Many older people believe they must be limited to fresh paint or new furniture pieces or window treatments, rather than the larger-scale decorating they would like to do.
By following a few tips, keeping an eye open for deals and discounts, and embracing budget-friendly design styles; a home can be attractively and practically re-designed with minimal expenditure.
Money-saving re-design tips
One of the best money-saving tips for any home re-design is to plan carefully the changes that will be made. Start with an ideas board; professional designers always have a book that they present to prospective clients featuring ideas and designs for a variety of rooms.
Search out images in magazines, online and through image pinning sites, pulling designs suitable for the room or rooms being refurbished.
When it comes to renovating the basics of a room, namely the floors and walls, the cost of carpeting and paint can be substantial. Carpet remnants are a good way to go, particularly if more than one room needs to be carpeted.
Many carpet remnants are quite large and the purchase will not break the bank. As for paint, one of the best ways to keep costs low is to take advantage of mixing errors at local paint stores.
Mis-tints, as they are known, are slight variations from a standard mixed color. Purchasing mis-tints in similar colors to those desired and blending them to create a unique paint color can cut the cost of painting multiple rooms by as much as 80 percent.
When it comes to purchasing other types of flooring, such as tiles, parquet or wood planking, taking advantage of clearances and purchasing in volume are the way to go.
Clearance items may be limited but they will definitely be cheap, and a little flexibility in design may make it easy to blend several different woods or tiles together seamlessly.
Many flooring stores and discount outlets will offer deals to anyone purchasing flooring by volume, so keep that in mind as well when selecting flooring.
Energy-efficient updates
Saving money on a redesign is not just about the look of a room, although that is certainly the biggest part of it. Redesign should also be about improving a room or rooms overall, and that means making them more energy-efficient.
This may be obvious in kitchens or bathrooms, where energy-efficient appliances and water-saving units take center-stage. However, windows are a major location where energy-efficiency is decreased, usually due to poor insulation.
Any draft gaps should be sealed and consideration should be given to fitting some form of double-glazing. Updating window treatments can take many forms, including new draperies or curtains, but a money-saving update growing in popularity is the addition of interior or exterior shutters.
Stylish shutters are available for both the exterior and interior of the home in a variety of styles. Exterior shutters offer the greatest amount of insulating protection, keeping the weather away from windows when closed and preventing thermal shock. They also add an additional level of security.
Solid shutters offer the best protection from heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer, but they do not allow for ventilation the way that louvered shutters do.
However, if the shutters are combined with other insulating window treatments such as draperies, than louvered shutters are an attractive and flexible way to go. They can either cover the entire window area or only the lower half, as does the café-style shutter.
