Decorating Deals for the First Time Home Buyer

One of the perks of home ownership is to have a home that reflects your tastes and personality. Blank white walls and worn carpet of your rental days are gone and the task of decorating your new home is upon you.

First time home buyers can especially feel overwhelmed with how much there is to do to make their new home feel like their own. Expenses can get out of hand when decorating a new home. To avoid unnecessary expenses and keep the costs down a little planning and research will go a long way.

Flip Some Pages:

Magazines are a great way for a new home buyer to get some great decorating ideas. Look for titles such as Better Homes and Gardens, House Beautiful, Traditional Home , Country Woman and Cottage Style Decorating. The local bookstore's magazine section often has many of decorating magazines plus others not mentioned here. Often these magazines are five dollars or more each, so to save some money you can visit your local library and read them for free.

Know Your Subject:

You want your home to reflect your tastes, so think about what you really want. Trying to go for a too trendy look that is more for others than yourself will come across as forced and fake. What colors do you like best? Perhaps painting one wall, called an accent wall, in that color and leaving the other walls neutral will give it a pop without being overwhelming. Watching a few decorating shows on Home and Garden Television , The Style Network or The Learning Channel may help you discover what type of decorating you are most comfortable with. If you are neat and orderly a more modern, minimalist approach to your new home would make more sense that shabby chic which lends itself to knick knacks, throw pillows and the like. If you prefer a more rustic setting than surround yourself with items in your new home such as mission style furniture, barn wood picture frames and oval braided rag rugs.

Shop Til You Drop:

Once a new home buyer has an idea of how they intend to decorate their new nest the next step is to start spending. A first time homebuyer might be in need of more furniture and that can cost even more but before anyone opens their wallet there are some atypical shopping spots to hit first. If it is Spring or Summer yard sales (aka garage or rummage sales) can be a gold mine without costing a mint. Last Summer I bought a white wicker bench for only six dollars where as a new one would have set me back at least $150.00. It looks cute on my porch and my money looks better in my wallet. Saturday mornings are the best time for garage sales so grab a cup of coffee to go and get in your car. Garage sale listings can be found in the classified ad section of your local paper.

Meet Craig:

If you live in a larger metropolitan area, Craigslist.org can save a new home owner a ton of cash. Listings are categorized and dated so you can sift through and find what you are looking for easily. A note of caution here since it is the internet. Do not give personal or financial information out. If it sounds too good to be true than it might be and trust your gut. If you go to pick up a couch and the creepy guy at the door with an ax says its in the basement you might want to rethink picking it up. Take a friend with you and use common sense. You might just come out with a nearly new sectional for seventy five bucks like my neighbor. They decorated their new home for less than a thousand dollars and found many of theirs deals on Craigslist.org.

Get Thrifty:

Check out your local thrift store such as Goodwill or local consignment shops. Great furniture can often be found there. Your town may have a Habitat For Humanity Re-Store such as the one in Omaha. Amazing deals can be found there such as tile, sinks, doors and cabinets. These are items donated by contractors etc and the proceeds go back to Habitat For Humanity. This not only saves you money but helps other people like you become new home owners or first time home buyers.

Knowing what you want and then finding it for less can make home ownership and decorating even sweeter.