Moving into Your First Home: Easy Budget Decorating Tips

One of the most startling things when you are moving into your first home and apartment is how much space you have to fill. Anybody who has grown accustomed to moving from bedroom to bedroom will be surprised with the vast amount of space to work with in a first home, and especially when on a tight budget, it can be difficult to fill the space and make it feel cozy.

Budget Decorating Tip: Pick an Accent Color

The easiest way to make your first home feel lived in is to pick an accent color and try to put at least a little of it in every room. Your color should probably not be off-white or tan, but rather something that will stand out and add some brightness to the room. If you already own some items with color, consider selecting one of those colors to work from.

In my first home, the accent color we settled on was deep red because my husband had an area rug his parents had given him that had deep red in it. We got a tablecloth in a similar shade, along with a kitchen floor mat and a throw blanket for the couch. Those four elements did a great job of tying together the front part of our house. We continued the theme into the bedrooms with red curtains and a navy blue comforter to match the secondary color in the area rug.

The benefit of picking and sticking to an accent color is that you can, over time, gather items of that color or colors as you need them. Also, when you move again, you have the freedom of switching around which rooms the items get put in, and you have the benefit of them all matching each other.

Budget Decorating Tip: Hang Large Art

Those large white walls probably shouldn't just have a poster of your favorite band or movie taped to them anymore, but rather should display framed art of some kind. Once you've purchased your basic furniture, assess which walls in your home need art, and think about what colors and feel you want it to have. Then try shopping at thrift stores for framed art (even if it's ugly art, it can be a great price for the frame alone), or buying prints at museum stores and framing them yourself.

If you are artistically-inclined (or have friends who are) and are living in a place where you can paint the walls, you could consider painting a large mural directly on one wall. If you aren't feeling quite that creative, you could at least paint an accent wall to match or complement the accent color you have chosen.

Budget Decorating Tip: Be Creative With What You Have

The most important part to decorating on a budget is to assess what you have and to try to use it in a way that will look beautiful in your new space. If you have spare sets of twin sized sheets, you could turn them into curtains and add some color and familiarity to your home. If you like jigsaw puzzles, put your favorite one together and get some puzzle glue so you can frame it and put it on the wall. There are a number of other ways to decorate your first home while on a tight budget.