Redecorate Your Home at No Cost

No budget. No problem. Redecorating and reinventing your space is exciting and can give new energy and emotion to a room. Not everyone has the finances to put a new face on tired window treatments, furniture or accessories. Everyone, however, can make a new statement by reinventing the items they already own.

Color will give you the biggest bang for your buck every time. Stealing items from other rooms in the house can not only improve the space your working in but also help to make the accessory item look completely different and new again. If you have an old basket in the den that is overflowing with magazines, take the magazines to the library to be reused, then use that same basket in the bathroom to hold towels or wash cloths. If you put the towels with the most color in the basket you are on your way to creating a color scheme for your bath. Now run with that color, take a walk through your home and only look for those colors. Do you see vases that can hold flowers from the yard or a candle? Perhaps you have a small dish of some sort in the kitchen that can be used to hold soaps or toothbrushes. Even twigs from a tree look great and if you have left over spray paint from another project in the right colors then spray the twigs and put in a cheap vase or tall glass.

I have used sheets many times to give my windows a lift when there just wasn't any money to invest in new ones. The top part of the sheet makes a great sleeve for the curtain rod and they're nicely hemmed on the bottom and when you get tired of them you can wash them and put them on the bed. Recycling again. Take a look at clothing you are tired of before you throw it out. If you outgrow or tire of a particular piece of clothing but love the material use it to cover a throw pillow you already own that needs a makeover. Just because you bought it as a shirt doesn't mean it has to forever be a shirt. Don't forget throws that once kept your feet warm at night. If you have blinds on a window you can drape a throw over the top and make a valance with it. Get creative and break the rules!

Before you discard old calendars look through the pictures and see if any would fit your decor and put them in frames you already own. If you want a more modern look then make a black and white copy of it with your printer and you will have a cool updated version of the same image. So many of us have digital cameras now and computers. Get outside and take pictures of your own foliage or landscapes and print and frame them. A collection is a group of 3 or more items. Make a collection of three different colored fall leaves and frame them for your dining room wall. Now when spring arrives there's no guilt when you replace them with beautiful tulips and daffodils. Even if they're from someone else's yard.

Office and work spaces should get their decor reshuffled every now and then as well, it invites creativity and motivation and a feeling of a new job. Bring things from home you are tired of. You will be amazed how much you will enjoy it again in a different environment. Almost every office has a copier. Take your camera to work and take pictures of office things such as paper clips in a pile on a table, or a cup of ink pens then blow them up on the copier and frame them for a contemporary feel. If you don't have a camera or aren't that creative you can always visit this photography website at naturesthumbprint.com and download free nature photos to your computer and print them and hang them on your wall. They are offering free downloads until Christmas '07.

Flooring can be a large investment and working on a project with no budget there's no finances for new carpet. Use area rugs from other rooms or ask family and friends for flooring they may have grown tired of. You can always stencil a nice design on a plain rug to look like a new one. For inspiration you can look at rug stores on the internet. I use arearugsbymccalls.com as my inspiration at McCalls Floormart on the net.

I hope this was helpful and will inspire you to look at things not as they were intended necessarily but what they can become.