"Got 100 Bucks? Redecorate Your Space!"

It is understandable that every now and then a person gets tired of their surroundings and wants to make some redecorating changes. If you are on a budget, there are many ways to overhaul the design and look of your home without spending a whole lot. In fact, you can give your space a decorating overhaul for $100 or less! A few inexpensive purchases and a little creativity goes a long way.

1. You don't have to pay a lot to decorate your walls. Take a look at the greeting card section of your local discount department store and you will find some wonderful pictures worth framing. Greeting cards make beautiful little art prints for hallways, bathrooms, and small areas of wall space that just need a subtle eye catching item of decor.

2. Visit your fabric store and buy a piece of fabric you love, using one piece to frame as art, and another piece you can use to make matching sofa pillows or a coffee table placemat. The look will tie together beautifully. Fabric stores often have sale and clearance tables where you can buy a couple of yards or more of material often for $2 or less per yard.

3. Visit your local thrift shop to buy secondhand picture frames you can spray paint or paint as distressed wood. Even old calendars make wonderful prints worth framing. Decorating on a budget is not only easy when it comes to art, it can be fun and extremely affordable.

4. Turn an old teapot or a novelty tin into a vase for silk flowers you arrange yourself. If you need to buy silk flowers, check for seasonal clearance on marked down decorative flowers in large discount department and craft stores.

5. Visit your local dollar store. You will be surprised what beautiful glasses or trinkets or figurines may await you that might make just the perfect touch for a book shelf or fire place mantel. It is also a great place to buy cloth napkins or crocheted doilies if you like the shabby chic look. A true dollar store is where every item in the store costs just a buck. For just $12 you can buy a dozen of anything, and that's a decorating budget deal that can't be beat.

6. Give life to an old dresser by repainting it in colors you want to bring out as a focal point to add color to a room. Before buying any paint, you can ask friends and family if they have any left over paint they won't be needing, and also check your local environmental recycling center, where people have discarded perfectly good paint that isn't being used.

7. Use a serving bowl or platter to hold a variety of candles or small items that makes for an eye catching centerpiece, instead of scattering little things around a room to simply add clutter. It's an inexpensive solution and can provide luxury appeal.

8. Decorate a floor lamp stand by covering it with beautiful ribbon, winding up like a barbershop pole. Ribbon and metallic napkins purchased at drastic reduction sale prices after holidays can be found at craft stores, party stores and large discount department stores.

9. Let your picture frames be used for changing out pictures rather than buying new frames. It's economical and gives you the freedom to change wall and table top art as frequently as you desire while keeping to your strict decorating budget.
10. Look outside for the inspiration of nature. Transform pinecones and twigs into wreaths or dip them in gold paint and fill eye catching baskets to add warmth to a room. Most thrift stores have a section of their store devoted to selling dozens and dozens of beautiful great condition baskets that were once used for gift baskets. It's not uncommon to find a lovely basket for $3 or $4.

11. Use a hot glue gun to decorate clay pots with buttons or glass stones or beads. A hot glue gun is a staple item for those who are crafty and decorating on a budget because it allows you to easily create new things from old and interesting objects. Many glue guns cost less than $10 and a whole bag of glue sticks can be bought for under $2.

12. Look through your old stuff you have stored in the closet or attic or garage. Some treasures may await you that can have new life breathed into them. For example, if you have an old clear glass candy jar you can fill it with shells from the beach, or colorful rocks. You may have old clothes you will never wear again but are made of beautiful fabrics that can be sewn into patchwork curtains or recycled into fabric that covers a can to become a pen holder. The cost is practically nothing and that is great news for anyone decorating on a budget.

13. Dye your curtains a darker or bright color or maybe tie-dye them. The cost of dye is less than $2 and rubber bands cost about a buck, but you probably already have them lying around your apartment or house.

14. Consider re-arranging furniture for a whole new look or functionality, possibly swapping chairs or tables from one room to another to create a mood changing atmosphere. The cost is nothing, it will just take some muscle and the help of a friend.

15. Decorate a straw beach hat with flowers and ribbon and hang it on a wall like art. Check garage sales or ask family members if they have any of these items they no longer want.

16. Make a wind chime out of vintage kitchen utensils.

17. Fill interesting shaped bottles with colored water on top of your kitchen cabinets to add a new complimentary color to the decor.

18. Search the internet for no-sew fabric projects - - there are lots of patterns and ideas for window treatments that require no sewing at all.

19. Buy or make your own potpourri to add both beauty and fragrance to a bathroom. You can find potpourri at your local dollar store or it will cost you nothing to make your own.

20. Hang a cork board or a memory board where you can easily change out little pictures or pin up costume jewelry of a theme that interests you. The cost, if you make your own is less than $10.

The more you open your mind, the more you will see the possibilities of free and inexpensive items you already have or can recycle into decorating treasures. Visit a craft fair for additional ideas. Many expensive crafts are sold retail that only cost pennies to make. It is the clever and creative mind that can turn the ordinary into objects of beauty, by just the right placement or juxtaposition of color.

Change is a good thing and we can improve our home and surroundings with the littlest of objects, colors or texture. There is truth to the old saying that the best things in life are free. What is important is making a home feel like a home, and sometimes it takes just a change of perception. Surround yourself with the colors and things that relax you and enjoy the room you created because it should reflect your personality, not some fleeting trend. Decorating on a budget is an experience that can exhilarate and you will learn that having a small amount of money to work with such a project gives you a feeling of freedom and abundance when you realize just how far a dollar can really stretch with a creative mind.