*This is a collaborative post
Renovating can be an expensive endeavour, even if it’s just one room in the house. As we spend a lot of time in our bedrooms, it feels nice to upgrade them to fit with our current interests and to revel in creative freedom. However, the cost of giving a room a complete makeover can be off-putting. With that in mind, here are our top tips for upgrading your bedroom on a budget.
Find Budget Options
A lot of the budget for renovating a bedroom is taken up with purchasing the large pieces of furniture for it, so it is important to find budget options. You can save a lot of money by buying a cheap built-in wardrobe, especially if you put it together it yourself instead of paying a premium for it to be installed. A built-in wardrobe also takes up a lot less space than a regular wardrobe and allows you to work with the shape of the room by fitting the wardrobe into the walls.
On the same note, flat pack furniture is your friend if you are renovating on a budget because it is cheaper and easy to put together at home. You can also buy pretty much anything second hand nowadays thanks to the internet, so you have the option to search online for people selling used furniture. A lot of second-hand furniture looks almost as good as new, so you won’t be sacrificing quality for low costs.
Restore Old Features
Upgrading your bedroom does not have to mean replacing everything in it, especially if you are on a tight budget. It can be very cost-effective to restore old features of the room instead of paying more money to swap them out. For instance, instead of pulling up an old wood floor, you could try purchasing a wood polish to erase years’ worth of wear and damage. Wood finishing is something you can do fairly regularly to keep your old floors looking nice.
Unless you are starting completely from scratch, upcycling is almost always a part of upgrading a room. If you’re going to get a new bed frame or wardrobe, then you could repurpose the wood from the old furniture to make smaller things for the room. This also prevents waste when upgrading a room and means you won’t have to pay for anything that you can make yourself through upcycling.
Add Small Decorations
It is possible to decorate a bedroom in a creative and colourful way at a low price. You can find throw cushions, blankets and rugs for fair prices online or in charity shops. Things like candles, posters and fake flowers are also low cost and make very nice decorations. By adding more small decorations when upgrading your bedroom, you can add different parts of your personality without having to pour your entire budget into buying fewer large decorations.
Plants also make for reliable, interesting decorations. Succulent plants are probably the best choice because they don’t cost a lot at all in garden centres and they don’t require much care at all beyond making sure they get enough light. You could even upcycle old household objects, like cups and pencil pots, into plant plots, allowing you to add a personal touch.
Remember Homemade Touches
Similarly to upcycle and DIY furniture, you can add to the decorations of a room yourself for next to nothing. If you draw or paint then you can display your artwork on the walls. If you enjoy arts and crafts then you can make banners and posters yourself. If you have lots of photos then you can create a collage on the bedroom wall instead of putting them into an album.
You will have to pay for basic things like paint, of course, but you can paint the walls yourself and even add some wall art, stickers, or stick-on wallpaper to give the room more colour and vibrancy. Giving your upgraded bedroom a homemade feel will match the room with your personality and interests, as well as saving a lot of your budget to be spent elsewhere.
By making use of old furniture and adding some new items, you can completely transform your bedroom without spending too much. Renovating is never a cost-free experience, but following these top tips should help guide you towards upgrading your bedroom on a budget.