Kat’s Money Corner: Budget-friendly room revamps

Summer can seem like the perfect time to work on improving your yard, but when the mercury hits triple digits, it’s time to head inside. So put that outdoor landscaping project on hold and revamp a room that’s dragging your spirits down. With seasonal deals coming up, you can alter a space at a minimal cost.

Invest

Splurge on some new furniture. You won’t have to splurge too much, because late summer is a great time to find deals on furniture and interior decor. Don’t think in terms of the entire room – new accent chairs, an area rug or a coffee table can perk up a living space just as much as a costly couch.

Upcycle

Take a bookshelf upscale. Whether it’s a new one or a repainted garage sale find, a bookshelf is more than mere storage. Dedicate more than half the space to decorative vases, vacation souvenirs or those knickknacks you’ve never known what to do with, and make your bookcase a focal point. Some people arrange books by the color of the spines for extra pizzazz.

Rearrange

Whether or not you buy new pieces, rethinking a room’s layout can change your whole perspective – and it’s free. Before you start lugging heavy furniture around, make a schematic on graph paper and cut out miniature blocks representing all your furniture, then play around with new designs for the space.

Paint

When in doubt, paint. Paint has long been a low-cost way to brighten a room. You don’t even have to redo every wall. Consider adding stripes or an accent wall in a brighter, darker complementary color. It might seem like a speedy solution, but take your time taping off your area and draping everything to protect it. You’ll save yourself headaches when it’s time to break out the brushes and rollers.

Accessorize

If you’re happy with all your furniture and you don’t feel like painting, look around the edges of your room. Is it time to swap out those officious miniblinds for some curtains with a little more personality? Are your lamps switching your mood to bored? Have your accent pillows fallen flat? Keep your eye out for sales and you could introduce new colors into your life without breaking a sweat.

DIY

If you’re bored staring at the same old images on your walls, take on a DIY project with personal meaning. Black-and-white prints of ancestors, a series that shows children growing up, or even vacation snapshots take on a classy, eclectic feel when mounted in creatively mismatched frames you can find at garage sales, or even in your own garage. Group them tightly together on a wall for maximum effect.

Start Small

The easiest room redo of all might be a bathroom refresh. All you need is a new shower curtain and bath mat to feel like you’re in a new space. If your towels are showing wear, wait for a sale and buy some better quality ones. They don’t even have to be a matching set: Pick and choose complementary hues from the clearance bin and have some fun.

We like to redo a room at a time. This summer we built a pergola for our outdoor space and added a new rug and accent pillows. We hung solar lights with white curtains. Sure, our curtains are really much cheaper white sheets, but they look the same. A few simple additions gave us an extra room to enjoy this summer.

Kat's Money Corner is posted on Dollars & Sense every Tuesday. Kat Hnatyshyn, when not blogging or caring for her little ones, is a manager with CommunityAmerica Credit Union. For more financial chatter, click http://twitter.com/savinmavens or visit http://communityamerica.com.

This story was originally published July 26, 2016 at 9:37 AM with the headline "Kat’s Money Corner: Budget-friendly room revamps."