

If you have been keeping old books that you no longer read, you can prevent them from ending up in the landfill by using them as decoration. Arrange the books in horizontal and vertical stacks to create a decorative pattern.

You can also alternate the book stacks with:

• Frames
• Flower vases
• Small potted plants
• Ceramic, glass, or clay vessels

4. Mix and match furniture

Change the look and atmosphere in your rooms by mixing and matching furniture. For example, you could swap chairs from your kitchen set with those from your dining set.

Alternatively, you could paint the table and chair tops in a different color to make them look like a completely new set.

5. Use handmade decorations

If you want to give your home a new feel and look during the festive seasons, there are plenty of handmade decorations you can create using things you already have:

• Create a wall pattern with dried flower petals
• Paper art
• Embellished glassware
• A seashell mobile
• Painted pebbles
• Woven yarn or rope decorations

Sadtohappyproject.com has a wide range of DIY craft ideas that you can borrow and spruce up your home.

6. Add a mirror to your room decor

When complementing your other home decor, a mirror not only brightens up your home but also gives you the fantastic illusion that your space is larger. You’ll feel like you have twice as much room.

You can opt for mirrors with aesthetic frames, accomplishing a dual decoration goal.

7. Reuse old plates

You probably have a collection of plates that you have accumulated over time but no longer use. Why not repurpose them to create a series of plates on a wall? You can display plates around a large frame or in a decorative design, showcasing their sizes, types, and designs.

8. Add or rearrange throw pillows

Whether in your bedroom, living room, or a secluded spot in the house, throw pillows can add style and elegance to your home when done with variations in color, style, and fabric textures.

Decorative throw pillows can have the typical square patterns or a mix of square, wooden, and upholstered designs.

When it comes to arrangement and color schemes, you can mix and match colors to complement the room’s color or opt for neutral colors like black and white.

You can also consider customizing throw pillows to convey a message.

9. Create a gallery wall

A simple or more elaborate gallery wall decoration can give your living room or other rooms in your home a new sense of beauty and sophistication.

Create a wall gallery with personal photos you’ve been wanting to hang, simple paintings made by you or your kids, canvas prints, or random portraits you’ve hung in different rooms of the house.

10. Make a big decor statement

If you have a large wall clock, a unique plant in a decorative vase, a huge clay pot, a large piece of canvas, or a big frame, you can place it solo on the empty floor or against an empty wall, making it a big decor statement.

A stylish chair, a palm tree, or your main couch positioned beneath the decor piece could help accentuate it and give everything an elegant impression.

11. Make decorative lampshades

A lampshade can give a decorative effect to your home when the light is on or as a stand-alone during the day.

Decorative lampshades could be made by:

• Dyeing glass bottles and using them as lamp pendants
• Creating creative paper or wooden chandeliers
• DIYing hemp string or yarn pendant lamps

Here’s a YouTube video with clear instructions on how to make a hemp string pendant lamp:

Final Thoughts

If you want to give your home a different look or shine, and do it on a budget, you can decorate your house with simple things that you already have and transform it into a beautiful and cozy environment. You can also make decorative items if you’re skilled at sewing or crocheting.