Save money decorating your house
Living on a student budget normally means that we can’t splurge on furniture or décor for our houses. But, just because we can’t buy expensive pieces doesn’t mean we can’t make pieces that look almost the same. I searched the internet and found five DIYs that make your house more homely and cost a fraction of what they would in a store.
Vanilla coffee scented candle
Instead of buying a candle that you’ll eventually finish, make your own scented candle with coffee beans, an electric candle, and a glass jar. Fill the glass jar with the coffee beans (any flavour – I recommend French vanilla beans) and put the electric candle on top. The heat from the candle will make the room smell like coffee, and the candle will never run out.
Decorate your own pillows
Decorative pillows can get to be very expensive. Instead of splurging on them, turn a boring, cheap pillow into something more decorative. All you need is a plain black or white pillow, fabric paint, a foam brush, and painters tape. You can do something as simple a as chevron design, or, if you think you have the skill, a more intricate design. Use the painter’s tape as an outline for your design and apply as many coats of paint as you need. If you have sewing skills, you can add little tassels on the sides of the pillow but, if not, just the chevron pattern looks really nice on its own.
Pebble shoe mat
During the winter, our front halls can get really gross with all of the slush, ice, and salt our shoes track in. Instead of using a boring, ugly, rubber mat to place your shoes on, make your front hall look much nicer without spending a lot of money. Take a cookie sheet (or two, depending on how many shoes you need to fit on there) – it can be a metal cookie sheet or one as cheap as the ones you can buy from a grocery store. Buy some pebbles and fill the cookie sheets with them. They look really nice and they keep all the melted slush and dirt off the tiles of your front entrance.
Remodel hand-me-downs
Most students at some point get hand-me-down furniture from family members when they move into a house; and half the time, they don’t really like how the furniture looks. Instead of not using it, remodel it. The simplest way to do this is to re-paint it. First, if there is any hardware on whatever furniture you are remodeling, remove it so it doesn’t get covered in paint. Then use sandpaper to sand down the entire surface area. Next, use a paintbrush to put a coat of primer all over the furniture. After the primer has dried, sand the furniture again, and then paint it whatever colour you choose. If you need to apply more than one coat, wait for the paint to dry overnight before you paint the furniture again. You can add a lacquer after the paint has dried if you want, this will add a more polished look to the piece. After the last coat has dried, put all of the hardware back on and voila! You have a brand new piece of furniture!
Wicker basket storage
The easiest DIY is this one. All you need is different-sized wicker baskets and something to hang them with. If you’re allowed to do this in your house, nail the wicker baskets to the wall from smallest on the top to largest on the bottom. That’s it. Now you have a really cute storage system that is perfect for holding towels in the bathroom or books/odds and ends in your bedroom. If you aren’t allowed to nail things into your walls, you can always use command hooks to hang the baskets.
These DIYs will spruce up your house and save you a lot of money.