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So you're tired of the way your bedroom looks, or maybe you need to re-do your guest room because it's a little bit outdated, or perhaps you're just wanting to spruce up your home a little bit. Whatever the reason, I'm going to teach you how to revamp any room in your house on a dime..literally!The first thing you must do is be patient. If you can handle waiting about a month to redecorate a room, then you could redo it for free or nearly free. So if you have time and patience, then keep my reading.
Step 1:
Figure out what you want to do with the room. Let's say for example, you want to redo your guest room. Make a list of what you want, such as new bedding, new ceiling fan, and a new paint color on the walls. Knowing what you want will really save you money because now you can look through ads in the Sunday paper for bedding ideas and any ceiling fans on sale. For paint, you could easily get just about any color for free by posting a "Wanted: Paint" ad on your local Freecycle.org community board (I have a ton of paint in the my basement that I've collected over the past 6 months from Freecycle, this way I have options for different rooms). If nobody responds with paint to offer (which is rare!), then look on Craigslist.org for paint that could be anywhere from 50%-90% off the retail price!
Okay, so here's our (pretend) list of things we need:
*Brown/Warm Colored Ceiling Fan from Hunter
*Elegant New Bedding that includes everything
*Soft Cream Color Paint-2 gallons
Step 2:
Sell your old stuff! This is where you will get most (or all!) of your money for your redecorating project. Take the old bedding and sell it on Craiglist.org (totally free & people will come to you to pick it up!). If you can't sell it on Craigslist in a months time, try ebay. I always sell stuff on Craigslist first, then ebay second. With ebay, you lose money because you have to charge for shipping while keeping the price low enough so that somebody else will buy it and with heavy things such as a complete bed set, might not be worth it.
Try to sell your old bedding, your old light fixture/ceiling fan that is currently in the room, and maybe even a couple of knickknacks so that you can buy 1 or 2 brand new decor items that will match your new stuff!
**On Black Friday (my personal favorite day to shop!), I picked up a brand new Hunter Ceiling Fan that was on sale for $50 from $100. After I installed it, I sold my old ceiling on Craiglist for $15 that same day, which means I essentially bought a $100 quality ceiling fan for $35.
Step 3:
Now that you have an extra $100 or so in your pocket, it's time to look for sales! This is part of the patience part. Look in your Sunday newspaper ads for sales on the light fixture/ceiling fan you want, the kind of bedding your desire, and maybe even some decor items of the same color-family that will go great with the look of the room! Try to wait until the stuff you want is on sale for around 60% off. You could easily get a very nice bedding set for around $50 on sale and a good quality ceiling fan for around $60. Just look for the sales, they're out there!!
Step 4:
You should now have the paint you want, a light fixture/ceiling fan, brand new bedding and maybe even a few brand new knickknacks you snagged up as well. The first thing you do is paint, then after the paint is dry, put up the new light fixture, then the bedding comes next, and then finish off the look of a new room with the few pieces of new decor accents that you bought!
Finish The Room/Spice It Up: If you have some money left over, buy some matching curtains to really finish off the room! You can find cheap & good looking curtains at stores like Kmart and Walmart.
And there you have it! Design on a Dime! :)
Happy Decorating!
~Jamie~
(aka Bargain Hunter)
