Designer Nate Berkus' Budget-Friendly Tips For Redecorating Your Home

Redesigning your home to liven up a space you find to be repetitive and dull can be an expensive endeavor. Our minds instantly want to repaint the walls, buy new furniture, and throw out anything that has been collecting dust. But redesigning your house can mean something other than buying new and expensive items or getting rid of anything you might think is humdrum. There is so much viability lying in our homes; just waiting for you to find some innovative way to freshen it up. Take a moment to scroll through Pinterest and reimagine your space based on what you currently own. Download apps like Design Home and play around with different simulations that coordinate with what you have at your fingertips.

There are numerous resources that can advise ways to renew our homes while saving money. American interior designer, author, and television personality Nate Berkus is one, and he has budget-friendly tips that will leave you walking away with a smiling bank account.

In an interview with Oprah, Berkus talks about details and how they occupy most of the space in our homes. When thinking about adding statement pieces to the room, one may immediately think of large-scale items, but realistically, we should be focusing on the smaller ones. Berkus recommends keeping large pieces of furniture, such as sofas, credenzas, and bookcases, on the simpler side. Your eccentric home accents and décor will then work as main pieces in the room that can affordably be mixed, matched, swapped, and switched.

Shop flea markets and thrift stores, turning old vases into toothbrush holders and baskets into wall art. Switch out your lamp shades, picture frames, throw pillows, and coffee table books. Add new plants and fresh flowers to the shelves and console table. Dabble in projects by exploring how to use peel-and-stick wallpaper, which can also be utilized on countertops and table surfaces. Berkus encourages escaping a this-is-how-it's-supposed-to-be mindset. When reorganizing, ask yourself if your bedroom furniture would look nice in the living room or if this loveseat would create an exciting riff in the dining room. It is easy to think specific furniture has to go in particular rooms, but that is certainly not the case, and it dramatically caps the limitless creativity we have.

There are endless and affordable things we can add to invigorate a room. Berkus tells Oprah that you can emphasize what you already own by adding bold colors and patterns that breathe a forgotten vibrancy into the room. He strongly suggests cleaning up old furniture covered by stains or tears with sofa covers. Slipcovers are one more area where you can play with colors and patterns, painlessly switching to new designs once you get bored of the current.

However, he also explains that you can invent a revitalizing look by adding nothing new into the mix. Once again, walk away from the inclination that an item must be used for its intended purpose. Berkus explains that you can take an ottoman that feels lifeless just sitting at the end of the couch and make it into a side table, or consider DIY projects that turn doors into coffee tables and tables into comfortable benches. Nothing has to be anything we don't want it to be. Realizing this will save money and give us imaginative, one-of-a-kind ways to design our homes.

Berkus believes that one of the best ways to save money when decorating your home is to make an initial investment in pieces and construction. To save money by exchanging accent pieces around centerpieces for a revived look, the focal points need to be long-lasting. "Spend money on items that have a big decorative impact and go basic in construction materials," Berkus told My Domaine. "Think plain subway tile with a set of beautiful towels or a small and interesting vintage table next to a simple white bathtub."

He doesn't recommend being scanty on essential pieces such as countertops and appliances. At some point, replacing substantial elements will begin to outweigh the cost you would've paid for durable, well-made items. One final piece of advice that Berkus gave Pop Sugar is to simply keep up with cleaning. It is much easier said than done, but most will find that they enjoy their spaces more and tire of them less quickly if they are kept tidy. Take care of your space and belongings because there is always a new way to rearrange and repurpose them.