One of the best ways to enjoy the excitement of the holiday season is to decorate your home accordingly. Decorating doesn’t have to be elaborate or expensive! Craft stores, magazines and the Internet (hello, Pinterest!) offer a plethora of creative, cheap and easy ways to spruce up your living space and get in the spirit of the holidays.
Use these top tips for decorating your home on a budget, and put the money you save on decor toward buying a beautiful gift for yourself or a loved one.
1. Use Your Natural Resources
If you look outside you can probably find quite a few decorating ideas right in your own backyard. Spray-paint pinecones with a sparkly gold color, or use a mixture of glue, water and glitter for a more dramatic effect. Arrange the pinecones in a basket or bowl, which you can add to a side table or coffee table for visual interest.
Or, take a few evergreen boughs and either spray-paint them to give them some glitz, or display them au naturel on your hearth and enjoy their fragrance. Plain dry branches can also be spray-painted and adorned with ornaments.
Fruits are another wonderfully festive treat. After collecting your bounty, fill a glass vase or bowl with bright pieces of citrus or string cranberries into a garland to hang in your living room. Their sweet smell is an added bonus!
2. Display Holiday Cards
Holiday cards can be easily (and cheaply) repurposed into decorations for your home. The holiday-friendly themes, like snowmen, Christmas trees, angels and bows, make cards a natural addition to any room. Even better if the cards feature the smiling faces of your friends and family! Using clothespins, attach old saved cards or this year’s batch to a string or slim stick and suspend it between two vases on your mantel.
3. Light Up a Room
String up twinkly lights around the perimeter of a room or hang them from a chandelier to instantly perk up the space. Another creative way to add light to a room is to stick white tapered candles in clear, empty wine bottles for a more dramatic display. (Place saucers underneath the bottles to collect the wax when the candles are lit.)
4. Spruce Up Window Treatments
You don’t necessarily have to change out your curtains; simply add beautiful holiday-themed accents like icicles, wreathes and candles to your window display. Mistletoe is another fun touch!
Or, if you’re inclined to swap out your drapes for a more seasonal style, Black Friday sales are a great time to purchase window treatments and other home accessories at a great price.
5. Add Holiday Touches in Unexpected Places
Dress up your kitchen cupboards with patterned wrapping paper that can be easily removed after the New Year. Cut the paper to fit the front of the cabinet and the back shelves; then, use double-sided tape to secure in place.
Stack red, green or white bath towels and tie them together with a fancy ribbon to add some “gifts” to your bathroom decor.
6. Festoon Your Front Door
The traditional way to decorate the front door is with a large wreath or a poinsettia plant. Instead of spending too much money on an elaborate wreath, buy a simple one and decorate it yourself with small jingle bells, ornaments, ribbons or fake berries.
7. DIY Stockings
Buy cheap pieces of felt at a craft store and find a pattern online to create your own stockings. Once the basic stocking shapes are cut out, decorate with glitter, sequins and puffy paint, and string them down the banisters or around the fireplace.
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Author Bio: Stephen Reynolds is a freelance journalist who covers shopping, entertainment and all things lifestyle. He is also an editor at www.upwardonward.com. Follow him on Twitter at @sreynoldswrites.
