Savoring Our Home--Super Low-Budget Decorating

Although a number of recent posts have taken us exploring--and I do love exploring, I also am very happy curling up at home. We care about our surroundings and enjoy beauty and serenity in our home. However, we have other budget priorities than costly decorating and do not care to spend money on home "accessories". After all, we have the usual stash of antique china, tea cups, candle holders, and such which have come down to us from our families--plus lovely gifts we have received over the years and special objects which remind us of journeys or family occasions. We don't need more stuff!

However, sometimes we like a change or feel that a particular wall or table top needs a different look. So, we "shop" around the house. One day, I decided that the lamp on my night stand had to go--wrong height for reading far into the night, wrong style for the spot, etc. Stalking through other rooms, I found the perfect lamp--by a chair in our little den. Of course, then the den needed a lamp, and the bedroom reject was wrong for that spot. But, guess what? The reject looked super in the guest room. And so on. By the time my husband came home, 5 or 6 lamps had migrated to new locations. He agreed (he can be good that way) that all of them looked better than before. 

100% free decorating! What could be better--or more "everyday creative"? Try it with some of your smaller pieces. Once you take a hard look around (don't forget closets and cabinets), you may find, as we did, that we had become so accustomed to our "move-in" placement of things that new possibilities hadn't even occurred to us. 

If you rearrange furniture frequently, you already know this and are way ahead of me. I am a complete creature of habit in some ways, and leaving rooms the same way for long periods of time is one of my crusty habits. But occasional creative change is stimulating and cheers me up.

The photo above shows a new look for the buffet in our dining room, which previously held two groupings of small, pretty objects--nice, but a bit cluttered. I wanted a more dramatic piece there, but "shopped" in every room and found nothing taller than 8" that looked right. My husband asked if I had considered the white porcelain vases that had been his mother's. Do you know that they had been on the fireplace mantel for so long that I had not really even seen them as possibilities? To get a bit more height, I splurged on 3 inexpensive artificial flower stalks and now am delighted with our new look. Obviously, this is not the decorating achievement of the decade, but it pleases us and gives the room a fresh, clean look. And that is creative everyday life. 

Question of the day: What might you discover by shopping in your own home? What creative low-cost (or no cost) decorating ideas have you had recently? We would enjoy hearing about them.

By the way, you are welcome to post comments on previous posts. I will see them and respond. Your comments and emails help me know what topics are of interest to readers. Thank you to all of you who have contacted me with feedback.