Try This Decorating Refresh Without Spending a Cent

If you are like me, you may be feeling the urge to make a few changes in your home’s decor right about now as the season of the year will soon change.

This year I have a challenge for you to try before you feel the need to buy something new to refresh a room or space.

I just took the challenge myself and couldn’t be happier with the results that made a big impact and didn’t cost me anything except 15 minutes of my time. Yep that is right… free and just a small amount of time. So little time that you can try it yourself right after reading this post.

Take My Decorating Challenge

If you have been living in your home for years like I have in mine, your decor can become static. You own nice furnishings and decorate to suit your personal style, but when we place furnishings in a room, we tend to keep them in the same place.

Swapping Lamps

Do you remember when I painted a thrift store lamp to resemble a $400 one from Serena & Lily?

It came out great and was perfect on the top of the bedside cabinet in one of the guest rooms in my house. It has been in this spot for 3 years.

It wasn’t until I was cleaning the room this past week that it dawned on me that that I love this lamp, but rarely see since I don’t go into the room very much.

Why not see what the lamp looks like in my blue and white bedroom? So I swapped it with a blue glass lamp in my bedroom. WOW! The lamp looks just as nice in my bedroom and I will get to enjoy seeing it every single day now.

I placed the glass lamp (that I don’t like as much) that was in my bedroom into the guest room where it looks fine for a room that doesn’t get that much use.

One of the reasons swapping out furnishings from room to room to refresh a space works is that even though each of the rooms in our homes may look different or have a different color scheme, our overall decorating style tends to be the same.

Swapping Two Pieces of Furniture

When you swap two pieces of furniture from room to room it can make an even bigger impact in a room than a lamp can.

When changing my studioffice into a multi-purpose room recently, I couldn’t fit one of the base cabinets that was half the base of the worktable into the new furniture layout.

I like this cabinet, but didn’t have any room for it or a space to store it anywhere in the house. Not wanting to get rid of it, I took a walk through all the rooms in my house to see if I could figure out a new role for it… and I did.

I swapped the base cabinet out with a blue painted sideboard that fit the space along the wall, but didn’t go well in the room. Not to confuse you, but that blue sideboard that I swapped, I had swapped before years ago when I wanted to make changes in my entry foyer. Keep reading to see this.

The base cabinet is deeper than the sideboard and has plenty of space for the lamp and shade. Its finish looks nice as it is, but I am going to strip it so it matches another piece of furniture I have in this guest room that is actually the top of the base cabinet.

See the glass cabinet on the marble topped painted sideboard? After moving from my previous house where this photo was taken, this sideboard became a powder room sink cabinet in my current house. The glass cabinet is the top for the base cabinet I just moved from the studioffice to the guest room.

As you can see, I have been swapping out furnishings from room to room and creating new functions for pieces to fit my needs for years as it is one of the best low budget ways to decorate and refresh a room or your entire home.

I just started the stripping process on the painted base cabinet that is now going to function as a dresser in the room. I am not going to place them together, but I would like them to match again.

Funny I have had these pieces of furniture since Ed and I got married. They were hand-me-downs from Ed’s parents and have had many different functions over the years.

As a budget conscious decorator, you can see I made use of what I already owned and am still doing it. :-)

Swapping Dressers

This white piece of furniture was once the bottom of a hutch I had in the dining room of my previous home. It became a dresser in the guest room in my current home.

When we first moved to my current home, I placed a blue sideboard in the foyer. It made sense to do this as the piece was in the foyer of my previous house. It worked great in that foyer, but was too small and out of proportion for the two story foyer my current house has.

At the time I didn’t want to buy any new furniture and just lived with the too small piece. It took me 5 years to realize I already had a piece of larger furniture that would be perfect in the foyer and one that was being underserved in the guest room.

So I swapped the blue sideboard for this white dresser from one of the guest rooms. It looks as if it was meant for the space.

You may be asking yourself, “where did you put the blue sideboard?” since it no longer has a room to store or use it, I donated it to my favorite thrift store after I had no takers after asking family and friends if they wanted it. It was never a favorite piece, so I was OK donating it for someone else to use to decorate their home.

Try Swapping Out Furnishings In Your Rooms

As you can see, swapping out furniture is one decorating method I have always used to not only refresh a space, but to create new functions for rooms when needed.

If you feel a room or space in your home could use a refresh and a dose of new energy without having to buy something new, take a tour of your home. Look at everything with new eyes from photo frames on a tabletop to larger pieces of furniture and envision them not only in a different room, but used in a totally new way. You may be surprised what you come up with.

Know that not every swap will look good or work as you think it may, but it is a fun process that may just open your eyes to possibilities.