How to Decorate Your Dream Home on a Budget

It’s about to be a new year and with that comes reflection + planning. Let this be the year you create and manifest the home of your dreams! Creating the home of your dreams can seem daunting and way too expensive when you first start planning. I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be! I’m a mama, photographer, content creator, and holistic healer. So creating the space of my dreams was essential to my brand, my mental health, and I had a lot of fun doing it. BUT I didn’t have an endless budget to do so! It’s always my goal to remind those of you who have forgotten – that life is magical. Where you live and spend most of your time should be just as magical! So today, we’re going over my 6 steps to decorating your home on a budget and creating the space of your dreams, without going bankrupt! 

Keep it Minimal

My first tip when you start decorating your home on a budget is keeping things minimal. A minimal home is a clean home and an aesthetic home! The less you have to put away or readjust every time you clean, the easier and more aesthetic your home will look on a daily basis.

If you have a hard time getting rid of things, put your least liked items or things you think you’d want to get rid of in storage bins. Put them out of sight for a couple months. Then come back and open it up. If you don’t feel attached to it or don’t think you’d use it, its time to let it go! This is also a great way to give your space a little refresh every so often. Maybe you’ll think of an idea for it after a few months!

Go look up Marie Kondo and follow her rules! Her philosophy helped me a lot when I was decluttering my home. As an organization lover, decluttering is one of my favorites. And keeping only the things I truly love means having room to buy more!

Stick to One Temperature

Add at Least Two Colors

So what do I mean by “add at least two colors”? Now that you have a plan for the temperature and tone of the room, you have to think about what colors you want to add in. If you have specific pieces you love and want to use in the room then take colors from that and work those into the rest of the room. A monochrome room, while can be gorgeous, is super hard to make work and will require a lot more time and money. That’s why I suggest adding in at least two more colors to be able to decorate the room like you want, with less time and effort from you!

I was in love with the adorable wooden frame signs above our dark wood dresser shown above. When they first came in, I was panicked, not sure how I’d make them work until I realized my bed was the same color. I took it even further and added our natural bassinet nearby, and a few more tan decor pieces on the dresser itself. Now, it all ties in perfectly! I took two different wood colors and made them look like a cohesive space, even though by themselves they weren’t.

Anything looks like it belongs if you add another similar item in the same room, or nearby. I do this a lot on bookshelves, as well. Grab my free guide to see how I use this for bookshelves + other rooms in my house!

Use What You Already Have

This tip is how you’ll save TONS of money creating your space! I once collaborated with an interior designer that didn’t want to incorporate any of my keepsakes. They wanted me to buy everything new – and quick… Uh no way! What’s the point of having a beautiful home if there’s no meaning + feeling behind the things that surround you? There are SO many ways to repurpose and incorporate what you already have. In my guide I go over specific ways you can reuse and repurpose items you already have AND how to make keepsakes, that you don’t want to redo, work in your space!

Follow the Rules

I know, what’s the fun in following the rules? For home decor, sadly, some rules matter. I use the triangle rule all around my house! For some reason, it just works every time. I also love the zigzag rule for bookshelves + shelves. Google a few design rules and pick and choose which are your favorite. You don’t have to pay attention to every rule, but having a few of the same design rules throughout your house helps it feel more cohesive and aesthetic. (Even with all of the same decor pieces!). Some of these rules are game changers! I go over a few more (and more on the triangle rule) in my free guide. Grab the guide here.

Always Have a Plan

This might be the most important tip – PLAN YOUR SPACE. Do not just go out buying all kinds of things you think you love and then try to fit them into a room. Have a plan of action! This will save you time AND money in the long run.

I personally, always start with Pinterest. I make a board for every single room of the house and pull in inspiration. From there, I create a Pages document on my computer. I’ll plan out all my ideas and pull in images from Pinterest. When I was first designing this home, I hadn’t even bought it yet (hello manifestation). But I searched and found the exact pieces that would work in the space and fit my inspiration!

If you have pieces you definitely want to include, but don’t know how – search on Pinterest! I knew I wanted a chair in my room, but didn’t know how to design the small corner. There are images out there of anything + everything. Use Pinterest to your advantage. Take other people’s ideas and make them your own!

Want to dig deeper into making the home of your dreams a reality? Head here to download my free guide to creating a space that you love!

Clean Your Space + It’s Energy

Clean the Energy of Your Home

Now that you’ve started decorating your home on a budget, let’s chat how to keep the space + the energy clean! Sage is the number one thing I use to keep the energy great in my home. There is genuine science that backs this up! A couple other things I love are plants to clean the air, opening the windows as often as possible, and doing yoga + meditation in certain rooms. I know it sounds strange, but doing yoga + meditating in certain rooms can lift the vibration and the energy of the space!

For bettering the smell of my home, I love this room and pillow spray from Hearth & Hand! I used to use Febreze, but it started turning my couch and curtains yellow over time.

Cleaning the Things in Your Home

An aesthetic home can get dirty sometimes too! When you feel like you hate everything in your home, take a minute to declutter, clean, and get things looking fresh + new again before doing anything drastic. Here are some of my favorite ways to keep my home clean and looking new (even with three kids!).

One of the main things I used to find so difficult was keeping whites white. If that’s you, I got you! First off, fabric softener and bleach are your best friend. If those don’t do the trick then try Mrs. Stewarts liquid blueing to prevent things turning yellow and Simple Green on stains. I honestly will even throw in my white shoes and let them air dry when they need a little refresh!

For general cleaning purposes, I keep a spray bottle of 1 tbsp dish soap filled to the top with warm water. I, sincerely, use it on everything! This soap mixture works amazing. Bonus: it’s safe for wood furniture. For countertops and the stove you can leave it on for a few minutes before wiping. For pet stains, add peroxide and pour onto the stain. It will bubble and completely remove the smell and stain.

Now I know what you’re thinking… This woman has three kids and a dog, how are her walls so white? Honestly, I ask myself this daily! I use A LOT of magic erasers. They clean anything on walls, banisters, and cabinets. Also, once a year, I’ll go around the whole house and quickly go over any marks or scuffs. I used the same paint for the entire house so it’s super easy. I personally hate gatekeeping, so for those of you just here to figure out what exact paint color my walls are, I got you. Click here to see the color I used to paint my entire house, except my son’s room.

How to Recreate + Find Inspiration in These Photos

Rather than tell you all these tips and show all these cute pics, then leave ya hanging. I wanted to link some of the specifics in these photos and some of my favorite products + tips. Let’s chat specific product links as well as keeping life a little more aesthetic with kids!

For kids stuff + toys, use baskets to hide unsightly things! Put a blanket on top, and voila it looks like intentional decor. I do this in the living room with our kids’ toys. In the nursery, I also use an ottoman that opens to put kids toys in it. Another option to declutter and hide things you don’t want out is to put things in the drawers of the TV stand. Our’s holds anything from kids shoes, socks, and diapers so we don’t have to go upstairs when we need those things. Keeps them out of sight, but still super accessible. I basically use cubbies + bins everywhere to tuck things away that would make the space cluttered!

One of the quickest ways to make a home look more upscale when you start decorating your home on a budget is to switch out the ceiling lights + ceiling fans. Home Depot has great fans that don’t break the bank. These ones are what I used for our ceiling fans! This is the ceiling fan I used for our nursery. While they aren’t the cheapest, my favorite ceiling lights are from West Elm. This is the one in my dining room, that you’ll see in the gallery below. Ikea has a super cheap dupe for this as well!

To find the specific items I used decorating my home on a budget, head to my LTK! I have everything from my bedroom, office, nursery, and dining room linked over there. (Quick note: certain items I’ve bought for our home aren’t on LTK so I’ve linked dupes and items that are pretty dang close!)

Feeling Stressed?

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, don’t be! It’s really really simple decorating your home on a budget once you get the hang of it and understand what makes things flow together. I’ve given you a few simple tips that should help you while decorating your home on a budget and creating a cozy home, but remember the greatest rule of all when designing YOUR space: THERE ARE NO RULES. I hope this helps you decorate your space + keep it clean. If you loved any or all of these tips, I’d love if you’d leave a comment to let me know! I love creating this kind of content for you, so having your feedback is always appreciated! For more home + healing education, head to my blog!