The living room is one of the most important spaces in your home. Aside from receiving guests, it’s often where people spend most of their waking moments in their own homes. However, a lot of people have problems with creating a stunning living room especially if they are on a tight budget. A lot of living room design ideas are often expensive.

But there are still ways to make a living room look good even if you have a small amount of money in your flexible spending account. We’ve compiled a few tips to get you started in decorating your dream living room on a budget as well as well as ways to cheaply furnish it in another one of our articles here. These tips can also be followed without requiring a trip to a local furniture store.

Also be sure to check out the included product links to get ideas of the decor items as well as helping out the blog if you chose to buy anything you shop for after clicking on it. We greatly appreciate it and it helps us continue to bring our community more decor ideas and home inspired articles!

Wall Makeover

While a lot of people don’t pay much attention to walls, it can actually create a huge impact on a room’s overall aesthetic appeal. If you have an ongoing theme in your living room, it’s better to adjust your wall’s colors to the theme instead of buying new and expensive furniture.

Fresh Paint

Sometimes, all it takes for your living room to look better is a fresh coat of paint. Generally, you have to paint the walls of your living room every 5-7 years. But if your walls are looking a little dirty or old, and no amount of cleaning can make it look better, then you have to recoat the paint soon.

A lot of people opt for white paint because it can make your living room look wider and more breathable. However, if you are on a tight budget, you might go for something a little bit darker. The disadvantage of white paint is that you have to repaint your interior walls more often. Meanwhile, other paint colors don’t have to be recoated often. Darker paint color will also add a little more dramatic effect and contrast to the room.

If you want to take it a step further, there are iridescent paints that you can purchase for a small price that can add a glow to your walls. You can pick two colors to contrast or complement the colors. Just be sure that the colors of your walls will match your existing furniture.

Cheap Wallpaper

While painting the walls can be a great way of making your living room look fresh and new, you can opt for cheap wallpapers instead. You can choose your favorite colors or choose a more elaborate design.

If you’re using wallpaper, you don’t have to worry about repainting your living room walls for a long time. In fact, wallpapers are so durable, it will take them 15 years before you notice any signs of wear. For such a small price, you can guarantee that your living room walls will always look good.

Hand-Painted “Wallpaper”

All you’ll need is a cheap set of paintbrushes and a little artistic flair. If you don’t want to buy a wallpaper because the color you want is either out of stock or you want it in a different, you can go on Pinterest and look for wallpaper designs that you can copy. It may take a little more effort but it will be worth it once you see the final product.

Alternatively, you can buy stencils to create elaborate designs on your wall instead of buying expensive wallpapers. There are a lot of designs to choose from. This will not only save your time but your money too because you can reuse the stencil for a later time if you choose to change the color of your walls.

Go Minimalist

How to make your living room look beautiful without spending much? The trick is to go minimalist. This style is becoming one of the most popular and modern living room approaches that can make a room look beautiful without adding too much with a slew of financial benefits as well helping younger generations in their goals to retire early.

Also try some of the stores AR applications on your mobile phone to help visualize how the decor items you’re looking at online would look like in your physical home.

Vases

Flowers can make a bland living room look livelier and more fun. There are a lot of simple and minimalist vases that you can put your freshly cut flowers from your garden. There are also plain ceramic vases that you can put on top of your coffee table even without flowers. They’re just an added decor that will create a little bit more design and personality to your room.

Hanging Shelves

If you have an empty wall, you can install hanging shelves and add a picture or a few decorative clutter. You can also opt for a floating bookshelf and display all the books you have. It doesn’t only save space but it’s also a great way to portray your personality to your visitors. There’s also this cute hanging shelf set that acts both as storage and wall decor.

Artworks

There are a lot of minimalist artworks to choose from. Not only are they beautiful and a great addition to spice up your living room, but most of them are also cheap and great for people on a flexible spending budget. You can buy a set of three for below $20 which is a big steal! Artworks that are in a set will also make your room look bigger than it is, without opting for a huge and more expensive single painting.

If you don’t want to buy new paintings or you have other designs in mind, you can just print out the designs you want and put them in a set of picture frames. While the frames can be a bit more expensive, you can still reuse them later on for other pictures or prints.

Trays

If you have a lot of clutter around, you can simply get a stylish tray and dump all your clutters in there and it will look cute instead of messy. You can also put a small vase in it and add flowers.

Improve Lighting

There is nothing else that can drastically improve your living room than simple proper lighting. A room flooded with light can easily look better than ones that are darker. A bright room can also make space look wider than it is, and also highlight all the furniture and decor you already have.

Lamps

A simple floor lamp can create a huge impact on a room. It’s a great living room decoration and can also give your room a certain vibe especially if you’re using mood lamps. Warmer colors of lamps will make the room cozier while cool colors can make it livelier.

Candles and Essential Oil heaters

If you want to set the mood in your living room, having candles can be a great way to do it. Adding a simple jar candle on the coffee table or side tables is a simple yet effective way of improving the room. You can even put it on the hanging shelves if you installed one. There are also cute and minimalist essential oil burners that you can add to set the mood while making your home smell more fragrant.

Windows

If you really are on a budget, then focus on improving things that are already present in your living room. While buying lamps can drastically improve the room, you should also pay attention to the windows which can be a huge source of light during the day. Recently, floor curtains are the new craze and it’s easy to see why. It looks great in almost any room and also adds more personality and overall aesthetic appeal to it.

If you opt for light wall color, then you can contrast it with simple and yet elegant dark curtains to create a nice variation in colors. If you want something more fun, go for a curtain with an ombre effect as pictured above. Make sure that you’re not buying curtains that are too heavy and will block most of the light as it can make your room look smaller.

Cozier Room

A great living room is a comfortable living room. Your guests should always feel welcome and cozy in this area and so, you can add a few decors that can drastically improve the feel of your living room without spending too much.

Pillows

You can buy a bunch of throw pillows for as low as 20 bucks! Adding this to your living room is a great way to add personality while making the room more comfortable for you and your visitors. You can also buy a new pillowcase for the throw pillows you already have to create a new style such as these Velvet throw pillowcases which are a great way of making your sofa both classy and comfortable.

Rugs

There’s nothing that says comfort than a floor rug that can make your room more inviting. You can choose a fluffy rug for a really comfortable feel or a more classy geometric rug for a professional look like the shag rug pictured above.

Final Thoughts

Buying new furniture is not necessary if you want to spice up your living room. Simple adding a few decors here and there and adjusting the lighting can sometimes already be enough to make it look great. Just plan ahead and list down all the items you will need so you won’t exceed your budget while buying.

Designing a living room is easy especially if you know what kind of furniture you want. Do not be afraid to do a little bit of DIY especially if the decors you want are not available in any shop.