Spring is in the air, and I don't know about you, but something about the fresh air, sunshine, flowers bursting into bloom, grass poking through the earth, makes me want to refresh my wardrobe and home too. But there's no need to run around to Hobby Lobby and Pier 1 Imports. Because I'm a fan of simplicity and living within your means, I gathered ideas for using things you probably already have in your home. It just takes a little creativity and a new perspective!
Don't the bright orange, yellow, and greens look fresh and cheery in the picture above?
Why hide away your bright spring colors in the kitchen? Put your fruit in glass apothecary jars like these
Chateau Tall Covered Botanical Jars Set by Two's Company®
, or arrange them in a pretty bowl and put them where they'll be seen.
3. Use plates and pillows in new places.
I had pretty blue and white dishes wrapped in paper hidden away in the pantry, and empty walls and bare shelves. Putting the plates to use was an easy fix!
Plate easels are just a few dollars at Walmart, or just lean your plates up against the back of a shelf or wall. Place a plate on your coffee table and arrange candles of different heights on it, or hang them on the wall as shown in the picture. If you have a long stretch of bare wall, here's a good solution:
3 Tier Ionic Plate Rack by Spectrum
. Only one plate is on it in this picture, but it holds three.
Gather throw pillows from beds and chairs throughout the house, and mix it up. The pillow you've had on your bed might add a pop of color to the living room, or the pillows on the couch might look great on your bed. Mix and match!
4. Lift and lighten your curtains.
It's an old trick to make your ceilings seem taller: hang your curtains higher. Just moving your curtain rods up a few inches could change the way your room feels, making it seem bigger and more open.
Also, try taking off your valance and leaving just the panels. This little change looks more simple and lets in more light, especially if you have sheers, like in the picture above.
5. Make new curtains without spending a dime.
No need to buy fabric! The curtains in the picture above were made from sheets! Maybe in your spring cleaning you found that you have more sets of sheets than you can use on the beds. Some of them might look great on the windows.
You don't have to get as fancy as the picture above, where they combined sheets and added trim. You could keep it simple with solids or florals, just sliding the sheet onto the rod, or cut and sew two together to make wide stripes, and embellish with some trim.
6. Move your mirror.
These mirrors leaning against the wall make the room double in size, and reflect light from the windows to make it brighter inside. If you have mirrors already, consider hanging them in a new place where they can better reflect light, or set them on the floor against the wall. Experiment to find a new look.
If you have long mirrors, try hanging them over your bed for a new headboard!
7. Use glass containers for displays and centerpieces.
Don't have one of these?
Jars, bottles, cake stands and upside down bowls make inexpensive cloches. Try this versatile jar from
Organize.com
:
Group a display of sprigs of leaves, plants, birds nests, feathers, or easter eggs on a shelf or use as center pieces. Or, display fruit as mentioned in #2.
8. Add splashes of color with scarves.
Take inspiration from your closet for adding color to a room. A scarf draped over a chair or sofa makes an inexpensive throw. Lay it over a table for a new table runner. Or, drape it over your headboard to add some interest.
In the picture for #3, (plates and pillows) it looks like a blue scarf was draped over their round coffee table.
9. Move your furniture.
This hutch looks like something you'd find in a dining room or kitchen, and the chair looks like patio furniture. Walk through your house and patio and look at your furniture with a fresh perspective. Where are you lacking storage or seating? What could be re-purposed to provide it? Where else would it work?
Here's a similar chair to the one in the picture. Where in your house could this one go, besides outside?
10. Use your accessories as decor.
In addition to scarves, you can use your jewelry to decorate. Frame spring colors in shadow boxes, or picture frames without the glass, and hang in your bedroom. Not only will the colors and textures provide works of art for your walls, but seeing the color combinations together will make accessorizing your spring outfits easier!
Here's some more attractive ways to display your jewelry as decor:
11. Give lamps a makeover.
Recover your lampshades with cheery fabric or scrapbooking paper. If you use sheets for new curtains as mentioned in #5, use the pillowcases to recover your lampshades so they match.
For cheap fabric, look through that bag of clothes you cleaned out of your closet. Before you take them to Goodwill, are there any patterns or colors that would make a good lampshade?
12. Frame Fabrics for easy and inexpensive works of art.
In the picture above, vintage handkerchiefs were framed and grouped together for a headboard.
Here's another way of doing it for a more modern look: fabric was stretched over canvases and stapled to the back. You could use fabrics with the same colors but different patterns, or the same exact fabric and different shapes to create different looks.
As mentioned in #11, look through those old clothes you were going to donate or throw out, and see if any colors or patterns would look good as decor.
***
Many of the ideas I gathered from Better Homes and Gardens, and their images inspired some of the others. All the interior decor pictures are from
Better Homes and Gardens unless otherwise stated.
Let's hear from you!
What are your ideas for inexpensive decorating? How are you sprucing up for spring? Let us know in the comments!
is very similar to the one in the picture above: 
