7 tips for revamping your bedroom on a budget

Dec 20 2017, 1:52 am

Look around your bedroom. Are you happy with what you see? If you’re not fully satisfied with the current decor, or you think your bedroom needs a revamp, we’re here to help.

With a mix of great online finds, craft store bargains and awesome DIY projects, you can transform your space without spending a fortune. So to help you get started, here are seven tips to revamp your bedroom on a budget:

apartmenttherapy string lights 2

1. Use white string lights to glamorize your bed

A string of modern white lights looks gorgeous draped along your bed frame or hung on the wall above your bed. White string lights are available at dollar stores like Dollarama for only $4 per string and create the ideal soft lighting for your bedroom – and the perfect amount of light to read your book in bed.

Image credit: tasie.org

Image credit: tasie.org

You can also hang a string of lights freestyle beside your bed instead of using a bedside lamp, or even hang strings of lights from your bedroom ceiling instead of a chandelier. Use your own creativity to decide where and how to hang your lights.

Left image: shelterness.com; right image: thegivingkeys.com

Left image: shelterness.com; right image: thegivingkeys.com

2. Put your accessories on display as bedroom art

If you’re on a budget, one of the smartest things you can do is take the cool accessories you already own, and put them on display. To decorate your walls, choose a few of your favourite necklaces. The photo above shows unique necklaces from The Giving Keys which is a good example of how great accessories can look displayed on a bedroom wall.

Another idea is to grab some driftwood from the beach, hang your necklaces from it, and fix the unique display on your bedroom wall. This is one of the coolest, cheapest and easiest DIY decor hacks around.

Image credit: sincerelyyoursjamie.wordpress.com

Image credit: sincerelyyoursjamie.wordpress.com

Another way you can use things you already own as bedroom art is by grabbing your funkiest pairs of high heels and putting them on display on a shelf. Taylor Sterling, the founder of Glitter Guide, did this to decorate her bookshelf photographed below:

Image credit: theglitterguide.com

Image credit: theglitterguide.com

Perhaps you have colourful or funky heels that are beautiful, but hurt your feet way too much to ever wear. This way you could get some use out of them, and they really add personality to a bookshelf.

Image credit: camillestyles.com

Image credit: camillestyles.com

3. DIY brick bookends

There are plenty of great DIY bookends that cost next to nothing. These DIY brick bookends are so easy to create and they look great. All you need is two bricks, a can of gold spray paint and a string of lace. (Dressew on West Hastings Street has inexpensive strings of lace in different variations). Instructions for DIY bookends can be found here. You don’t have to use lace, though. Dressew has lots of colours of ribbon which you could use to decorate your bricks instead. You can even just paint two big rocks and use those as your bookends.

Image: Bouclair.com

Image: Bouclair.com

4. Choose stress-reducing colours

When you’re revamping your bedroom, you’ll want to choose a couple of theme colours that you will use for the walls, bedding and the majority of furniture and art. Studies have proven that certain colours reduce stress and enhance your mood. The best soothing colours for a bedroom include pale blues, mint green, dusty rose, taupes, pale greys and lavenders. It’s not a bedroom revamp without revamping your actual bed, and this duvet cover set from Bouclair is perfect because it’s inexpensive (under $75) and it’s also neutral so it will go with virtually anything.

Image credit: housetohomeblog.com

Image credit: housetohomeblog.com

5. DIY painted frames for multiple purposes

Decorative frames can add pops of colour that can be used to decorate shelving or walls in your bedroom. You can get cheap frames from Ikea or Craigslist, and paint them in your theme colours.

Spray paint costs less than $5 and sometimes you can find someone’s old framed mirrors for free on Craigslist, so this is a great budget project.

bfranklincrafts.com (left) etsy.com (right)

bfranklincrafts.com (left) etsy.com (right)

What should you put in your frames? That depends on you and your personality. During your travels, you might have taken artsy photos that you could print out in black and white and frame. Or perhaps you have a few favourite quotes which you could type up, print out and frame. Another option is to take a large painted frame and line strings with clothes pins inside of it holding a variety of photographs of your choice. You can even simply put mirrors inside your painted frame, or put nothing inside and hang them on your neutral wall.

Kumbuya.com / Pinterest (left) ultimatehomeideas.com (right)

Kumbuya.com / Pinterest (left) ultimatehomeideas.com (right)

6. DIY funky wall shelves using wooden crates

It probably didn’t cross your mind that you could hang wooden boxes to use as shelves rather than buying generic ones from Ikea, right? To do this, you’ll need wine crates or wooden crates from Michael’s, as well as paint and gift wrap to line them. Wooden crates from Michael’s cost $15 and it’s worth every penny to buy a few of them because there are endless possibilities for their use.

You can use these wine crate shelves to display decorative seashells, vases, your favourite mugs, framed photos or your collection of books.

Wooden crates for sale at Michael's. Image credit: Erica Gordon

Wooden crates for sale at Michael’s. Image credit: Erica Gordon

Pale wood looks great as it is, but you can personalise your crates with a lick of paint. It’s up to you if you’d like to only paint the interior of your crate, or paint the entire thing. There’s plenty of room for creativity. For example, you can paint the interior of the crate one colour and the exterior of the crate an accent colour. After you paint these DIY shelves, you can either line them with a patterned paper or leave them as-is.

And, for the coolest bookshelf ever, simply pile a ton of wine crates on top of each other and hold them together with binder clips or superglue like in the photo below:

Image credit: amazewoodplans.org

Image credit: amazewoodplans.org

Image: Erica Gordon (left) houzz.com (right)

Image: Erica Gordon (left) houzz.com (right)

7. DIY painted wooden letters to express your personality and decorate your shelves

To decorate a wine crate shelf, a bookshelf or the top of a dresser, head to Michael’s and purchase plain white wooden letters along with some paint in the colour of your choice. The wooden letters are only $4.99 each, a bottle of matte paint is $3 and a foam paint brush is only $1. Whatever it is, choose a word that means something to you, and spell it out with your own DIY decorations. Michael’s sells wooden letters in ‘large’ sizes as well, so you may want to purchase the first letter of your first name to hang on your bedroom door.

Wooden letters at the Michael's on West Broadway. Image credit: Erica Gordon

What are some of your favourite tips for redecorating a bedroom? Let us know in the comments below.

DH Vancouver StaffDH Vancouver Staff

+ News
ADVERTISEMENT