Spring has sprung, and it’s time for that winter decor in your home to be packed away and replaced with vibrant spring decor! After your annual spring cleaning its time to decorate! It will not only refresh the look and feel of your home, but it will revitalize you as well! The colors in our home environment can effect our mood, our energy level and they express who we are and how we’re feeling. Your home deserves it, and you deserve it.
Redecorating doesn’t have to mean spending money. Every few weeks I take a trip to the basement or the garage to rummage for old, unused items that can easily be renewed.
Here are 12 easy projects that don’t cost a penny!
1.
Recover an old lamp shade with fun paper or a crazy patterned fabric.
From Apartment Therapy
2.
Use one, two or more springy fabrics to make fresh wall art. Be creative! Use an old sheet, a few cloth napkins, sections cut from the t-shirt you never wear anymore, vintage pillow cases or a pretty-patterned tablecloth. Cut wood, cardboard or other firm material in the sizes that you’d like your art to be, and then cut the fabrics at least 4 inches longer and 4 inches wider than the boards. Wrap the fabric around the boards, and secure it to the back using thumbtacks, strong tape, staples or tiny nails. Be creative when deciding how to hang your art: you can use picture hanging wire, a paperclip stapled to the back of your art (to slide over a nail in the wall) a bracket glued to the back of your art, or you can arrange your masterpieces on a wall shelf! An easier method of making this spring wall art is to use fun decorative paper. Scrapbook paper works great, as well as wallpaper and giftwrap.
Wall Art From Wists
3.
Put some excitement into your framed pictures! Using your old wooden frames, create photo mattes from paper in bold, fun colors.
From Flickr
4.
Bring the outside in! Cut flowers from your garden and fill your rooms with bouquets. You can also fill decorative bowls with fruit from a tree, vases with attractive tree branches or bowl vases with floating camellia blooms. Have fun with vases and containers, too! Try mason jars, mixing bowls, glass milk-bottles, tin cans with ribbons tied around them and funky coffee mugs and ceramic or glass lemonade pitchers.
From GalaDarling
5.
Use a light, bright or bold-colored fabric as a throw for your couch, a table cloth, barstool seat covers, or curtains. You don’t have to buy fabric to do this: just look around your home. Use old table cloths, sheets, clothes from your “to donate” pile, old curtains and shower curtains.
A Table Cloth From The Breakfast Nook of Yours Truly
6.
Add tiebacks to your curtains. Windows are the eyes to your home! Instead of droopy, closed drapes, give your home an eyelift; it will instantly brighten your home with sunlight, and it’ll make you feel good. Use fun fabric, ribbons, tieback hardware (available at Pottery Barn-type stores,) or even heavy-duty beaded hair clips! On fabric tiebacks you can add buttons or thread a flower stem through it, making your curtains elegant and springy.
From Junie-Moon
7.
Dust. Although this seems obvious, it’s a miracle-maker. I strongly suggest Pledge, but any duster with a lemony scent will do. After you dust your whole home, the sweet, clean scent will linger and your home will feel crisp and ready for spring!
From Reader’s Digest, 8 Smart Strategies to Make Your Home Dust-Proof
8.
Add light to dark areas of your home. You might use a little table lamp, add a reflective mirror, place a light-colored piece of art on the wall or even add a small table with a white flowering plant on it.
From DecorPad
9.
Wicker, when used appropriately, gives any area a spring feel. Use a wicker basket filled with flip-flops by the front door, to hold washcloths in your bathroom, to hold kid’s toys, to put dirty laundry in, to put a potted plant in or to hold your throw blankets. You can use a wicker basket as a doggy bed (with a pad or pillow inside,) as a toiletries caddy, as a mail/letters organizer or even as a table centerpiece with fresh fruit in it!
From MyHomeIdeas
10.
Using light-colored or bright-colored ribbons, spice up your home! Tie them in a bow around vases, backs of dining room chairs, candlesticks, light fixtures, curtain rods, bed posts, and weave them through wicker baskets. If you love ribbons, use them as a headband in your hair, tie small bows onto branches in your potted plants, weave them around a banister or railing and tie one around your mailbox!
By Lauren Ceramics
11.
Make cafe curtains! Instantly brighten a room while maintaining your privacy: remove curtains, curtain rods and hardware from a window. using tape, a needle and thread or temporary iron-on fabric adhesive, fold the curtain in half width-wise and attach or sew the top edge to the bottom edge. Fasten the curtain rod and hardware to the middle of the windows, and add the curtains! (If you’re an experienced seamstress, you can also sew across the top for the rod pocket. This project is especially great for those of us with limited fabric and curtain sets, because they can easily be undone and replaced at the window top for fall.
Made by Susan Beal at DollarStoreCrafts
12.
Soaps aren’t just for your everyday utility shower, they do so many other things! Their wonderful color can brighten a kitchen or a bathroom, and their delicious scents can make your home smell like spring, without the chemicals that are inhaled with room sprays and incense or the allergies from fresh flowers. I suggest you purchase a few different bars of soap at your local gourmet or natural food market. They’re made with the friendliest ingredients and their scents last longer and are more natural. Take your time to smell them, and chose ones that make you feel happy and remind you of spring. At home, at home, cut the bars of soap into very thick slices with a sharp knife…be careful! You can also wrap them at home with decorative paper. You can arrange the soaps in a small glass bowl or tray in the bathroom, hide a slice in your living room for wonderful fragrance and slip one into your dresser drawer for a mild scent on your clothes.
From Summer Sky: Learning As I Go
Other springy items:
metal watering can
wreath of ivy, leaves or flowers
tall, skinny iced tea spoons
hummingbird feeder
*Special Note: Artificial plants are great. Contrary to what any of those green-thummers might say, an artificial plant is sanitary, reliable, they don’t have growth spurts, they don’t attract bugs, they don’t dramatically wilt for attention, they are versatile, they don’t mind sitting in a closet for a few years and they are quite eco-conscious (they generally refuse water, thus conserving.) If you’re in need of indoor foliage but fear the repercussions of live plants, try artificial. It’s a great choice.
