I believe that the number one way to make a home look put together on a budget, is to focus on a neutral colour scheme. Decorating and styling a home can be difficult on a limited budget, especially if you need a lot of new furniture and the layout of the rooms are hard to decorate in an optimal way.
I had this experience myself when I moved into our current home last year. I had a lot of ideas for the space, but a lot of ideas tends to come with a heavy price tag. I wasn’t interested in putting a lot of money into our home since it’s probably not going to be our forever home. But I still wanted a home that looked put together. In the first 6 months, I discovered that the easiest way in achieving this was to focus on a neutral colour scheme. Specifically, whites, taupe, beiges and greys.
Here are some of the reasons why I believe focusing on neutrals will enable you to make your home look put together on a budget.
1. Less options gives more clarity
When you are decorating a new space, you have all the options in the world as to how it can look, the choices are endless. But sometimes all the choices can make your head spin and it’s difficult to know where to start. What colors actually work well together? How bold should the style be? Should I go with cool or warm colours or can I mix them? How will the space be influenced by the different colours? These are questions that might be difficult to answer when you are decorating a room for the first time.
If you decide to only focus on neutrals and whites, you will avoid a lot of the mistakes that you can make when you decorate for the first time and you are not sure about the space. It makes it easier to go into a furniture or home decor store without feeling overwhelmed and find items that work together. Your focus only needs to be on the neutrals. Having less choices in the process can make it more clear what you should bring into your home.
2. Neutrals are great on budget
Another reason to focus on neutrals when you are on a budget, is that budget items tends to not look as cheap when they are in neutral colours than items with colours. For example, white bedding on a bed will always look tasteful, even if it’s bought from a budget retailer. A blue bed cover however can easily look cheap.
Neutrals tends to not draw to much attention and you can therefore get away with the items not being of the best quality. A perfect example is a large item like a sofa. If the sofa is of a neural colour it can enhance items around it, such as a coffee table, book or flowers. The same effect may not occur with a green, blue or orange coloured sofa as it will likely take the attention.
3. IKEA – a neutral colour scheme dream
Another great reason to focus on neutrals when decorating on a budget is that major budget home retailers like IKEA are brilliant for these types of colours. At IKEA, most items can be found in white (or black). This makes it easy to keep within the budget but still make your home look put together.
I would recommend to buy white IKEA furniture when it comes to sofas, table, dining chairs, cabinets, shelves and chest of draws. Then you can add other neutrals like tans, beiges and greys to smaller fabrics, like pillows, rugs, blankets and chair covers.
4. Makes the home light an airy
Another great reason to focus on neutrals and whites, is that these kinds of colours makes a room light and airy. A neutral colour scheme can make a room seem bigger than what it really is. This is especially important if the room is small and/or dark like a room in the basement or an attic. Focusing on bringing light into a room and a home is always a good idea to make it appear in the best possible way.
5. Perfect base for adding future colour
Perhaps one of the best reasons I like to focus on neutrals like whites, beiges and tans in the beginning, is that you can always layer additional colour later. You can always add an accent colour in any colour you like at any point if your home consists of whites and beiges. Any colour works well with light neutrals. From blue to yellow. Green to red. Even black. Ultimately, this can provide a great foundation to add in colors throughout the year and changing seasons.
So, at the point you are comfortable to start experimenting with colour, you are all set to bringing it into your home without needing to remove any of the items you have already brought in.
These are my tips of getting a home look put together on a budget. What are yours?
Check out another blog post on how to decorate a white bed
