Budget & Saving

Joseph picked this dresser up for $10 at a local thrift store, but wanted to do something special before it found a permanent home in his bedroom. After a lot of sanding, here’s what he came up with… Honk your horn if you like the final result! Joseph went to great lengths to complete the look: the four tail lights are from a 1958 Impala and the drawer hardware is actually old Buick door handles he cut down to fit. He found them all on eBay.

Certain decor doesn’t transition well from college to more grown-up digs, and your futon is one of them. Which makes this a good hack for folks who don’t want to get rid of the one they currently own, or spend the money on a new sofa. Elizabeth shows you how to do it with IKEA’s GRANKULLA, but you can use any similar type of wooden futon. To make this new daybed happen, Elizabeth disassembled the futon, made a few modifications, and then reconstructed it into a different shape.

As upcycled projects go, this one is pretty impressive. Using recycled wooden pallets, Jack created a piece of DIY furniture that barely resembles its former life as industrial supplies. It also has a special feature that’s as surprising as it is inventive! Jack deconstructed the pallets to create this modern, angled coffee table, complete with a glass top from IKEA. And not only is this table nice looking, it’s also collapsible, making it great for small spaces.

Sandy grew tired of her painted birch tree entryway, and needed to switch it up. A quick trip to the hardware store and $28 later, she created a completely new look. Check out what she did and see what you think… Sandy bought four packs of shims and covered the wall from floor to ceiling with cedar. Here’s Sandy with the details on how she did it: Start at the top left hand corner of your wall.

Kristine picked up a couple of small cheap laminate dressers for $25 (one is pictured above), with an ambitious plan in mind for them. This is no makeover, or simple paint job — it’s a full on transformation. Click to see what they become… What’s amazing about these cabinets is the level of detail that went into the project. They look aged and weathered, have bronzed label holders, and now look like multi-drawer antique cabinets instead of cheap three-drawer dressers.

Whether you’re battling dry skin, tending to a sore throat, or just trying to keep germs at bay, rosemary oil is an excellent remedy for what ails you this winter. Check out just a few of our favorite uses and consider adding it to your health and wellness arsenal! Rosemary has been used medically for centuries as an antiseptic, an aid in digestive and respiratory health, and in skincare.

To pull off a truly spectacular IKEA hack, you need tools, talent and an unflappable vision. You need to be able to look at a footstool and see a shelving unit. Can you tell what IKEA products inspired each of these nearly unrecognizable hacks? Workspace shelving from Dutch magazine vtwonen, made from a FROSTA stool. This table was crafted from an ANTONIUS laundry hamper by The Clever Bunny.

Good news. The New York Public Library has just added hi-res versions of tens of thousands of its public domain digital holdings and they invite you to use them however you like. Print and frame them for your walls, work them into homemade party invitations, basically, use and remix them to your heart’s content. Here are a few of my favorites: A vibrant blue cyanotype would be striking to frame for your wall.

I thought I’d already found the best example of a BILLY hack already —these built-ins from Gwen of Makerista, which we posted early last year. Then this project came to my attention, and I’ve made room in my heart for two loves instead of just one. Kristina of Ich Designer created a series of these sliding doors for her BILLY bookcases. They move on casters with the help of a u-shaped channel she affixed to the front of the shelves. IKEA bar pulls complete the job.

If you’ve ever embarked upon (or even have just priced out) a remodel, you’ll realize that flooring is one of those things that seems like not much of a big deal but can actually add up to a whole, whole lot of money. So today we’re taking a look at inexpensive flooring choices: ones that initially may not seem particularly glamorous, but might actually wind up looking really great — and saving you a lot of money in the process.

Even when you’re dealing with a small space, a bathroom remodel has the potential to add up to a lot of money really quickly. But the good news, if you’re considering a renovation, is that not everything that looks great has to cost a lot of money. Here are eight examples of affordable materials looking great in the bathroom.

Few things in the world of design are more polarizing than brightly colored bathroom tile. The bright pink (and yellow, and green, and blue) tile that was so popular in vintage bathrooms has been the curse of homeowners pretty much ever since. But lately, the pendulum has started to swing back in the opposite direction, and a few enterprising (or maybe just cash-strapped) remodelers have made the bold choice to update their bathroom but keep all that delicious tile.

Sarah Kahl’s house in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago has four bedrooms on two finished floors. But she wants to get more out of the wide-open semi-finished basement. There’s already plumbing for a powder room, but Sarah wants a full bath down there. Her budget is $15,000 for everything. In this series, expert Alex Bandon answers your specific renovation questions.

Saving money on a remodel is easier said than done. There’s a delicate balance between time, money, and quality, and you rarely get all three. But over the years, my husband and I have developed a few tried and true methods for reducing the budget while not sacrificing on quality. Here are seven money-saving strategies to implement on your next remodel. 1. Update existing materials instead of replacing them.

If the cold weather has you spending a little extra time in your bedroom, and all that time in the bedroom has you looking at your space with a more critical eye, we’ve got a few ideas. Some rooms just start out beautiful, with lovely hardwood floors and high ceilings and intricate moldings. But if you’re like most people, your bedroom probably falls a bit short of an Italian Palazzo, or even an Anthropologie catalog shoot.

My friend Joseph has a beige bathroom and asked me to come over and help him do something — anything — to make it better and I jumped at the chance. Because one less beige bathroom in the world is no bad thing. He’s a renter, so it couldn’t cost a lot, and everything needed to be 100% temporary. (You know those pesky security deposits and how they don’t get returned when you make permanent changes.

Joseph's bathroom had some decent bones, but needed a light and renter-friendly makeover. See what we did...

Renters rejoice.

When you see where this minimal and modern guest suite and family remodel started, it’s hard to believe where it ended up. But through a ton of hard work, a lot of DIY and an intense attention to detail, Suzanne and Peter were able to renovate their 258-square-foot garage on a tight budget. Suzanne details much of the remodel in their tour, but she has more wisdom to share. Below, in her own words, are some of the most important things to remember when you’re taking on a renovation.

Ask the average person and they’ll tell you more kitchen counter space is never a bad thing. For about $160, Ashley of The Gold Hive added over 10 feet of additional work surface to her existing setup, which gave her more prep space, added flexibility, and filled in some awkward visual gaps in her kitchen’s current layout. If you’re a renter, or just don’t want to spend a bunch of money, check out her three very do-able and very affordable methods.

And all for less than $1 per square foot.

There’s kitchen remodeling —which requires all sorts of advance planning, wrangling budgets, and hiring contractors —and then there are the quick and easy facelifts you can do yourself. If the mood strikes you one week, and you suddenly can’t take your ugly floor or countertop any more, try out one of these super inexpensive, off-the-shelf kits. For under $100, your kitchen can get a brand new look, often in just an afternoon.

When you’re planning a renovation, there’s always push and pull over what you want versus what you can afford. Do you pull the trigger and spend more than intended on some expensive tile you fell in love with, or do you stick to your guns, and your budget? Turns out that this one decision affects your overall happiness with the finished project.

While looking for matte black fixtures for a recent bathroom makeover, I had a hard time finding affordable, in-stock options from the usual places. Lighting with a black finish? No problem. Cabinet pulls? Everywhere. But searching for sink faucets yielded only a few good results. Then I figured out the trick and duh. It’s so easy it’s stupid. Black faucets are such a nice change of pace from ubiquitous chrome, or even the brushed brass we’ve seen so much of lately.

There are basically three different ways to get cabinets into your kitchen. You can have them custom-built to fit the space. This is very expensive. You can get pre-made cabinets delivered, already assembled, and install them yourself (or have a contractor do it for you). This is less expensive. Or you can order ready-to-assemble (RTA) kitchen cabinets, and assemble them yourself. This is the most budget-friendly option of all.

Pilling on fabric is no good. It makes clothing and furniture look worn and tired, like it needs to be replaced. I certainly felt that way about this yellow chair before the most epic fabric de-fuzzer showed up on my doorstep. Friends, here me when I say this: This is the most satisfying $12.99 you’ll ever spend on a home-care appliance. I knew this type of tool existed, but I didn’t know how amazing the results would be when used on upholstery fabric.

Considering a renovation? A recent article recommends that while you’re filling your home with dust, debris, dropcloths, construction noises, paint fumes, and skilled (and therefore expensive) workers, you might as well get everything done while you’re at it. How Remodeling More Than One Room Can Save Money by Jeb Breithaupt was published in the Shreveport Times, and it raised a few intriguing points. Let’s go through them one by one to see if they might apply to your project.

Bathroom makeovers are unmitigated pleasure — you get all the instant satisfaction of seeing a beautiful new space, without all the painting, tiling and building work. So, if you just want a quick fix this week, or need a little inspiration for your own home projects, take a gander at some of our favorite budget transformations from this year. It’s incredible how much can be done with very little.

It’s the beginning of the year, when self-reproach runs rampant, and shame oozes from the pores of everyone around us. Either we spent too much money last year, ate too much, or didn’t get around to joining the gym. But, really, nobody’s got time for that kind of guilt. Here are a handful of folks who unapologetically altered their rentals to meet their needs, and filled their apartments with things they love.

See it defy its very humble origins.

Say you want a new look in your kitchen. And you have a budget of $8,000. This may seem like a lot of money (and Trulia tells us it’s what the average person wants to spend), but in the world of kitchen remodels it’s definitely on the low end of the scale. (Intrepid remodelers Claire and Jeffrey, who shared their kitchen renovation with us, finished the whole thing for just $8,720, but that involved a lot of budget choices and a whole lot of DIYing.

Taking on a home improvement project is expensive enough as it is – why add to the bill? Whether you’re fixing a leaky faucet or remodeling an entire bathroom, here are some costly mistakes to avoid. It’s crucial to take care of structural issues before starting on cosmetic fixes.

We just revealed our most recent original makeover —this time a budget kitchen renovation in a small town in Illinois. If you missed the full kitchen reveal, head over to see all the before and after shots. We wound up spending under $6,000 from head to toe, soup to nuts, which we’re feeling pretty good about, especially given that the house sold less a week (four days) after we shot the final kitchen.

I’m pretty lucky. My rental apartment has a large, cavernous pantry, which is a boon in the kitchen storage department. However, what it has in size, it lacks in efficiency. For all that space, there are only a few shelves (which tend to overflow with canned goods and foodstuffs) and the full-size refrigerator prevents me from adding in more. In an effort to boost my pantry’s usefulness, I headed straight to the dollar store.

You’ve clipped the coupons, you’ve scoured the weekly ads. But if you really want to save on all the bits and bobs at Michaels that fuel your DIY hobbies and home decor dreams, you’ve got to strategize. Here are 10 ways to maximize the savings. By all means clip those Michaels coupons (or better yet, download them on the app), but if you haven’t signed up to get coupons from the company’s competitors you’re missing out.

While browsing on Amazon, you’ve likely seen some products with a little blue flag that says “Add-on Item.” What does that mean? In a nutshell it means you can’t have it unless you buy $25 worth of stuff. Add-on items are usually lightweight and cheap—so much so that it costs Amazon more to ship it than it’s worth. Think Band-Aids, hair elastics and lip balm.

Of course it’s easy to get a home that looks like a million bucks if you spend a million bucks. A high-end look on a real-person budget—that’s a little bit more of a challenge. That’s where these time-tested tricks come in. Here are nine designer-approved ways to get a home that only looks expensive. One of my favorite tricks for getting a high-end look is to paint features, like fireplaces, and built-ins, and even furniture, the same color as the wall.

Anyone who’s ever done a renovation on a budget knows that you have to find places to cut costs. Everything can’t be a splurge, after all. When my husband and I redid our home’s third floor to make it a full-time Airbnb, we were starting from scratch, so expensive things like HVAC systems ripped huge chunks out of our budget. I knew we had to restore the gorgeous original wood floors, and that meant another big expense.

If you’re building or remodeling a home, or even just thinking about it, you’ve probably come across this particular conundrum: Do you pick laminate flooring, or go for real wood? Laminate, which consists of a layer of fiberboard with a photorealistic image of wood (or sometimes stone) applied on top, sometimes gets a bad rap for looking cheap or fake. But many modern laminates are actually quite realistic, and almost indistinguishable from wood.

Full bathroom remodels can run you tens of thousands of dollars. If that amount of money isn’t in your budget right now (or it makes you cringe to spend that much at any stage of the game), take inspiration from these light remodels, all of which cost under $3,000. These reasonable and affordable redos show it’s possible to get a brand-new-to-you bathroom without taking out a huge loan.

When taking on a home improvement project as major, time-consuming, and expensive (!!!) as a kitchen renovation, the last thing that you want to do is make a few choices now that you end up regretting later—especially if that ends up meaning you wasted money. To help identify the biggest money-wasting no-nos to avoid, we consulted a few kitchen design experts. Having been around plenty of renovations, they had some good live-and-learn lessons and what-not-to-dos to share.

Bathroom renovations take time and come with a hefty price tag. The national average for a restroom remodel is $9,724, according to Home Advisor’s 2018 True Cost report. And in the upcoming year, homeowners plan on shelling out an average of $2,406 on upgrading their baths, according to the cost analysis. You don’t need to break the bank to upgrade the look of your bathroom.

Margaret lives in a condo in Atlanta’s Garden Hills neighborhood, in a 12-unit building that dates back to 1919. Old buildings sometimes come with unpleasant surprises, like when Margaret learned that the outside wall of her breakfast nook would have to be completely replaced due to water damage. But instead of seeing inconvenience, Margaret saw an opportunity to make her charming old home even more charming. Here’s a closer look at the breakfast nook alone.

The owners of the impressive and inviting converted Sprinter van we featured recently made a conscious decision not to install a bathroom. But, the owners of this van decided a bathroom was a must, and somehow manages to squeeze in a toilet and a shower. Rob and Emily of The Road is our Home—@theroadisourhome on Instagram—transformed an LWB Mercedes Sprinter into a rolling home.

It makes sense to assume that because home improvements are, by nature, improving your home, they must increase its overall value, too, right? Sadly, that’s not always the case. While some updates (new windows, minor kitchen remodels, and somewhat surprisingly, a new garage door) nearly pay for themselves, the projects below don’t earn quite the return on investment (ROI) you may think they should.

There’s no shortage of good deals to be had at IKEA, from the plant department to the annual kitchen sale. In fact, some of the best buys cost less than $15. But what if we told you that there were even better deals to be had if you dared to venture into the store’s As-Is section? What’s that you say? You already knew that? Here’s something you may not know: A little strategy can help you find better merchandise and save you even more money.

The Ikea Nolmyra has so much potential. Great lines, perfect scale, cool bent plywood legs. But with that stock gray mesh cover, it’s a like a sexy foot stuck in a dirty running shoe. You can easily upgrade it, though. Just toss a $12 Gurli throw into your Ikea cart, and we’ll show you how to give this cool little lounge chair a whole new look. Gurli throw (or 1.

Erin and Ken updated their Tudor home with bright, clean finishes and smarter, more efficient technology — all while respecting their Tudor home’s time period and keeping a firm handle on their budget.

If someone assumes you paid $48, just go with it!

A rug is one of the easiest ways to pull a room together. But what happens when your space simply doesn’t accommodate a regular-sized rug? You could go the custom route. The problem? Having something created specifically for your space will cost you—big time. Or, you could settle for the closest size-match, but potentially wind up with a too-small rug that throws the whole room out of proportion. (Check out this handy guide to find the right size rug.

There’s a big misconception in the renovating and real estate world that kitchen remodeling needs to be flashy and expensive to be good. That’s simply not true! We’ve found that with a little creativity, some reuse, a new coat of paint — and sometimes not even that much work, kitchen renovations can be not only eco-friendly, but also inexpensive. Here are our 15 best before and after kitchen posts of the year!

The power of paint can’t be denied – we all know how it can transform a room, but the effect is also powerful when it comes to projects that involve the application of paint to furniture and cabinetry. Here are ten examples from the archives (including one where the “furniture” didn’t even exist prior to the paintjob!); check out the befores in this gallery and then click through on each for the always-fun-to-see afters.

At this point, most of us can spot a BILLY bookcase, KALLAX cubby, or LACK table a mile away. Basic and affordable, they’ve been some of the most popular items at IKEA for years, and our first apartments would’ve been bare without them.

Maybe the front door is drafty or the floor isn’t insulated. Maybe there’s a big window that’s always cold to the touch. Maybe you enter through a dark and damp basement. For whatever reason, your entryway is always freezing cold this time of year. As a renter, there are a few things you can do to warm up this high-traffic space in your home.

Do you love 2019 already? It’s okay, we’re still on the fence about it, too. What about your kitchen? If you’re not totally enamored of the space, we’ve got some ideas to help you heart it some more this upcoming year. Each idea is seriously easy and inexpensive (especially compared to a renovation) to pull off. And you don’t have to do all 19, either—pick and choose from this list and your kitchen will be more lovable and up-to-date in no time.

When I moved into a sprawling old Victorian in Louisville, Kentucky three years ago, my neighbors terrified me with their tales of four-digit utility bills. I’d swapped an under-900-square-foot bungalow for the three-story, 1890 behemoth, and was so scared of the bill the first year, I chose to freeze rather than turn up the thermostat.

Ok, so maybe this isn’t the world’s tiniest bathroom, but it’s close. When Lara of The Unprofessional set out to renovate her tiny attic bathroom, her issues with the space weren’t just cosmetic. Thanks to its small size, the bathroom had lots of unusual quirks: the vanity door wouldn’t open all the way, the bathroom door swung out and blocked the hallway, and the toilet was so close to the door that doing your business was a bit uncomfortable.

While we all need a little more #selfcare in our lives, not all of us are lucky enough to have a tub to soak in with a glass of wine and a good book. But just because you’re in a shower-only home or apartment doesn’t mean you can’t indulge in a little luxury every time you step in. It’s really simple to upgrade even the most practical of bathroom set-ups.

When you’re redoing a kitchen, flooring has a huge impact on the way the room looks. The orangey faux terra cotta we inherited in our Victorian kitchen drove me nuts and I couldn’t wait to replace it. New floors aren’t cheap though. If you’re considering an overhaul of your kitchen up to and including the floor, it’s easy to drop way more than you intend to. The good news is you don’t have to.

This powder room boasts a pretty pedestal sink (that doesn’t offer much surface storage space), a nice big mirror in an interesting shape (but those faceted clips are less than ideal), and nice pale walls (though it’s that generic cream-beige). It was an excellent setup that could use a bit of a spruce… Oooh baby, this is so much nicer. The changes aren’t huge, but they’re so, so effective, especially considering they only cost about $100.

The first whiff of colder weather makes you dream excitedly about boots and cozy sweater outfits. As you run to the closet to dig out your sweaters, you find… moth holes? Don’t throw out those old sweaters though. Sweaters make perfect upcycle material and can be transformed into a myriad of useful (and cute) DIYs. Check out our favorites below. Teapot cozies keep your tea of choice warm as you settle in for a snug night.

You know the drill: Any improvements made to this rental kitchen needed to be affordable and reversible, so that the renter could get the security deposit back. With just $500 in upgrades and some very clever re-styling, this kitchen now looks like a million bucks. I was all ready to gush over this ridiculously adorable wallpaper, when I realized that it’s not wallpaper: It’s renter-friendly removable decals.

Bathrooms are sometimes neglected when it comes to design, but that doesn’t have be the case (and shouldn’t be). While, yes, you may do your “business” there, it’s also a space for practicing self-care (I know, it’s a buzz word, but it is really important) and may be the only place you ever find yourself alone. Whether you’re a renter or homeowner on a budget, renovating your #selfcare space doesn’t have to be impossible.

Investing major money into one measly item always hurts. Some items, though, are more painful than others. My painful everyday expenditure: floor rugs. For an item that endures near-constant contact by the likes of dirty feet, pets and mucky shoes, $600 to $1,200 seems disproportionate. And if you have kids, toss in the very real possibility that within weeks of purchase, it could be irreparably ruined by a pool of ketchup.

There are some great deals to be found at both stores, but consider this the next time you're shopping.

This 50-year-old bathroom had two major things going for it, and they were both tile. All of the other features were perfectly fine, but, after a refresh, the entire room lives up to the high standards of the fantastic original tiles. Reader Kristine Buffa submitted this project and described exactly what was going on before the makeover: The before bathroom was outdated and dark, but the character of the original tile and tub had survived.

This bathroom was built in the ’30s, redecorated 30 years later… and then used as-is for decades. The new homeowners wanted to give the bathroom a much-needed update without spending a ton, and the results are a delight. First, here’s a tiny bit of backstory: 1931 Craftsman BADLY needed repainting when my then-boyfriend (now husband) purchased the house in 2003… This year we did a “temporary” budget remodel on a TERRIBLE 1960s bathroom remodel.

We're talking deep, deep discounts... but are you cut out for the experience?

To DIY or not to DIY? That is the question. That is almost always the question. You can certainly paint your kitchen cabinets yourself. As long as you know that it’s a labor- and time-intensive job that, if done wrong, can be a pretty big screwup.

Although dollar stores are known for their cheap and handy things, they don’t spring to mind as a source for stylish decor. But should they? See how a quick trip, and an even quicker DIY project, can improve the look of your home. Katie of Little House of Four made this farmhouse mirror from a… wait for it… $1 stove burner from Dollar Tree and an inexpensive beveled round mirror from a craft store. She has a series of dollar store DIYs that are worth checking out.

Every home has its trouble spots, and clothing piles are a big one in many bedrooms.

We’ve turned the clocks forward, the days are longer (and hopefully warmer where you are), and time finally feels like it is in our favor. It’s time to shake off the cozy winter decor, and let your home project a new, lighter mood. Change the tone with a little living room refresh, starting with these eight easy, budget ideas. If you’ve swapped your flannel bed sheets for linen, carry the spring textiles over to the living room as well.