Inexpensive and Innovative Makeover Ideas

Here are some more of my Inexpensive and Innovative Small Space Makeover Ideas!

With the tumultuous financial market many people are not in the position right now to move into a new home or do that big renovation they’ve been counting on. So they might need to focus on some small design ideas that can update the look of what they’ve already got! The name of the game here is re-use, re-purpose and recycle! Rather than going out and buying and
acquiring more stuff why not save some money (as well as the planet) and update items you already have, find at a flea market, thrift store or maybe even items you’re not using that are laying around in your attic or garage!

With the uneasy economy these are some fresh ideas to add style to your space that are inexpensive and might help you look at items you already have and rethink the way you use them!

Quick Cost Conscious Design Ideas

These dramatic and simple ideas will help you transform your space using items you may already have and they’ll give you a lot of bang for your buck!

Perk up your pieces with paint!

You know that hand-me-down wall unit from your parents or that coffee table you found at a yard sale – it’s some sort of weird gold oak color that you hate, update the look by painting it!
If you don’t love it as it is, go ahead and give it an inexpensive face lift. Now I’m not recommending you do this to the table you received as a family heirloom from your grandmother, but for furniture that’s not super sentimental or valuable, I say go for it! If you have loads of mismatched pieces of furniture, you can update the look and create a cohesive design by painting them all the same color. Painting furniture white gives it that shabby chic or beachy look, painting pieces high gloss black or chocolate brown can look fresh, modern and chic.

Create an inventive headboard

Use an old door, an Asian screen or an old shelving unit, paint it and mount it to your wall over your bed, it will add height and scale to your space. You could also hang some drapes
where the wall meets the ceiling behind your bed, this adds a luxurious feeling as well as creates the sense of a cozy little haven!

Reface shelving units, drawers or tabletops with wallpaper

There are tons of cool wallpapers out there that add texture and depth and dimension to your space. They are inexpensive but pack a style punch! Line the back inside area of a shelving unit, or cover a tabletop or desk with it.
You could also cover drawer faces of an old dresser or cabinet with the seagrass wallpaper, add some new knobs or hardware and it will update the look of what you already have.

Bring in the Green

Rather than go out and buy accessories this fall bring in twigs and branches from your yard or a park. Fill an old clear vase with moss and smooth river rocks and place the twigs in the vase, it will be light and airy but you’ll still get a kick of green from the moss
and it will last a long time!

Create a new inspiring workspace

Take an old door or an old piece of wrought iron gate, flip it on its side and rest it on basic sawhorse legs. Paint the sawhorse legs the same color as you paint the door or gate. Have a piece of glass cut to fit on the top of the desk which is pretty inexpensive and if the door has panels this allows you to have a flat, sleek surface to work on. Use the hole that’s left from where the doorknob
was as a place to pull computer cords etc.

Low Commitment Canopy

Make a bed canopy by hanging 4 drapery rods from the ceiling over your bed and hang floor to ceiling drapes on rings in the corners where each drapery rod meets, if you don’t have drapes, twin bed sheets work just as well!

Painted Wall Blocks

A way to incorporate a bold wall color in a room is to just paint out what I call a “frame area”, this would be an area around your headboard, or a piece of artwork or a hat collection – anything that’s going up on your wall, and you basically paint a box on the wall a bold color that will surround the object. For example, you have three 16” x 20” framed pictures you’re going to hang on your wall so you decide where you want to hang them (maybe over your headboard!) and then you paint three 20“x 24” boxes on the wall a rich color that will highlight the frame. Then you hang the pictures with an even amount of color all the way around and you’ve introduced some bold color without taking over your entire room!

Instant Headboard

Use three large poster frames and frame your favorite wallpaper, posters or even your own artwork in them. Then hang all three of them on the wall behind your bed and you’ll have an instant, inexpensive and dramatic headboard. This also works well with different wallpaper patterns in each frame. Just make sure the different patterns use the same color schemes or it will look like a circus!

Fab Framed fabric

If there are pieces of special fabrics you have you can give them a fresh look and create some custom artwork by framing them in contemporary frames and hanging them in a grouping on the wall. Be bold and have some fun, when you get tired of one or two of the fabrics it’s easy and cheap to change them out!

Wall of the Worlds

Add scale to a small room by using an old (large scale) atlas as wallpaper on one wall. You can hang shelves OVER the wallpaper to break up the pattern or hang pictures on top of it as well. It’s not expensive but can add a great design sense to your space!

Bench Shelving

If you have old picnic benches or any benches, for that matter, stack them on top of each other and attach them together at the base of the legs by screwing them into the tops of the lower benches. Stack 3 or 4 on top of each other and you will have created a cool shelving unit. Secure the top bench to the wall so you know it’s staying put and not toppling over.