8 ways to update your living room on a tight budget

​Recently I was able to decorate a good friend’s gorgeous new home. We picked out everything from wall décor to large furniture items. It was a blast! However, I came home and looked around my house and realized – MY HOUSE NEEDED AN UPDATE! My husband was thrilled (sense the sarcasm).

So, instead of spending a ton of money on new furniture I decided to make a few changes that were much cheaper and would make the biggest differences. I was also able to sell most of the old stuff on my local facebook online garage sale site which helped with purchasing the new times. Here’s a few things I did to make the updates!

• Paint!  It’s a lot of work but makes the biggest change.  Picking out a lighter, neutral color is just what I needed.  This allows you to play around with other colors using accent furnishings and will give your room a timeless feel. 
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Tip:  Stay away from color trends.  Paint trends come and go quickly and you don’t want to be painting your entire house every 4-5 years.  One popular color I love is Benjamin Moore’s Revere Pewter.  It’s a really nice shade of greige (gray/beige), however in some rooms it can have a slight tint of green and is on the beige side.  So I played with about 15 different paint colors in my home to find the perfect gray/beige color.  I fell in love with Sherwin-Williams Colonnade Gray.  It’s a perfect shade of gray with light tints of beige so I can still use some of my old beige furnishings.

• Lamps were next.  I purchased a few new lamps to replace old ones and then got new updated shades for the rest of my lamps.  Made a huge difference for very little $$.  A typical lamp will range around $25.00 - $50.00 at stores like Home Goods or Marshalls.

• Wall Art is another easy way to update a room.  I noticed a few of my art pieces had red and brown accents and I had no other red or brown in my entire space – so out with the old and in with the new clearance wall decor I found at Tuesday Morning.

• Curtains can make one of the biggest differences in a room.  Many times we don’t even see our curtains anymore because they have just morphed into the rest of the room.  But with a new wall color comes new curtains!  Again, think timeless.  Trendy patterns such as chevron look awesome now, but in 5 years will probably be completely out of style.  I like simple, solid color curtains.

Curtain tips:

1. For large windows I always double up the panels putting two panels on each side to give a fuller look.
2. Make sure to extend the curtain rod well past the window trim to ensure the curtains hang outside of the window frame.  This makes the window and room feel larger.

• Throw pillows are one of my favorite ways to change a room.  You can change colors and looks by just purchasing a few new pillows. 
  
  Tip:  Your pillows don’t have to match.  You can use different colors, patterns and textures.

• De-cluttering your shelves, tables and desks can also update a room.  Shelf simplicity is the key.   

• Plants:  Get rid of your large fake plants that are collecting dust!  Purchase a real tree or plant that is easy to care for.  My new favorite tree is a Fiddle Leaf Fig Tree.  Needs a lot of light but not a lot of water!

• Lastly – updating picture frames.  I love going to someone’s home and looking at their family photos hanging on the walls, What great memories to share with friends and family.  However, frames can become out of date as well.  Luckily Michaels or Hobby Lobby seem to have 50% off frames almost every week.  Look for a simple design with sleek looking borders and try a different color frame to match your new décor!