Home Design Hacks For a Cheap and Easy Makeover

49. Use a Box to Cover Messy Cords

No one likes to see messy cords on the floor, but it’s an unfortunate necessity to modern living. If you want to hide your cords away, consider hiding them inside of a cardboard box. Your average shoe box should be the right size to cover up a surge protector. Consider wrapping the box in cheerful wrapping paper. Or, go for all-white wrapping paper so that it doesn’t stand out as much. Your local Dollar Tree should have solid colors on hand in the party section of the store. (via AutoGuide)

48. Make a Tiny Fence to Cover Cords

This next hack may seem a little bit silly, but it works. Installing a white picket “fence” around the baseboard can help to cover up wires that stretch across the room. You can buy these pieces of pre-cut fence online, or try to find it at your local hardware store. Another option would be to cut and paint wooden boards in the shape of a fence like you see in the photos above. It may be a time-consuming DIY, but the results are adorable. (via AutoGuide)

47. Create a Pom-Pom Rug

If you’re looking to add a pop of color to your floor space, consider making a pom-pom rug. This would be great in your bathroom, or right inside your front door. It’s an easy DIY project, especially if you’re experienced in making pom-poms. All you really need is some assorted colors of yarn, and a rug pad to get started. (via Little Yellow Wheelbarrow)

46. Use Cute Bows to Tie Up a Shower Curtain

Why use traditional shower rings when you could jazz up your bathroom with something so much cuter? Using bows is a stylish choice, and it’s easy to find them at any craft store. For extra support, consider getting a shower ring anyway, and wrapping the ribbon around it to hide the ring. This will ensure that the shower curtain doesn’t fall down, but you still get the cute look. (via AutoGuide)

45. Get a Slim Bookcase to Fill in Empty Space

Do you have an awkward empty corner of your home that you’re not sure what to do with? The solution to the problem might be to get a slim bookcase to fill the empty space. You don’t necessarily have to fill it with books, either. Bookcases are great for photographs, knick knacks, awards, plants, and so much more. It gives a room a lot of vertical interest, and it might help you clean up other areas of your home. (via AutoGuide)

44. Paint the Bathroom Floor

This next suggestion may not work for everyone, depending on what kind of floor you have installed in your bathroom. But if you have plain tile floors, you may want to consider painting the floor to give it some interest. This can be accomplished using stencils like the floor you see in the photo above. Before you get started, be sure to check out some tutorials online. (via AutoGuide)

43. Decorate Your Headboard With a Scarf or Blanket

If your bedroom seems kind of boring, it could possibly be because you have all neutral colors in the room without much color. This is easy to fix if you drape a scarf or a blanket over the top of your headboard. Experiment with what you have in your closet first to see if you enjoy it. But online shops like Amazon and Etsy have a huge selection of tapestries and scarves that would suit every taste. (via AutoGuide)

42. Refill Your Couch Cushions

To some people, refilling couch cushions will be common sense. To others, you may have never thought to do this in a million years. Over time, couch filling gets mushy, and it may never feel exactly as it once did when you first bought the couch. You can replace the filling by visiting your local craft store to see what kind of cotton or styrofoam they have available for you to refill the cushions. Not only will it make it look better, but it will feel better too. (via AutoGuide)

41. Make a Headboard Out of an Old Window

If you’re looking to repurpose something old into something new, consider this DIY of turning an old window into a headboard. You can sometimes find old windows sitting on the side of the road, or in shops like the Habitat for Humanity Restore that are leftover from people’s construction projects. Just be careful, especially if the glass is still in the headboard. You may not want to do this in a child’s bedroom for safety reasons. (via AutoGuide)

40. Use Pennies to Decorate Things

Copper has been a classic metal to use in decor for centuries. And luckily, copper accents are becoming a big trend again. So if you have something like a vase that needs some sprucing up, consider decorating it with a bunch of old pennies. As you can see in the photo above, it makes the vase look really cool. Some people will even install an entire penny floor somewhere in their house. (via AutoGuide)

39. Use Marble Contact Paper to Spruce up a Table

If you’re trying to make a piece of furniture look more luxurious, an easy way to do it would be to put on some marble contact paper. This is available in many craft stores, but you can also buy it online. It’s easy to install, and it looks like real marble when it’s done. If you don’t like the look of white marble, they also make this contact paper in dark marble, concrete, and other colored stone options to suit almost anyone’s taste. (via AutoGuide)

38. Use Nailhead Trims to Decorate Furniture Around the House

Sometimes, tiny design details are what you need to make a room feel just a bit more luxurious. For example, adding a trim of nailheads to this fabric headboard makes it look so much better compared to leaving the fabric alone. This is also true sometimes with pieces of vintage furniture. Just be careful, though, because once you start doing a project like this, you’ll leave holes in the fabric. So once you begin, there is no turning back. (via AutoGuide)

37. Change the Legs on Your Sofa

Over time, legs on sofas can get scuffed up. This is especially true if you have children or pets who are banging, chewing, and playing near the sofa legs. Even if the knicks are small, it’s noticeable even on a subconscious level that there is something off with the sofa. So a good design hack is to replace the legs, if you can find replacements for them online. Also consider contacting the manufacturer of your sofa to see if they sell replacement legs. If that’s not an option for you, just try to clean and polish the legs with furniture polish as best as you can to restore them back to their original state. (via AutoGuide)

36. Turn a Shallow Nook Into a Shoe Closet

If you happen to have a shallow nook in your bedroom that you’re not sure what to do with, consider turning it into a shoe closet. All you need is a tall shoe rack, and a curtain to cover it up when you’re done. This is a great use of otherwise empty space. Of course, not everyone has a nook like this in their house. But it would be great if you did. (via AutoGuide)

35. Make a Room Bigger Using a Mirror and a Lamp

One of the oldest design tricks in the book is to use a mirror to make a room look bigger. But did you know that even small mirrors can have a big effect if you pair it with a lamp? This works especially well if you add mirrors to your side tables next to your bed, as you can see in the image above. This will help to bounce the light off of the mirror and make the room look lighter and brighter as well. (via AutoGuide)

34. Two Colored Walls

If you want an instant pop of color in your living space, consider painting your walls two different colors. In the example above, you can see that someone painted their wainscoting gray and left their wall painted white. But you can still have an accent wall or a half-painted wall even without trim for wainscoting giving you a dividing line. Just remember that measuring and painter’s tape is your friend before you tackle a project like this. (via AutoGuide)

33. Use Ceiling Medallions on the Doors

Ceiling medallions have been used in interior design for centuries, but it’s usually paired with a chandelier or light fixture. A creative idea is to take small ceiling medallions and use them on the side of your doors, rather than putting them on the ceiling. This works well if you have plain, flat doors. Painting the doors, like in the photo you see above, is also a great look. It won’t work if your doors already have some sort of design or indentation on them. (via AutoGuide)

32. Create Roman Shades Out of Simple Blinds

Almost everyone has those simple plastic window blinds covering their windows. You may reach a point in your life where you want something nicer to replace it. A quick and easy DIY project is to change your shades into Roman blinds. Once they’re transformed, they look like something much more expensive and design inspired than what you originally paid for. (via AutoGuide)

31. Paint the Inside of an Old Lampshade/Light Fixture

If you want to add some warmth to your rooms, consider painting the inside of a lampshade with gold paint. This looks luxurious, and the light will dance off of the gold color beautifully. However, you may want to be careful before you do this with a fabric lampshade. This works best with metal light fixtures like the one you see in the photo above. (via AutoGuide)

30. Paint The Side of Your Drawers For a Surprise Rainbow

It doesn’t have to be Pride Month for you to celebrate with a little bit of rainbow in your life. Go ahead and paint the inside of your drawers different colors. This gives a little surprise every time you open a drawer. This may be especially good in a child’s bedroom, if you want to give them a fantasy element to getting dressed in the morning. (via AutoGuide)

29. Paint the Side of Your Doors

Along with painting the sides of your drawers, you can also consider painting the inside of your door for a little bit of surprise color, too. If you’re renting, just keep in mind that you will probably have to change the color back to white when it’s time for you to move out of your apartment. This might work best in a child’s bedroom, where you can paint the inside of the door their favorite color. (via AutoGuide)

28. Use Command Hooks to Hang Your Curtains

Having trouble hanging curtains? You can always find some fancy-looking Command Hooks, like the metal ones seen in the photo above. These stick to the wall with an adhesive, and it makes it easy for you to hang a curtain rod at any height that you choose. Just keep in mind that you want to find materials that match. And don’t go with the plastic Command Hooks, because that would look tacky, rather than designer. (via AutoGuide)

27. Hang a Mirror With Rope For Nautical Design

Are you looking to add some Nautical design to a space? (Maybe you want an ocean theme in your bathroom.) Then consider hanging a mirror with a piece of rope. You can find rope like this at craft stores, or at your local hardware store. (via AutoGuide)

26. Turn a Duvet Cover Into a Curtain

One of the clever DIY hacks is to use what you already have on-hand to make something new. That’s why with some basic sewing skills, you could use an existing duvet cover and turn it into a curtain. Just keep in mind that this only works if you’re trying to decorate a room with one window, since you are most likely not going to have multiple matching duvets to create a lot of curtains with it. (via AutoGuide)

25. Use Rope to Hang Your Curtains

Rope always screams “nautical” when you use it in interior design. So if you use rope to hang up your curtains, keep that in mind. It can potentially be a good alternative to using hooks to hang your curtains on the rod. Check out your local craft store or hardware store to find the rope that works best for your design project. (via AutoGuide)

24. Old Necklaces as Curtain Tie Backs

If you’re raiding your grandmother’s collection of costume jewelry, consider using some of those necklaces as glamorous curtain tie-backs. This looks beautiful, especially when you can layer multiple necklaces at once. If you don’t have something like this at your disposal, check out your local antique shop, for type in “statement necklace” on Amazon to see what’s out there. (via AutoGuide)

23. Transform Your Wheelbarrow Into a Cooler

Planning to have an outdoor party with a ton of people? Instead of using those small Igloo coolers, consider transforming your wheelbarrow into a cooler instead. This helps you fit more drinks into the space, and it’s higher up off the ground to make it easier for your guests to reach in and get a drink. Some people even choose to do this on their wedding day. (via AutoGuide)

22. Make a Table With an Ironing Board

This next design hack might not work with modern ironing boards, since they’re typically made of metal. That might not look great as a side table, unless you’re going for an industrial look. But this antique wooden ironing board looks great as a side table. Look for one at your local antique store, flea market, or possibly find one online somewhere like eBay. (via AutoGuide)

21. Make Vases Out of Cute Teapots

A quick and easy design hack is to take a cute teapot and turn it into a vase. If you already have a teapot on hand, it’s probably not getting used every single day. For most people (in America, at least) teapots end up sitting as a decorative piece more than anything else. And if you don’t already have a teapot, it should be easy to find one at your local thrift store or antique mall. (via AutoGuide)

20. Repurpose an Old Ladder into a Shoe Rack

Looking to make a shoe rack? Consider repurposing an old wooden ladder with some extra pieces of wood in order to create multi-tiered shelving. This works well on the side of a room, or inside of your closet. It wouldn’t work very well if you were trying to create this with a metal ladder, however. Antique wooden ladders are also great for hanging blankets, especially if you have the Farmhouse look in your home. (via AutoGuide)

19. Install an Entryway Cabinet to Hide Keys

If you happen to have a big budget to rehab your house, consider this cute little home hack. It’s a small cabinet near the entryway of your house that hides away your keys. This way, you’ll never forget where you put them! Of course, you can still get this same result by just hanging a key hanger near your front door instead. This is a lot cheaper, and still serves exactly the same purpose. (via AutoGuide)

18. Change the Knobs On Your Dresser

A quick and easy design hack for your home is to swap out the knobs on your dresser. This can make a huge difference sometimes when you are trying to add some more design to your home. In the image above, this is barely noticeable. But sometimes, when you change knobs somewhere like your kitchen cabinets, it could completely transform your look to another decade. (via AutoGuide)

17. Fix Toilet Issues With the Water Valve

If your toilet is having issues with flushing, you might not need to call out the plumber right away. Check the water valve underneath the toilet to see if it’s all the way open. Sometimes, if it’s not open all the way, it’s constricting the water flowing to your toilet. This can potentially be a quick and easy fix for you. If that doesn’t work, do some searching on YouTube for DIY solutions before you call the plumber over, because it could be equally as simple to fix. (via AutoGuide)

16. Use Templates Before Hanging a Gallery Wall

If you’re considering hanging a gallery wall, you may want to hang a template first. Use paper to trade out the shape of the picture frames you plan to hang. Once these are taped up on the wall, it’s easy for you to arrange them the way you like without putting holes in the wall. Here at Home Addict, we have an entire post about gallery walls called Gorgeous Gallery Wall Inspiration to Elevate Wall Space.

15. Use File Holders to Organize Your Cleaning Supplies

If you’re struggling to organize your cleaning supplies underneath the sink, a good hack might be to use file holders. By adding adhesives to the back of the file holders, you can stick them to the side of the cabinets to create an instant pocket. This gives you a lot more room to store twice the amount of cleaning supplies as you did before. And id you label each of the containers, it will be easier for you to find what you’re looking for at a moment’s notice. (via AutoGuide)

14. Repurpose Drawer Organizers to Fit More Products in Your Cabinets

Metal drawer organizers that you find at the dollar store can be used for so much more than going inside of your desk. They are also great as spice racks. Just attach them to the interior of a cabinet door, and you instantly have more space inside of your pantry to hold your spice collection. This also makes it easier to find the spice you need compared to having them all cluttered together in one cabinet or drawer in your kitchen. (via AutoGuide)

13. Use Carpet Padding to Make Floors Feel More Comfortable

Have you ever gone to a friend’s house, and their rugs just feel so comfortable and bouncy? That’s most likely because they have carpet padding underneath. If you have wall-to-wall carpeting, it would be a big expense to get this installed. But if you have an area rug, it isn’t too expensive to get padding placed underneath. (via AutoGuide)

12. Fill a Vase Faster Than You Think

Many of you out there will have seen those collections of wine corks in a glass container. These are great decor pieces, and it shows off just how much wine you drink in your house. But if you want to have something like this filled up faster, place an empty bottle of wine inside of the vase first. This fills up the majority of the space. Now, hide the bottle by placing the wine corks inside. Your guests will be none the wiser. (via AutoGuide)

11. Hang Up Foil and Plastic Wrap Boxes

A clever kitchen hack is to hang your foil and plastic wrap boxes up on a rod to make it easy to pull and go whenever you need it. Compared to putting this in your drawer and taking it out manually, this way cuts down time when you’re cleaning up in the kitchen. (via AutoGuide)

10. Refrigerate Paint Brushes to Help Preserve Them

When you’re painting the walls of your house, you need to wait for them to dry and go in for a second or third coat afterwards. A nifty hack is to put the paint brush in a plastic bag and keep it in the refrigerator. This will help to preserve the quality of the paint brush and prevent it from drying out. (via AutoGuide)

9. Double Up on Shower Curtains

If you want your bathroom to look a bit more luxurious, consider doubling up on the shower curtains. With one on each side of the bathtub, you can open it when the shower is over to greet the day like the king or queen that you truly are. (via AutoGuide)

8. Make an Optical Illusion With Wide and High Curtains

One of the best design hacks out there is to hang your curtains above the window, rather than on the window ledge itself. Also make sure the windows are wider, because it will give the illusion that the room is larger than it actually is. It can make your standard ceiling look like it’s ten feet high and open up a room that once felt small and cramped. (via AutoGuide)

7. Use a Drum Lampshade to Cover Ugly Ceiling Lights

When you first moved into your home, you probably went with some of the cheapest standard lighting that you could find. But as time went on, it became important to jazz things up just a little bit to make it interesting. Add a drum lampshade, and voila- you’re hiding the fact that the light itself it sort of ugly underneath. (via AutoGuide)

6. Tint Your Windows For More Privacy

If you’re looking for more privacy in your bathroom, consider installing tinted paper on the windows. You just need some glue adhesive, and to carefully cut out the paper with a box cutter to fit the size of your window panes. This can be found at your local hardware store, or find it online in various designs. If you pick a white one, you can still get the light shining through the window without sacrificing your need for privacy. (via AutoGuide)

5. Hang Two Mirrors On Your Closet

Many of us wish we could have mirrored closet doors, but that’s not always an option (especially if you’re renting.) So the next best thing would be to hang two long mirrors on each of your closet doors. This gives the illusion that you have mirrored doors, and it helps to get ready in the morning when you can see your entire body in the mirror. (via AutoGuide)

4. Use Adhesive Cord To Cover Cords Behind Tricky Furniture Pieces

Sometimes, hiding cords can be difficult, especially when they’re dangling on a nice furniture piece like a console table in the hallway. You can find adhesive cords at the hardware store to hold down the cords to the back of the furniture to hide any excess wires. (via AutoGuide)

3. Hide The Cords Hanging Behind Your TV With A Shower Curtain Rod

Do you have dangling cords hanging underneath your TV? This is easy to clean up with a shower curtain rod. It can contain all of your wires in one space so that they’re not dangling all over the place. Bonus points if you paint the rod to match the color of your walls, because you will barely notice it’s there. (via AutoGuide)

2. Make Your Own Dish Soap Refilling System

If your sink comes with a soap pump, an easy hack is to install an automatic refilling system. Just run the tube inside of a jumbo-sized bottle of dish soap from somewhere like Costco, and voila- you can go months without buying another bottle of dish soap, and you have it at your finger tips. (via AutoGuide)

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1. Flip The Switch On Your Fan To Keep Your House Warmer

Most people only use their ceiling fans in the summertime to help cool down the room. But heat rises no matter what time of year it is. Did you know that if you flip a switch on your fan, you can have it go the opposite way? This will help to spread warm air downwards in the winter time, and it can potentially help you save money on your heat bills. (via AutoGuide)